Do you have a ritual before you embark on complex or creative work? Or perhaps you understand what helps you focus and move into a state of flow.

After 15 years of writing books, I know what works for me when it comes to creating the best writing environment. There are certain activities that help me carry out focused work such as writing a book and highly creative work like designing a keynote or a workshop.

So, I thought it might help you if I share these aspects.

Getting into Flow Activities

1. Light a candle – when the candle is alight, I have to write. Damn I am a poet and I don’t even know it. This photo was taken last Friday as I am working on draft 2 of my book, Story Intelligence, which is due to be released in October.
2. Put on some soft background music. I have in the past used apps that replicate cafe ambience but my writing companion for this book is former INXS band member Kirk Pengilly’s Spotify Chill Compilation playlist.
3. Schedule creativity time first thing in the morning. This is when I am my most creative. I write in the morning and edit in the afternoon. They are two different processes and my advice is don’t do them both at the same time. I tend to write for a couple of hours, then have a break doing something active such as a walk or run and then come back for another couple of hours. I normally have some breakthroughs while doing the physical activity.
4. Find a good environment. Writing in cafes helps with my focus. This is because of two things. I do like the background ambient noise but there is something about knowing you only have a certain amount of time unless you want to keep buying coffees. I also like long haul flights. The lack of distractions and no WIFI are great for getting stuck into my writing. As I fly business class, I have a lot of space to spread out and enjoy the inflight food, water and wine service. With wine I sometimes play a game that I need to write a certain number of words before I take another sip. I loosely embrace the ‘write drunk, edit sober’ philosophy, which is most commonly (but incorrectly) attributed to Ernest Hemingway… not that I get drunk on planes.

And nothing works better than a deadline. It’s a significant motivation for getting focused!😬

What are some of your creativity/productivity/focus hacks?

P.S.

There is still some time if you want to submit a story for my book. I am wanting to showcase a variety of stories that people have used in different scenarios both personally and professional. If you have shared a story to good effect then why don’t you submit it? If yours is selected I will gift you a signed copy of my book. I have extended the deadline to 28th March and here is the link to submit your story.

P.P.S

You can still vote for my two SXSW Conference submissions. Direct links below:

Story Intelligence

Keeping it Real with Jac and Ral live podcast