10 tactics to overcome ‘Resistance’

Here are my 10 current tactics to overcome my ‘Resistance’ to really do the Creative Work (if you have not read my blog post on “the War of Art” by Steven Pressfield, follow the link)

First, I have identified my potentially main time wasting activities which ‘Resistance’ is too happy to entertain:

  • aimless internet surfing (‘Resistance’ likes so much losing time following all the interesting hyperlinks without purpose)
  • aimless television – and watching movies on airplanes just for the sake of passing the time
  • social networks usage, which includes online chatting, and email

So my tactics are:

  1. limit those potentially time wasting activities to a predefined duration or context so that they are useful to my goals – plan the day accordingly;
  2. spend dedicated time looking for ideas, purposefully reading, watching or surfing what I have chosen (yes, chosen) to read, watch or surf on. Creativity feeds into other’s ideas so it’s important to watch and listen, but to be effective in doing that;
  3. switch off voluntarily internet, television and social networks when doing the Creative Work (and also the nasty email notifications!);
  4. rest well and exercise regularly to foster creativity, dynamism and balance – makes it easier to recognize Creative Work as the most important thing to do;
  5. make at least a 2 hours span of uninterrupted time for Creative Work – often in my hotel room at night when I travel, or after the children are in bed at home. When ‘Resistance’ makes me realize that less time is available, it generally wins;
  6. put on some music to isolate from the outside during Creative Work (don’t ask me what I have been listening though!);
  7. always have something to note thoughts and ideas on, in particular just after Creative Work when ideas still pour in (I now use Evernote to centralize all my ideas on the Cloud and have them available from anywhere)
  8. when doing Creative Work, focus on one piece of Creative Work at a time (for example, a set of blog posts, or writing my book). Got it? ‘Resistance’ wants you to switch, so that the flow of Creativity stops and has to be started again; focus instead!
  9. when doing Creative Work, ‘Resistance’ would like us to abandon, thinking what we are doing is crap. Don’t get bothered about the quality of the newly created material, and wait for at least one night to review what has been done, to bring perspective. Just go on creating;
  10. when you find Creating hard, when the blank sheet or screen is watching, resist the urge to switch to something else. Stay concentrated. Start writing. Once you open the flow of Creativity, it will not stop.

That’s it! Also, what works for me is that it is difficult to get into creative mode, but after a few minutes I dive into the real, concentrated creation work. After 15-20 mins I am in the flow, I don’t see the time passing. What’s tough is to get in Creative Mode and start.

I still have a lot of progress to do to tame my ‘Resistance’, who still win too often, but I am on my way. As is my second book, and a number of other things I want to create. And you, what are your tactics?

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