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4 Ways to (Finally) Achieve Creative Focus
For when you have so many ideas and can’t possibly pursue them all
Remember George Jetson on his malfunctioning treadmill? That’s my brain on my brain. As an author and certified teen life coach, I have so many ideas I want to pursue that I often burn my motor out by running in place. It’s the way my creative mind functions: At times when I have just one clear objective (i.e., my editor is asking to see a draft of my latest chapter tomorrow), I can race toward it with the force of a thousand workhorses. But when I’m left to wade in the sea of everyday, not-extremely-urgent tasks, mayhem ensues.
I operate on a freelancer’s schedule, which affords me way too much flexibility to extend myself in every which direction. In the past, I tended to do just that — there was a time where, at a given moment, I might have been simultaneously pitching articles to media outlets, researching higher-level coach certification, peppering my agent with new book ideas, replying to readers who send me DMs, and trying to understand Google Ads.
If it sounds exhausting, that’s because it was. Eventually, I realized I needed to get my mind, and my schedule, on track. So I sought out self-help tools, talked to life coaches, and tested different tactics for getting organized. What follows is the list of…
