Creating In The Courage Room: 13 Helpful Steps

how can I work, write, create, or, Say, finish my taxes?

We get stuff done by planning and making space for the work to happen.

Here are some basic organizational and process-oriented steps to help facilitate your creative / work. These are the steps I recommend for any work time, and specifically for The Courage Room Collective All-Write—3 Sundays / month for 3 hours, 2-5 pm EST.

Feel free to copy this, add to it, make it your own. At the bottom of the blog, you can sign up to receive a PDF copy of the steps below (you’ll also be added to my newsletter.)

Our habits are neural pathways: the more we use them, the easier and more efficacious they become. New habits, regularly practiced, become the scaffold that support our work—whatever it may be. Try this regularly for THREE WEEKS and you will have a new behaviour! (That’s how long it takes for a habit to ‘set’ in the brain.)

The amazing Magda in her ceramics workshop in Mesotopos, Lesvos, Greece. A queen of creative focus and achievement.

 1.     Decide on and set aside a Focus Block of time to write.

Put it in your calendar, whether it’s 15 minutes or 3 hours. One key   to consistent creative time is to make sure that we believe that a few minutes is ‘real time’.

Most of us think that we need 2 or 4 or 6 hours to be creative, to paint, to write, (or, for that matter, to do our taxes.) This can be a form of procrastination.

2.     Tell loved ones / room-mates that you will be busy from ___ to  ____. Tell yourself that you will be busy from ___ to ____.  Get that sign for the door.

 3.     The night before you have a Focus Block, Prepare the physical work area. Take a look. What's missing? What would make it easier and more pleasant to work here?

 4.     Decide beforehand what you are going to do. Decide and do your best to stick to it. Arrange the necessary materials, with the promise that you won’t let yourself slide into distractions: even if you change focus, this will be creative time.

  5.      Lots of solid research shows that we are almost twice as likely to do what we've 'declared' we'll do by writing it down.

 Read that again. Write down your work intention and the time commitment you intend to make.

 6.     If you’ve been struggling with avoidance and procrastination (more on that next week), Say out loud, “I’ll just do it for 5 minutes.” More often then not, if you have time, you will keep going beyond 5 minutes . . . Starting is always KEY.

 7.     Write down an inspiring/thoughtful/moving 'creativity mantra' in your journal—add lines from it on post-it notes around your workspace. “I will achieve creative flow.” Positive, positive, positive. “I’m becoming more and more clear about what I need to do.” “I am becoming more skilled and at ease in this work.” “I celebrate myself for doing this, no matter what the outcome is.” The night before your Focus Block, think about how focused and clear you will be. This is a mild form of self-hypnosis.

 8.     The day of, recognize that you are going to be using a LOT of cognitive power. The brain requires fuel and hydration.

Have water/tea/healthy snacks already prepared for the time you’ll be working. Express gratitude for this sweet abundance!

 9.       Walk the dog in advance. Feed the cat. Pet them both.

10.        Turn off your phone. Close out all other apps not related to this work.

11.        If you have a meditative or prayer practice, do it, even for a few minutes, before your writing time begins. Ask for guidance, focus, clarity, help: the spiritual aid you need the most.

 12.        Sit and take a few breaths. Resist getting up again. (Or remain standing still if you work at a standing desk).

 13.        When you get distracted, read your mantra / post-it notes. Put your hand on your heart, take a few grounding, heart-connecting breaths, and step back into your precious work. You can do this!

 Your work is important and worthwhile because it’s YOURS. Outcome doesn’t matter. First we must enter process.  

The Scorpion Between The Books. From a future book of mine called

The Therapist in the Olive Grove.

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