8 Pieces of Creative Advice I Keep Coming Back To

A curated collection of creativity tips that has stayed with me, shaped the way I think, and influenced how I approach the work of creating.

Over the years, I’ve collected a handful of creative ideas that have genuinely changed the way I work. This blog shares some of my favourites. From creative icons to Silicon Valley heavyweights, they are the reminders I return to whenever I need a little more motivation to keep going, keep consistent or to develop a creative edge.

For when you’re wondering why you should create?…

1. Work On, Not In

This may not seem like an obvious pick for creative advice, but its premise is highly relevant to all creators.

In the iconic The EMyth Revisited, Michael E. Gerber proposes that everyone in business is three people in one: 

• The Entrepreneur: A future-focused visionary

• The Manager: A past-oriented pragmatist 

• The Technician: A present-focused doer

The problem occurs when The Technician in you hijacks your days. 

Perhaps the biggest takeaway from the book is to work on your business, not in it. Like McDonald’s, Ray Kroc highlights: develop entire systems. Remember, you don’t rise to your goals; you fall to your systems:

“It’s not the commodity or the work itself that is important. What’s important is the business: how it looks, how it acts, how it does what it is intended to do.”

Whether you have ways to monetise your creativity or not, for me, this is a valuable reminder to work on the business of brand You. Work on building leverage in a system as opposed to simply working in your role. 

2. If You Can’t Code, Create 

Speaking of leverage, this was one of my top takeaways from the book The Almanack of Naval Ravikant by Eric Jorgenson. 

The Silicon Valley icon posits that the world is no longer about rich and poor or blue-collar versus white-collar. But rather leverage versus un-leveraged. He says: 

“Code and media are permissionless leverage. They’re the leverage behind the newly rich. You can create software and media that works for you while you sleep… If you can’t code, write books and blogs, record videos and podcasts.”

Like many, I imagine, I find myself wondering if tech is the only safe career path in the future. For those of us who can’t code or aren’t tech geniuses, creating content is a way to leverage the opportunities in tech and media, without having to be the one who created the platform.

For keeping consistent…

3. ‘Create Before You Consume’ 

This is the mantra of Marie Forleo as she highlights in her book Everything is Figureoutable. It’s a way to curb your media consumption and leverage the opportunities media and social media can provide, without being merely exploited by them.

For me, this reminds me of the common reference that there are three types of people on social media: 

• The Leaders

• The Consumers

• The Lurkers

Whenever I feel a tinge of cringe about posting on social media, I’m reminded that I’d rather be the one creating and leading than simply The Consumer or, worse, The Lurker. 

So many talented professionals excel in leadership in their careers - interpreting observations, offering their unique point of view, setting the trend and setting the tone. Yet, they fail to bring this leadership spirit into the digital world - where the wider industry lives at their fingertips. 

I have intentionally designed my days with the ‘create before I consume’ mantra in mind. I always schedule my creative work early in the morning as the first task I tackle. It’s a way to pay myself first, while also tapping into my fresh perspectives and creativity.

4. Become a Chain Smoker 

In the book Show Your Work, Austin Kleon shares what has become one of my favourite pieces of creative advice. Be a ‘chain smoker’. It’s his mindset to never lose momentum. Once you’ve ticked one box, move immediately on to keep the chain going. It’s an idea inspired by Jerry Seinfeld. 

When an aspiring comedian sought out Seinfeld for advice, Seinfeld said that the way to be a better comic was to create better jokes, and the way to create better jokes was to write every day. Seinfeld suggested using a big wall calendar with the whole year on one page. He said to take a big, red marker and, for every day you write, put an X over that day. As the chain grows, you’ll like seeing it. Your job is not to break the chain.

For more than three years now, I’ve never missed a Monday email releasing my latest content. What started as sharing my blog, I now consistently share my latest YouTube video and podcast episode too. And since last year, I’ve consistently shared two new topics each week. Every week, every Monday and Thursday. While I do plan to take time off when travelling and on holidays in the future, I otherwise plan to stick to this schedule. And it’s not always because each piece is my best idea yet. It’s because I’m committed to showing up - on schedule.

