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How do you continue to be creative over long periods and at speed?
As well as having a full-time job that keeps me pretty busy, I've recently become a creator, a maker of products, and a co-founder of a SAAS company.
People ask me how I continue to ship creative work at such pace.
I Look For Patterns. Noticing how I work, thinking about it, asking others how they work. This forms the basis for my frameworks, templates & checklists. Without noticing the patterns all you will do is blindly following other people's systems - and that's a guarantee that it won't stick.
I Work In Frameworks. Once I understand the patterns I can work the frameworks. For instance, all my essays start with Nicolas Cole's 1-3-1 framework. 1 line opener. 3 line explainer and one line wrap up. I don't ever think about how to start an essay, I just use the framework.
I Build Templates. Our memories are shocking, so I build templates that guide me through the processes. My ship30 template starts with a brain dump section, then I can dive into my notes database to grab research, next I craft my final essay and then I go through my publishing checklist. If I follow the template I can ship pretty quickly.
I Create Checklists. Checklists mean I don't forget anything and I'm not fumbling around searching for the link to my template, or that word count website. Checklists are highly underrated in my opinion, I don't know why more people don't rely on them.
If you want to ship creative work fast then don't try and recreate the wheel every day. Create it once, and then ship it over and over again in different colours and with different materials.
