I was working on some 9-slice generic game UI, just for fun, all while getting fed up.
Clogging Your Drive
Figure out what is clogging your drive. To me it is the shed. If the shed is a mess, I can’t get anything started. Step one to anything is to clear out the shed.
The shed gets clogged during the short, dark days of winter. It’s like I spend the dark building a dam over a creek. As light returns I notice the flooding, and I must try to muster the energy to break through the clutter dam.
Then, one day — after weeks of procrastination — I pile all the junk on the trailer, and the energy flows freely again. I can literally feel how I get renewed energy to do something. To make something.
What is clogging your drive? What are the things that tap your energy when left to decay?
Do Creative Process Like a Satellite
Imagine you are like a satellite orbiting the Earth. Every time you pass over your home, you do the work for as long as your home is in sight.
The creative process can make you feel anxious, exposed and vulnerable. And you may not notice it. Maybe you procrastinate. Or you shy away from process. Maybe you do so, to protect yourself from exposure, from being looked at and judged, by yourself or others.
It can be very difficult to see why you are cautious to enter the creative space. Don’t worry too much about why.
But change your process.
Try not to push yourself to work too hard. Instead try to set limits to the time you stay in the creative process — the vulnerable space.
There, your home is coming into sight. Work a quick pass. Then, relax, until next time you pass again. Keep in motion, but move away from the work.
Do quick passes. In and out. Continuous motion.