Have you ever been so carried away with letting your creative juices flow that you lose sight of deadlines? Most writers are often conflicted about whether to focus on harnessing their creativity or churning out less original work to meet demand and deadlines. Creativity and Productivity are two sides of a coin essential in guiding writers on their journey, and neither should be sacrificed for the other.
Excelling in the writing industry depends on how well you balance these two areas to achieve results. Without creativity, your work becomes like every other piece of writing, and without productivity, there would be no results. The struggle is real, as either some writers are lost in inspiration without tangible results, or they’re burning energy creating content that lacks depth and quality.
In this post, we’ll be looking at how to win on both ends to achieve long-term success.
Understanding Creativity and Productivity
What is Creativity in writing?
Creativity entails thinking outside the box to birth something out of the ordinary. In writing, it simply connotes an intersection of thoughts, views, and research to create original content. Creativity gives room for writers to explore emotions, perspectives, new ideas, and artistic expression. Creativity is like a spur-of-the-moment spark of an idea that thrives on inspiration.
What is Productivity for a Writer?
Productivity, on the other hand, refers to efficiency, discipline, and consistency in output. It encompasses the act of meeting deadlines, setting goals, and maintaining synergy and is measured by the quantity of output and quality of results. As against popular opinion, productivity is not a factor of time but about learning to optimise the power of your brain.
The Challenges in Balancing Creativity and Productivity
What happens when creativity clashes with productivity? A lot of writers are enslaved to their desire for inspiration, putting off all work until they are inspired, whereas others focus on meeting deadlines without maintaining originality; hence, the need to create harmony between both factors.
Below are some challenges writers face when trying to strike a balance between Creativity and Productivity:
1. The Creative Juice Myth
A lot of writers only put pen to paper when inspiration strikes. Imagine having a pile of writing projects to deliver, and you sit back doing nothing, all because you’re waiting for inspiration. If you only churn out content at the dawn of inspiration, then you cannot thrive as a paid writer. Read that again. Building authority in the writing industry requires discipline. Disciplined writing entails showing up consistently, whether or not you’re inspired to. Disciplined writing gets the work done.
2. Over-Productivity
As much as it is important to produce results, it is also necessary to refuel your creativity. Writing too much without taking the time to build up your knowledge bank will lead to burnout. Writers who prioritize quality over quantity remain indispensable.
3. The Myth of Perfectionism
Some writers get stuck in unproductivity because they are striving to perfect every word, sentence, and paragraph. They keep writing, rewriting, and rewriting the same paragraph without moving forward. The obsession with perfectionism kills productivity and drains energy.
4. The Overconsumption Trap
Researching, reading and consuming other content is important in the process of writing as it empowers you with sufficient ideas necessary to create a masterpiece. However, focusing so much on consuming ideas without producing anything leads to analysis paralysis.
From these critical challenges arises confusion amongst writers on how to keep being creative while also ensuring maximum productivity. Let’s dig deeper into this learning journey.
Strategies for Balancing Creativity and Productivity
Below are practical ways to balance your creativity with productivity to consistently deliver results:
1. Develop a Writing Strategy
The biggest mistake any writer can make is leaving their writing entirely to the waves of creativity. As much as inspiration helps the flow, it is also necessary to be disciplined enough to establish a routine that will help you achieve the desired result. A structured routine gives room for consistency.
Here are 3 practical tips for developing a routine:
- Set Daily or Weekly Writing Goals: What do you want to achieve in a day or week? Set a target for it.
- Establish a writing schedule: This could be mornings or evenings, or any time of day when you’re most active.
- Allocate time for Brainstorming, Drafting, and Editing separately.
2. Using Creativity Triggers
Creativity triggers are techniques that spark fresh ideas, boost imagination, and enhance creative thinking. They help writers overcome mental block and stagnation and gain new perspectives.
Some of these triggers include:
- Reading widely across diverse genres.
- Engaging in soothing activities like walking, listening to music, meditating, etc.
- Keeping a journal for spontaneous ideas.
- Visual triggers such as looking at an artwork, photograph or movie scene, etc.
3. Breaking Tasks into Manageable Parts
Mental exhaustion begins to occur when writers feel overwhelmed by the tasks at hand. Therefore, it is always advisable to break tasks down into smaller parts for the process to seem less intimidating.
Writing tasks can be broken down into:
- Brainstorming: This involves gathering raw ideas through free writing, mind mapping, research, creating an outline for your writing, and setting a time limit for brainstorming to avoid overthinking.
- Drafting: Most writers write and edit, and this slows down their productivity. The best rule of thumb is to focus on getting the words on the pages first then worrying about editing later.
- Editing: To effectively edit a work, you need to step away from the draft for a few hours or days, then start editing with fresh eyes. Begin with developmental editing, to line editing, and finish with proofreading.
Tips: You can apply the Pomodoro technique when breaking down tasks to boost productivity without exhausting creativity. That is, write for 25 minutes, then take a 5-minute break to refresh your mind.
4. Leverage Writing Tools
Whether you like it or not, technology is here to stay. Therefore, writers need to embrace tools that help streamline both the creative and productive processes. For instance, you can utilise AI writing assistants such as Grammarly and ChatGPT for idea development. Editing software like ProWritingAid can assist you in refining drafts, and time management apps like Notion can help you keep track of your progress.
5. Set Realistic Goals
To create and establish a balance between creativity and productivity as a writer, you need to have SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound) goals. Start by asking yourself, “What number of words do you want to write per day?”, “How many times a week do you want to publish the blog posts?” These questions will help you set clear goals, which will help you achieve results.
Concluding Thoughts
Creativity and productivity are two sides of the same coin, which every writer must nurture by developing a routine, using inspiration triggers, setting realistic goals, and leveraging tools to achieve sustainable success.
Victor Ifegwu-Mbonu