I have a bit of an embarrassing anecdote. I was running some errands under a tight schedule one day and found myself at the grocery store. I was focused on listening to a video on my phone while hastily throwing items in my cart.
It wasn’t until I arrived at the self-checkout station did I realize my colossal folly: I wasn’t wearing my mask!
Since I was wearing my headphones, I must’ve missed the request from the employees at the door to put on my face covering. As I was so focused on getting stuff done quickly, I was lost in my own world, blissfully unaware that, for at least ten minutes, I was essentially breaking the law.
I immediately put my mask on and apologized profusely to the employee monitoring the checkout, but the experience stuck with me long after I left the store.
As creatives, we often find ourselves lost in our own worlds. It is our moment of deep focus—our flow state, if you will. This is where the real work of productivity and output happen.
But it isn’t often easy to reach this flow state. Sometimes, it takes a dedicated act of intention to get to this place. This is especially important when our available time to devote to our passions is as precious as it is limited.
Therefore, here are a few suggestions on how to harness your creative energy while getting lost in our own world:
Remove Distractions
Modern technology is such an invaluable tool, but it is also the ultimate hindrance to productivity. Our laptops allow us to type story drafts, but a wandering mind can easily find itself scrolling through Google for unrelated things. A mobile device may be a convenient way to share content on social media, but it is all too tempting to find ourselves down the Twitter or Youtube hole with one errant, undisciplined swipe.
In order to eliminate distractions, it is necessary to remove the temptations. When writing on a laptop, put the device in airplane mode so as not to be swayed by the siren call of the Internet. Place an app on your phone to limit time on certain apps, or just put your phone away completely—out of sight, out of mind. The Freedom app can be used to minimize distractions on Windows and iOS devices, and the FocusMe app also works on Android.
Listen to Music
This may be divisive advice, but I find it helps to listen to music in order to get into the zone creatively. The type of music I listen to depends on my mood; sometimes classic pop or rock helps me to focus, other times I’m in the mood for techno or electronica, and other times I like to listen to music in another language. I would not, however, recommend listening to podcasts or non-music Youtube videos. Trying to listen to a person or multiple people speaking while you are trying to write is considered multitasking, which is detrimental to getting optimal results in either task.
Schedule Your Time
We’d like to believe that the creative process should be this lackadaisical endeavour, that it should be random and spontaneous, and that we should only produce when the whim or inspiration hits.
This is a misconception; in order to have any worthwhile progression in our craft, we need to be consistently creating, regardless of the presence or absence of any muse. This means that we must actively make time in the day to create. It doesn’t matter if it’s first thing in the morning or the last thing just before bed, we have to pencil the time in as though we were making an appointment with ourselves. After all, if can’t be bothered to make our creative pursuits a priority, who else will?
This is by no means an exhaustive list on how to achieve deep focus as a creative. If you have any other suggestions on how to get lost in your own world, please leave them below in the comments!
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