July is coming to an end. So are my posts about nurturing and looking for creativity in the world around you.
As this topic and month have concluded, I learned that I have hobbies and unconscious habits that tend to stifle the fire to create.
Aside from screens, sedentary lifestyles, bad renditions of good books, and the lack of solitude, there are a few things I have noticed from my day-to-day life that have hindered me from racking my brain for creativity.
Here are four habits that may inadvertently be hurting your creativity.
1. Procrastination Because of Pressure and Stress
When a boulder of expectations, tasks, and deliverables is on my back, my mind tends to shut down.
Procrastination starts to kick in. Laziness takes over.
Looking back at my time at the university and in the corporate world, I remember times when I hunkered down on tasks without taking the time to play with ideas and juggle solutions.
First, I spend weeks procrastinating before the deadline. As the deadline approaches, I find the quickest and easiest way to remove the pressure and the stress. All that mattered was I submitted the assignments.
My habits resulted in finished outputs I could not bear to look at. I admit, there are also blog posts I have never looked back on since publishing.
Though a degree of stress can help you squeeze creativity out, too many expectations can push any momentum to a full stop—in my world absolute procrastination.
Another pressure creatives put on themselves is the need and expectation to earn money.
The creative process then does not feel free but tied to an expectation. All that matter is what management or society believed was the worth of that money.
To help one cope with pressure, expectations, stress, and procrastination, one has to learn to understand how one feels.
Understanding how stressed you feel, how much pressure is weighing down on your shoulders, and how you begin to turn to procrastination can help you save your creativity.
2. Shopping and Material Pleasures
When I started writing this blog, the idea of a tablet that works best with Google Workspace invaded my thoughts.
Before I knew it, I was down a rabbit hole of tablet reviews, shopping sites, and forum discussions. I was shocked to see that more than half an hour flew by. My cursor was left blinking hopefully at me from the left-hand corner of my screen.
What an example of the distraction of screens (check out my post about it here). I learned how mystified I am by the satisfaction of purchasing something new. Material possession and having the power to pay for something could pull us in all directions but our goals.
This CNBC article delves into why many successful people wear the same outfit each day. Cutting out as many unnecessary decisions helps these people focus on more pressing matters.
Treating yourself to something nice once in a while is not bad. On the other hand, regularly buying new things only puts a smile on the face and brings happiness to the heart for a minute.
Flooding our minds with the momentary joys of shopping and material things can distract creativity. We could spend hours satisfying these desires and forget to work on what matters.
Like me, there may be times that you convince yourself to purchase this or that before you start writing, creating videos, or painting. But creativity does not come from the gadget or the degree you hold.
What more do you really need?
3. Worrying and Fear
With everything you have to do, like holding down a nine-to-five, looking for passive income, and starting a passion project, your mind and hands are busy.
In your haste, you worry left and right that you may just have missed something, overlooked some detail, and, in the process, made a huge mistake.
On top of that, you worry that you are pulling yourself down a road to failure.
Skimming through required material, hands jittery from one email to the next, and mind racing from one subject to the next is not peaceful.
Nor is it conducive to thinking outside the box.
I started a new remote position in the past few weeks. During the training, loads of information poured onto my table, and I had to piece together answers to topics I just learned.
Worried I would make the wrong decision and busy looking through all the material on my lap, my brain refused to put any of the pieces together.
Only after I stepped away, had my lunch break, and went for a walk did the gears of my brain start to turn. Slowly subject matter and action steps formed in my head, and the answers etched in my mind.
A worried mind over matters in your control can stifle your creativity. Even if you have all the boxes ticked, there will be things out of your control and a percentage of human error.
Sometimes the best way to deal with everything on your plate and your worried mind is to step back, let go, and take a breath.
The cycles of worry we fall into and the fear of failure could stop us from being creative altogether. This Fast Company article talks about seven creativity killers and helps you address problems such as worry and fear.
4. Bad Sleeping Habits
Since recovering from burnout, I have found myself waking up from deeper sleep and wandering about in dreams.
In the past few years, I have barely dreamt. I have learned that I dream more when I am better rested. I may be experiencing more REM sleep which may have been elusive when stressed out.
Waking up from sleep with vivid dreams feels like a different kind of slumber. The mind seems recharged from an aching body, while the body feels free from the weight of a worrisome mind.
Mornings that feel like this are rare to me. I start a day feeling recharged and lighter.
As the mind feels well-rested, thoughts course with ease, and the mind can disengage and seek the peace it needs (check out my post on solitude and creativity here).
If you work a nine-to-five, manage a household, and maybe even raise kids, rest may be few and fleeting.
It is not easy to fall into the pattern of sleep that charges to a full battery. And though you could not have this kind of rest daily—something I struggle with—it is a good discipline to learn to take the break you need to get your creative juices flowing.
This NYU Dispatch article talks about how the value of sleep can help with your creativity.
So do not forget to get enough sleep for your mind and your body.
Busyzi 
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