Your Creativity Needs Structure, Sugar

I've mentored quite a few Black Designers over the years, and a lot of their frustrations about their creative work came from a lack of structure.

We'd talk about making some adjustments to their processes, they'd make those adjustments, then things would take off.

In this stage of my life, my Spirit is being led to help even more Black Designers and Creatives get organized so they can be their best selves.

See... people hear structure and think:

• Constraint
• Boxed in
• Rules
• Discipline
• Strict

Everything supposedly opposite of what being a creative is...

But how creative can you be when:

• You spend hours on the phone repeating yourself to prospects who probably won't sign and pay
• You've spent the last 16 hours moving your mouse and clicking with your stomach having a full on symphony because you forgot to eat?
• You're mad because once again you took on an "it shouldn't take you more than 5 minutes" job, instead of toasting it up with your homies for virtual brunch.

Your creative energy gets tied up in your frustration. So how do we fix that?

No structure in how your day is set up = the misconception there's lots of free time.

You look at the clock and it's 6pm

You scroll the timeline twice and next thing you know it's 2am

Oops.

There's no ROI on free time, Sugar.

No structure in your processes?

You spend 3 hours looking for that Illustrator file before getting fed up and starting over from scratch

No structure in your policies?

Your clients take 3 months to get you content. Then you spend another 3 months chasing them for their final payment

Then you spend hours trying to decompress and get un-stressed... and your creativity?

It doesn't exist.

Your brain is fried. Your body is tired.

You don't have to live this way my friend...

Know yourself

• Build some structure with a routine to start and end your day that serves your Self. Meditation. Gratitude journaling. Reading. Praying. Singing. Dancing. Gaming. Exercising. Netflix and chilling...
• Meal plan and prep so you aren't losing time trying to figure out how to nourish your body.
• Make down time a priority too, and schedule it so you know it's real.

Know your Productivity Peaks.

If you’re like me, you're analytical during the day, do things like household chores in the evening, and create your best works after 10pm. And nothing gets done on Saturdays.

Know your boundaries.

• Set your office hours.
• When you get paid.
• How you get paid
• How you will communicate about a project.
• Don't work without a contract. Not. Ever.

Know your process.

If it's something you repeat from prospect to prospect, or project to project, then you need to DTA: document, template, automate.

• Document- write, yes write, every little step you take
• Create a template for repetitive tasks, answers to questions, file setups. You can even create templates to reduce the time you have to actually speak to people
• Automate - use platforms and software features that allow you to automate some stuff so you can free up some time... time you can spend creating

Some of the tools I use to DTA:

• Dubsado - manage and automate my leads, invoicing, proposals, contracts, appointments and overall customer experience
• ClickUp - manage my personal and business projects, communicating with customers and my assistants
• MemberVault - house trainings and tutorials (the things I keep having to repeat)
• Zapier - to connect and automate tasks between my tools that don't talk to each other, like backing up my email list every time someone subscribes

All in all, sometimes creativity hits you when it wants... it's hard to regulate.

But if you have structure in the other areas of your life, you'll have more time and mental capacity to roll with creativity when it shows up.

And with that, I’m  out. Holla at me if you want some guidance working that structure in your life.