Creative Process: Spring Review
What's working in my daily creative practice this Spring (and what isn't)
Welcome to my first seasonal review! This was, perhaps, my motivation in starting a Substack—I wanted to create a place that I could expand on my process and practice. I’ve always been fascinated by the daily creative rhythm of artists, writers, and musicians—perhaps any creative type—and I love harvesting little creative habits and squirreling them away for use in my own practice.
I have also recently learned something about myself that is absolutely vital to the way I create: routine is essential, but I must have novelty within that routine. What does this look like in practice? I’ve found that I must be very strict with my process for as long as it works—I rigidly adhere to whatever rhythms I set up for myself, but when novelty comes calling (as it often does) those rhythms are archived; it is on to a new routine. For me, this perfectly merges discipline—and, also important, consistency—with the freedom to remain spontaneous and playful in my practice.
First, what’s working…
MY CREATIVE PROCESS JOURNAL
This is a slim Kraft notebook that exists only to catalogue work process and technical details. I had incredibly high hopes for the Commonplace Journal, but as it turns out… it was not for me (at least, in terms of my work). It turned into another performance space—something else I had to do “well” (i.e. curating what looked good) and because of this I never wanted to log the boring details of my creative work (“reverb always sounds wetter on solo piano post-master”). It became self-defeating. But my tiny, thin, cheap Kraft notebook? Bliss—a quick scribble with a yellow highlight for speedy referencing. Sometimes it really is about the basics.
THE FULL FOCUS PLANNER
A while back I found my perfect planner. I logged on to the Full Focus website to repurchase it, only to find it had been discontinued. I was reluctantly pushed toward the Full Focus binder, and while I was staunchly against anything that wasn’t 8.5” x 11”, I am pleased to report I have been fully converted. I take this thing everywhere (dragging it around the house like the CEO of my home) and it truly has the perfect layout—two concise lists, one for to-dos and one with the time attached. There’s also a whole page for notes, which is a non-negotiable for me. It has become my brain on paper. (I did check if they have a code; here it is—10% off should you be curious about their offerings).
AREAS OF FOCUS
In combination with my planner, I have implemented a new system to mitigate overwhelm: every day I sit down and break my life into focus categories. These are Creative, Administrative, Household, and Renovation, with a bonus “Naptime Focus” for when the tiniest gremlin does not need constant supervision. Years ago I read Gary Keller’s The One Thing, and this process reminds me of that (only tailored to moms, who can never have just one thing). Keller’s central idea was a question: What's the ONE Thing I can do such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary? In my adapted version, I set “one thing” for each category—realistically achievable before 8pm—and this is how I focus my day. This has been my biggest hack to steady consistency this season.
TAKING A BREAK FROM SOCIAL MEDIA
There’s not a soul that doesn’t benefit from a break from social media, but for me this was specifically taking a break from creating content (which I’ve done a lot over the last few years, with mixed feelings… elaborations to come in a future essay). It took about a month before the nagging undercurrent of anxiety fully dissipated (what’s my next post? What do I need to be filming/editing/recording voiceover for? What supplies do I need to order to do the project that I need to film by [whatever date]?). Posting and creating content takes a lot of time (that I’d rather spend writing music), yes, but more than that—it propagates an endless cycle of mental activity which disengages you from The Old World (real life). As someone whose career actually benefits from maintaining an online presence, I am still wading through the details on this one… but above all I know that I want a slow, peaceful life; social media is just not conducive to that.
MOMENTUM
“An object in motion stays in motion”—Newton, more or less. Oftentimes I find that my anxiety around my creative output comes down to there actually not being much “output”. I am most definitely the person who needs to be “achieving” something (and I say this loosely, because I don’t mean that in an ambitious sense; I simply need to be checking off some kind of box). It is good for me to be productive. Not over-productive—I am all too familiar with burnout—but when my hands aren’t quite busy enough I find myself in my head and stressy (and existential). A steady stream of mini wins is vital to momentum in my daily process and progress.
This season, that has looked like finalizing everything for my rebrand (read more here, including why I changed my name) and preparing for my first single in five years, which is officially on its way through distribution. This truly felt like the biggest domino to knock over, the start of a chain reaction into this new chapter of creative work. I’m especially proud of it because it was a huge fight to get there—Resistance (see Steven Pressfield’s The War of Art) at every turn.
PERMISSION TO CHILL
Hand in hand with Momentum. Historically, I’ve been very bad at relaxing. I am excellent at pushing through and meeting a deadline. I am excellent at going the extra mile. What I am not excellent at is realizing that the world actually is not perpetually on fire and that rest is creative practice too. Different seasons require different approaches, and there have been many seasons of my life where I’ve needed to learn to foster discipline and resilience and consistency above all else… now I’m in a season of the opposite: surrender, relinquishing control, allowing myself to enjoy life. When creativity becomes only about output, it starts to mimic the exact systems it’s supposed to be an alternative to. I’d rather it be the counterweight to a world organized around performance, productivity, and metrics.
NOTION
Notion continues to be my second brain for anything and everything. I simply could not function without it (which is a little disturbing to admit). Everything from my Master Catalogue to Release Strategy to Business Admin to Home and Renovations is on there. No area of my life is untouched. Dumping everything that ever crosses my mind into a database frees my brain up to create. Nothing weighs me down faster than The Mental Load.
And now, what’s not working…
TIMING
I have a two hour morning slot every day that has become “my time”—a stretch where I can get a couple of uninterrupted hours before family life gets underway. It’s usually an effortless undertaking—and where some of my best work happens—but I have really struggled to get to my desk (or piano) this season. Whether that’s due to the swing of summer or plain over-tiredness, I have not been productive here at all. This is my biggest problem to “fix” as, realistically, the timing simply cannot move. Perhaps in my attempts to relinquish optimization, I have also relinquished a little bit of discipline.
I LACK A DOOR
That’s not a metaphor, my studio really is missing a door—I took it off the hinges to strip it of two hundred years of questionable paint jobs. (If you haven’t been privy to my lengthy studio build, you can catch up on Instagram or TikTok). I, unfortunately, have much experience stripping paint, and as such know it’ll be at least a month until it’s finished. You can imagine how this is affecting my creative process with two little hyenas running around during my most vital hours.
NOT MUCH FOCUS ON CREATIVE WORK
This has been a heavy admin season with a rebrand right around the corner. I wasn’t prepared for how monumental a task it would be to rebrand myself after a decade releasing work—in one way or another—under one name. New licenses, LLCs, new distribution deals, trademark applications, new website, new publishing company, new publisher accounts (times several), new press materials, new photos… but, excitingly, also new music! I’ll be glad to have the weight of admin off my back, but it has been a necessary evil these last few months. I love the idea of having a small daily creative practice to keep me grounded in the work itself—for artists, this could be sketching. For composers? Perhaps something similar—I may need to set myself a creative challenge.
What I want to implement this season
MOVEMENT
I recently wrote an essay unpacking a Stanford study on how walking feeds creativity. Even though I know that I am at my most prolific following movement, I have not been feeding this into my practice lately. That’s my main goal for the summer season: walking before creating. Perhaps that’s also what will cure my get-to-my-desk problem.
If you’re also a person making things, I’d love to hear what’s working for you in this season—leave me a comment on Substack or hit reply to this email. This is one of my favorite things to talk about!
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Really enjoyed this peek into your brain, Anna. Refreshing to read about someone identifying what's not working (so important!), as well as what is. I'm excited for your return to music in the upcoming months, but will be praying you find a happy rhythm somewhere between the "Old World" and the new ;)