I’ve been listening to a great life management podcast, The
Empowered Podcast by Ellory Wells. Crystal Paine, Michael Hyatt, Jon Acuff, and
Jeff Goins are some of the recent guests who have shared tips on how to manage
time and money well, increase your productivity, foster leadership in yourself
and others, and build creativity. (And by the way, if you're looking to do any of these things these bloggers I mentioned are ones to watch).
I’ve been listening to this podcast in the car as I corral
children to and from play dates, curriculum sales, and dental appointments.
On a recent podcast, former CEO of Thomas Nelson, Michael Hyatt shared his morning power routine. Hyatt is a power blogger, motivational
speaker and author of the bestselling Platform. He has an intense, busy day
every day and is known for his productivity. How does he start each morning?
Even before his workout and shower, he enjoys FIFTEEN
MINUTES of quiet. He sits there in the silence and out of this time he fuels
his entire day. Great decisions are made, new ideas energize him, all because
of the start of these fifteen minutes.
Creativity can be a hard commodity to come by and I’m
learning the noise of everyday busyness can further block those juices from
flowing.
Whether it be a crying baby that interrupts your naptime
writing revelry or a boss who demands you work overtime at your day job as your
book deadline looms, some of the chaos and noise cannot be controlled.
However, there are noisemakers we can still or gentle in our
lives. Let’s look at a few:
Q uit checking.
Your cell phone, email, ipad, kindle/nook readers are just a
few of the many gadgets that make up the BIGGEST noisemaker in our lives.
You may have a job where you need to be on call, but most of
us can afford to take a break from these gadgets. In fact we must.
Take daily breaks from technology. Weekly or at least monthly
take a day off-grid. I am preaching myself under conviction because I know I am
far too tied to technology. God has been prompting me to live in the quiet
places.
This allows our mind time to meditate on ideas, to digest
them. Technology keeps us jumping from thought to thought.
U tilize the moments God gives you.
God gives us times for quiet, we need to embrace when they
are. When I was night nursing my children God allowed me to have quiet times
when nobody else was awake. He taught me to take notes or read a book and let
my imagination grow wild when there wasn’t anything else to do. The time he
gives you may not be the time you would choose but as you are a good steward of
it, watch what you can do with even the smallest pockets of time.
Maybe everyone in your office leaves for lunch at noon, but
by staying at your desk during this time you may have silent time to work on
your historical romance.
Using those moments changes during the different seasons of
your life. It may be at night, in the morning, during a child’s naptime, or any
combination of different times. It may be a full hour or it may be a few
minutes but you’ll be amazed how these little moments can build up to a novel.
I nvest in what you need to find quiet.
It might be a small financial investment, or may involve
getting the help of those around you.
Do you need to find a different spot to write? Maybe a
library or coffee shop. Perhaps it’s a different room in your house that is
further away from the din of children trying hard not to fall asleep.
My children take hours to settle in to bed. So if I want
quiet at night I’ll often use a white noise machine, a fan, or play soft music
so I can drown out the loudness.
Driving in the car to pick up kids from school, taking a
walk around the block at night, the morning commute to work on a bicycle all
are great quiet time.
E xercise
OK, maybe this one is just me, but I’ve found a double
benefit to working out at the gym. It increases my creativity. Might just be
the fact that I go alone, more often that not first thing in the morning but I
find not only are these great thinking times for me…but I have more energy
throughout the day so my creativity increases all the time.
As I found when I read the schedules of famous people, MANY
of them took long walks on a daily basis. It is quiet time and a walk or a run
can often not only pump the adrenaline but also pump you up on a new idea.
T ake your time
Rush and hurry can blur our thinking. There is no time to
find new ideas.
When I say take your time, first I mean take your quiet
time.
Time in prayer and in the Word daily allow God to speak into
you and your life. As you have quiet time with Him and bring him your sins and
struggles you find new energy to put into your writing. A cleansed vessel is a
clear vessel that God can use to then speak into other’s lives.
And then allow yourself slow times. We need down times in
the busy seasons. When we rush from thing to thing we often impair our ability
to think clearly. All of us have busy lives, but when we reach the point of
overwhelm we don’t have the train of thought to grow in our writing.
Use slow thought activity daily to increase your creativity.
Vaccuuming doesn’t take much thought, why not spend the time thinking of what
your character will do next. Waiting in line can be boring, use the time to
create dialogue for the first meeting of your hero and heroine.
Taking a daily quiet time, allowing for margin in your life,
finding quiet spaces and times are all ways to increase your writing creativity
(and as a result your productivity). What tips do you use to build your own
creativity?
Julia
enjoys writing women's fiction whenever she can find a chair free of smushed
peanut butter sandwiches and lego blocks. She is a wife and homeschooling mama
of two littles. She also enjoys reviewing and writing for Library Journal and
the blog Wonderfully Woven.
