6 ways to create more consistent content.

“Creative people don’t ‘find time’ to be creative—they put in the time to be creative.”

—Mark Manson

 
 

As someone who’s been writing both songs and articles since January of this year — and moved halfway across the country, and survived a shooting, and started working twice as many hours — I have discovered the wonders of burnout.
 

Lately, I just haven’t felt inspired. Only a few days since I have been in Boulder have I had an influx of ideas that I vomited onto the computer screen. So much has happened since March, yet my Muse idly sits in the grass, unwilling to budge.
 

Any creative will become intimate with burnout. The creative process reaches a plateau similar to what Seth Godin calls “The Dip,” and everything begins to feel stagnant and tiring. The office cubicle you longed to escape becomes the creative rut you long to escape.
 

At that point, you may be tempted to take a break, even though you have taken plenty of time away from the creative canvas. And you know what? Maybe that is the case. Maybe a long break is exactly what you need.
 

Or maybe it isn’t.
 

Maybe an element to consistent creativity is just that — consistency. While inspiration is amazing when it comes, it’s inconsistent, and you best not rely on it exclusively.
 

Following are some of the ways I’ve been able to create consistent content, even when I’m in a creative Dip and not feeling inspired.
 
 

1. Scheduled inspiration
 
Inspiration is like the golden snitch in Harry Potter. It’s fickle, unpredictable, and exciting.

 

It feels amazing when you finally catch it. You won the creative game! You’re flowing, you’re making, you’re baking.
 

And then…it slips from your hand once again, and the game restarts.
 

We artists love to be the Seeker instead of the Chaser, spending most of our time on the prowl for that golden snitch. But spending too much time going after the snitch will result in…well, no results.
 

A more integrative approach to creativity is to do what I call “scheduled inspiration.” Basically, anytime you have an idea about something or feel inspired, record it so you can come back to it later. When you next sit down to create, you have a massive list of inspiring ideas, and you can choose whichever one feels most inspiring at that moment. That way, you can feel at least somewhat inspired when you begin your creative session, even if you sit down with no inspiration. 
 

For example, with my music, I tend to find guitar ideas through simple noodling. When I find one that’s inspiring to me, I record it on my phone. The next time I sit down to play, regardless of whether or not I feel inspired, I have a library of inspiring ideas from which to choose. Listening again to those ideas rekindles my inspiration, and I can more easily get to work.
 

Scheduled inspiration is the best of both worlds — it takes the amazingness of inspiration and combines it with the consistency of scheduled creative sessions. You can create at any time in any feeling state because you have a list of inspiring ideas to give you that boost.
 

In other words, you can be a Chaser and a Seeker at the same time.
 

 

2. Inspiration Quests

If you haven’t felt very inspired lately, maybe you need to go on what Ari Herstand calls an Inspiration Quest.
 

An Inspiration Quest is anything out of the ordinary routine of your life. That could be a hike, a new tea flavor, a movie, a book, a date, a new perspective — anything that psychologically derails you for a short period of time.
 

(However, God forbids dipping french fries in mayonnaise to be an inspiration quest. That’s just gross.)
 

Inspiration can’t be forced, but it can certainly be catalyzed. Exposing yourself to psychological novelty will encourage inspiration to strike.
 
 

3. Consume content of those who inspire you the most

Pablo Picasso’s second cousin’s uncle’s coworker’s roommate once said, “Good artists copy, great artists steal — and all artists are inspired by other artists.”
 

An Inspiration Quest could also be indulging in the art of the person you’re trying to emulate. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve felt inspired to write a song immediately after listening to Gregory Alan Isakov’s The Weatherman. Dang, that album is like a blanket for the ears.
  
 

4. Morning Pages

In The Artist’s Way, Julia Cameron shares an exercise that is now all the rage in self-help circles. It’s called Morning Pages — maybe you’ve heard of it?
 

Essentially, first thing in the morning, you write whatever comes off the top of your head. It can be a recounting of what you have to do that day, or it can be the most random nonsense in the world, like giant Godzilla-sized cheese puffs with laser beams attached to their torsos take over the state of Washington and hollow out Mt. Rainier to form a secret base where they…you get the point.
 

No holds barred — just let your mind do its thing! Surely you’ll glean some inspirational nuggets from your subconscious gold-digging.
 
 

5. Cues

James Clear popularized this idea in his book Atomic Habits — part of what makes a habit a habit is the cue to partake in that habit. An effective way to start a new habit, then, is to have a cue for it. That could mean you string it onto another habit, or it could mean that you create a new cue.
 

For example, if you want to start flossing, you can use brushing your teeth as the cue. Or if you want to meditate consistently, you can use the time before dinner as a cue.
 

My former partner’s cue to make music was the car. Every time she was in a car, she would listen to her works-in-progress and record any other melodies that came through inspiration.
 

To create consistent content, use a cue that tells you to create.
 
 

6. Emotional processing

Here’s one that people often overlook — sometimes, our lack of inspiration can be from a lack of emotional processing.
 

Sometimes, emotions stick inside our bodies and gum up our creative energy. A way to unleash that energy is through emotional processing, in whatever way works best for you.
 

For some, it’s physical exercise. For me, it’s ecstatic dance, breathwork, yoga, cold exposure, journaling, and/or screaming at the top of my lungs in the car.
 

That last one is totally underrated — I highly recommend, if you haven’t screamed in a while. Just make sure you don’t have a speaking gig the following day.
 
 

Conclusion

After writing all of this, I feel uplifted and inspired. Go figure!
 

That goes to show the nature of inspiration — like emotion, it comes and goes. To rely on it exclusively can be limiting.
 

That’s why I take a dynamic, integrative approach to content creation. Sometimes, the last thing I want to do is write, but I push myself anyways — and by the end of the writing session, I feel inspired. Other times, I write five posts at once and give myself a pat on the back for queuing five weeks-worth of content. And sometimes, I take a long several-week break.
 

We live in a work culture that teaches us to distrust our instincts — to abdicate our inner knowing to outer authority and be regimented with our way of living. While having a schedule is great, disregarding our intuition is not.
 

The way of the artist, then, is to re-align with our instinctual, right-brain creative energies…and also stay friends with our left brain, which reminds us that consistency doesn’t necessarily have to be an enemy to creativity — it can be a catalyst.
 
 
 

Brett Winters is an indie folk singer-songwriter, deep feeler, and writer who’s currently based in Boulder, CO.