One of my goals in 2012 is to be more focused and productive. Times like now when inspiration is high – that’s no challenge. But what about in the Lull times; when it is all too easy to procrastinate and feel overwhelmed. How do we stay useful and productive?

We Creatives are excellent at making excuses for not doing work! If what you need to be doing requires creativity and inspiration it is all only seems natural to give up without even trying, if you are not feeling at the top of your game.

Most of us spend waste a huge amount of time thinking about all things we need to do, should do and want to do but this takes away from the time we have left to actually DO anything!

And when it comes to the hard stuff about business, such as finances, book keeping, replying to unexciting emails etc we seem to deal with them by way of denial and avoidance – this obviously achieves nothing.

So, what can we do to shift our mood and get into the productive zone!

The amazing thing about it is the shift only needs to be small and none of it is hard.

If you don’t feel inspired don’t attempt to do highly creative tasks like designing a new product or writing an inspiring blog post. There are however plenty of mundane tasks such as resizing photos or entering payments into your accounting program that are a waste of your energy if you are on creative high; although are critical elements of your business.

Achieving things, particularly if they have been on your to do list for ages will make you feel lighter, more energized and your creative mo-jo is likely to return faster.

I can’t stress the importance of lists! If you have a myriad of things on your mind and you spend most of your day stressing about how you will never get any of them done;

write a list

keep it small – only 5 or 6 items long. This will force you to prioritize. I try and be realistic too, if I set myself two massive tasks in a day I make sure the rest are smaller and less time consuming. This blog post by Jess of Epheriell sent me to this blog post from In Between Laundry, which has had a profound effect on my business!

As for the hard stuff – my new mantra seems to be working for me – and can be applied to almost everything.

Do it NOW, Touch it once.

If you don’t have time to reply to a lengthy email, flag it and don’t open it again until you can give it your full attention.

If you are finished with a paint brush – don’t leave it to soak – wash it out now and put it away!

It all seems so simple I almost didn’t even write this blog post but these easy things are changing the way I do business and I am seeing results straight away! I am more inspired than ever to continually improve and refine my processes.

If you have any suggestions – no matter how simple – on improving your productivity please share them in the comments below or on my facebook page. And lets all say it one more time (because I like things to be in threes).

Do it NOW, Touch it once.