I have too many creative ideas, which one do I even start with? (4 tips to help you start acting on one!)
This morning I was journaling in bed, sort of morning pages. I hadn’t in a while. But deciding to get a bit away from social media has done just that: I’ve been replacing the scrolling with writing.
But then each time I write, I get plenty of ideas! So many… I wonder if sometimes it’s not a reason for me to procrastinate on journaling, because I get overwhelmed with so many creative ideas.
But then, where do I start? With which one? If you’re like me, that’s what you always wonder, which leads to… more procrastination?
My first disclaimer is that if you feel you’re like me and have too many ideas, maybe it’s a sign that you’re not taking enough action on them. Also, the idea is just an energy type of thing, it still needs time and work to materialize into the physical world. See elements of alchemy.
Side note: I’m not here talking about random thoughts you get while you journal, I’m talking about actual creative ideas. Like ideas for a painting series, or a video, or a blog post, or a song.
What do I do now? How do I choose?
1 - Finish the one that is the closest to the finish line
It might be one that only needs finishing touches, polishing, or maybe it’s done, and you just need to take pictures and add it to your online shop? Or it’s a song that is almost written and that you can maybe start practising on to polish it? Like, you have the chorus and the half of the verses? That’s the one!
For me, it’s 2 songs for my band that are completely recorded, engineered, mastered, but need a video to be released on our music channel. I’m gonna start with the shortest one (only 3 minutes!) and also the one I can film without anyone else.
2 - If there are more than one close to the finish line, chose randomly!
Just write the name you have for your project on small pieces of paper, fold them, add them to a beautiful bowl (optional, but having beauty surrounding you helps!), and ask your inner intuition (or Universe, or Mother Earth, or your Angels whatever your belief system is) to guide and assist you.
Close your eyes.
Breathe in, hold your breath.
Release your breath and pick up one.
Et voilà! Thank your guides for their assistance, and get into it!
3- Work on the one that will have the greatest impact.
Have you ever heard about the 20/80% rule? Basically, take the 20% actions that will lead to 80% of the result? Well, I suppose as artists, we sometimes forget that it can also apply to us. The result can be for you, for your career, for the impact in your audience.
Another example with my band would be that I’m thinking it is time to really focus on growing our audience on YouTube. We have a channel for a long time, and posted many videos, but maybe haven’t been doing it consistently. We’re now on a weekly live music experiment (that you can follow here if you like, I created a special playlist for that). We’ve since the beginning of that experiment had a lot more subscribers. But now, I feel out of my video projects, one with a song they haven’t heard live, and that isn’t recorded on any album would be a great way to bring them something new, more polished, but still in our style. So this is where I imagine I’ll have the more impact, instead of going for recording more new music.
Your turn now ;)
4 - Rethink the idea so that it will take less time - for now
This is actually exactly what I’m doing NOW! This blog post was initially a longer video idea for my video channel, and actually an idea I got this morning. But since I had already other scripts in the making, and following my previous steps, I could either add it to the end-less to-do-list OR make something out of it!
So I turned it into a blog post AND at the same time, while really picking up my random project from my magical bowl, I edited a short video for my channel just with that point. How cool is that, really? This is exactly what makes me super happy and proud, and this is when I feel I can also be creative in the way I bring my ideas into the world, without being too attached to the form.
https://youtube.com/shorts/96eWJSQhhBo
What can you do, right now, within the next hour that will be the beginning of your idea taking shape into the physical world?
BONUS TIPS
1- If it’s too big of a task remember to break it down
2 - If it’s a really small one, that takes less than an hour, do it NOW