5. Ship Creative Work…Because it’s Wednesday

Don’t sit on your ideas or hoard your drafts - Ship Creative Work. It’s a mantra that marketing guru Seth Godin highlights in his book The Practice: 

• Ship - because it doesn’t count if you don’t share it.

• Creative - because you’re not a cog in a system; you’re a creator, a problem solver and a generous leader.

• Work - because whether or not you’re paid for it, pursue it like a professional.

With the continuous cycle of creating and shipping, resistance and fear become disempowered. 

Instead of aiming to create a masterpiece, focus on the smallest unit of your genius. You don’t need to create a viral post. You just need one post and then another. The goal isn’t perfection; it’s consistency. Godin proposed worrying less about the overhyped idea of an authentic voice and more about a consistent one. 

Godin has explained that he made the decision once to publish consistently, so he doesn’t have to renegotiate that decision every day. In one interview, in discussing his blog he said, “It’s not going to be there because it’s the best blog post I ever wrote. It’s going to be there because it’s Wednesday.”

Despite having a constantly evolving list of content ideas in the Notes app on my phone, sometimes, when I open my laptop to write my next blog, I don’t know what it will be about. But I do know it will get done, because I’ve committed to the practice of completing it at that time.  Then roughly an hour later, I’m usually amazed that I’ve created something that didn’t exist just an hour earlier. 

6. The 1 Hour Rule

One hour can be all it takes, as I shared in an earlier blog, The 1-Hour Rule: How One Hour a Day Can Transform Your Future. The maths of creative crusader Steven Pressfield has always amazed me. In his book, the go-to for creatives, Put Your Ass Where Your Heart Wants to Be, Pressfield highlights that:

• Just 1 hour a day becomes

• 7 hours a week, which is 

• approximately 30 hours a month

• 365 hours a year is the equivalent of

• approximately nine 40-hour work weeks 

It’s this commitment that helps you overcome Resistance - the enemy of creativity. 

Whenever I feel like I don’t have time to create, I remind myself of the power of one hour a day. You don’t need to join a writing retreat or take months off work to create. Just try to make time for an hour a day. If you can’t manage an hour, find whatever works best for you. But extrapolate the maths to understand the impacts those small efforts can have over time. 

7. Morning Pages & Artist Dates

It wouldn’t be a blog on creativity without a reference to Julia Cameron’s revered book The Artist’s Way.

As I shared in my earlier blog, How to Build Creative Confidence (5 Ideas That Changed the Way I Create), Morning Pages has become one of my favourite daily rituals in the last couple of years. The practice invites you to freely write three pages of flowing handwritten thoughts every morning. Morning Pages is designed to help you subconsciously unlock your creativity over time and, importantly, overcome The Censor - the logical brain. The survival brain is fighting to keep you supposedly “safe”, while trapping you in limiting ideas and beliefs. 

The second tool for creativity that Cameron advocates for is an Artist Date - a regular, likely weekly time in your schedule to explore your creativity with a childlike sense of curiosity and creative confidence. You’re making scheduled time to spend with yourself, visiting inspiring places or exploring creative pursuits.

For finding your creative edge…

8. Understanding Your Unfair Advantage

When you feel like you have nothing unique to offer an audience, think again. 

In The Unfair Advantage, Ash Ali and Hasan Kubba propose that you already have the competitive edge you need to succeed in the marketplace. The key is understanding and leveraging it. 

The authors present their ‘MILES’ framework. This proposes that your unfair advantage can be made up by any of the following dimensions, which they break down in detail: 

• Money 

• Intelligence and insight

• Location and luck

• Education and expertise

• Status 

What makes you unique is your competitive advantage. And the equivalent of what Warren Buffett would call your ‘moat’:

“Your Unfair Advantages can’t easily be copied or bought. Your set of Unfair Advantages is unique to you.”

For most professionals, your Unfair Advantage when creating likely lies in your intelligence and insight, as well as your education and expertise. It’s the insider knowledge you bring from your experience. But don’t underestimate the power of your location either. You could be a small fish in a big pond, or you can capitalise on your hometown being the Mecca of something of interest to the wider world. 

Creating Consistently

Creativity isn’t something you either have or don’t. It’s a practice - and these ideas have reminded me that showing up, doing the work and staying curious can take you further than waiting for inspiration ever will.