A vital part of becoming a more creative person is incorporating creativity into your daily routine. If writing, photography, or other creative projects are just a weekend hobby, or worse, a once-in-a-blue-moon chance to do something for yourself, you probably won’t be satisfied with your efforts. When creativity isn’t a regular habit, it’s much more difficult to get started, stick with it, and produce something of which you can be proud. By making creativity a daily effort, you can build skill and gain confidence.Consistency is the key when trying to develop a habit for creativity or any other worthy goal. When I’m creating frequently, every day if possible, I’m more likely to continue because my subconscious is still working on the ideas from my last session. Also, I’m more eager to pick up where I left off, especially if I have a fresh memory of the work going well. But if I stop working on my novel for more than a few days, I find that I need to read back further to remember what comes next. If I left it just the day before, though, my mind is still working on the storyline, and I get much more accomplished.

The same principle applies to most of my other creative projects. Whenever I’ve gone too long without working on jewelry, it takes me a little while to remember the trick of bending the wire just so to make a clasp, or the most comfortable way to hold my pliers. When I’m away from my workspace, or let it get so cluttered I can’t use it, I even forget where various tools and materials are stored. It’s easy to procrastinate when this happens; I feel like I have to clean and organize before beginning. But if yesterday’s project is ready and waiting, I pick up where I left off, and the time passes quickly and productively.

Most proponents of habit forming recommend sticking to a daily routine. This can be an excellent strategy, but I often find I just can’t do it. I skip a day, because of laziness or some conflict, then two days, then I don’t remember when I last wrote or picked up my pliers. I get discouraged and think, I’ll never form the habit I want, so why try?

I realized recently that what I need is a visual way of tracking how well I’m implementing my habit. To the right is my calendar for August. I’m working on three habits at the moment, some of which I’ve been pursuing off and on for quite a while. The flowers are for days that I wrote, and the stars for days I exercised (not many of those, I know). I’m also, as of September 1, using smiley faces to represent getting up by 6 in the morning. This visual method of tracking my habits lets me know when I’ve gone a few days without practicing my habit, even if I’m too busy to have noticed. This way, if I miss a day, I don’t feel like I’ve ruined the streak and have to start over. I just pick up the habit again when I next have the opportunity.

This method works for me because the calendar is right by my computer desk, and because stickers are fun. If you don’t think stickers on a calendar will work for you, but you want to try a visual methods of tracking your habits, look into free online goal-tracker Joe’s goals.

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