Ellipses, Jun 30… Daily creative habits, crying over homework, and 5 whys

Ellipses… a small, special character. Used by writers to slow down, create a pause, and indicate thinking.

⚫️ 1 tip: Daily habits help establish your creative identity 📌

I see so many creatives continue to cry over their homework (myself included).

When we want to be a prolific artist, we waste so much time thinking about doing the thing.

We let unproductive, harmful thoughts and self-judgment cloud our creativity.

Instead, just do the thing.

Forget inspiration.

Carve out an hour a day and make it happen.

Motivation comes when you show up regularly.

⚫️ 1 link: Why we cry over our homework 🔗

I wrote a full blog post about this idea of how we cry over our homework. Get more of a beefy backstory on the colloquial “just do it” mentioned above.

Learn how to remove thinking and get stuff done

⚫️ 1 journal prompt: 5 Why’s 📔

After finishing The Bullet Journal Method and going through a lot of Ryder Carroll’s journal prompts, I found an exercise that’s particularly helpful for today’s topic.

Whenever you have a belief or a goal, you can put it through the 5 why’s exercise. Here’s an example:

I like to write about personal knowledge management.
Why? Because I believe I can contribute something unique to the niche.
Why? Because solutions I see out there are too complex.
Why? Because we don’t have time to manage complex databases of information.
Why? Because we’re overloaded and stressed out with the demands of life.
Why? Because we chose paths that focus on the wrong things.

When you look at these bullet points, you can start to see some things that are actionable. See bolded items.

I like to write about personal knowledge management.
Why? Because I believe I can contribute something unique to the niche. (Speaks to over-saturation and repetition in the industry)
Why? Because solutions I see out there are too complex. (Speaks to the need to simplicity)
Why? Because we don’t have time to manage complex databases of information. (Again speaks to simplicity and maybe shorter forms of content)
Why? Because we’re overloaded and stressed out with the demands of life. (Prioritize a calming, non-toxic-productivity attitude)
Why? Because we are trying to balance different aspects of life. (Speaks to an audience with a diverse background)

From there, you can start to develop a mission statement to focus on your path moving forward.

“I want to write a daily digestible tweet about personal knowledge management that’s easy to do and meets people where they are.”

Try it for any aspect of your life, and let me know if you find this 5 whys exercise helpful!

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Comment below to chat further on any of the above. I’m an open book and I love to hear from you. See you soon.

Be safe and well,

🖤 Jenny