Many content creators struggle to maintain their focus when they are first starting out. Sometimes, that struggle continues even after they have been creating for years. One of the biggest reasons is the day job.
Let’s be honest: many of us would prefer to create content for a living and leave the day job behind. Being able to devote ourselves entirely to our creative work would be a dream come true. However, until that dream becomes financially possible, we still have to work the dreaded day job while continuing our creative pursuits during our free time.
That can make maintaining focus extremely difficult.
After working all day, you may fully intend to start creating as soon as you get home. However, you decide that you need a little time to decompress first. What was supposed to be a brief period of relaxation becomes two or three hours. Before you know it, most of the evening is gone.
It is understandable. You just completed a full day of work. Much of that work may feel meaningless to you because it is not what you believe you were truly meant to do. You come home carrying physical exhaustion, mental exhaustion, or both. That makes it difficult to pivot immediately into creator mode.
The problem becomes even worse when the job is stressful. You may bring home the worries, frustrations, and anger that accumulated throughout the day. You might also find yourself thinking about everything waiting for you when you return to work the following morning. The dread of another workday becomes yet another distraction.
Your body may have left the workplace, but your mind is still there.
I developed a way of dealing with this problem. While I am at work, I often think about my creative projects. Whenever an idea comes to me that I do not want to forget, I immediately enter it into the notepad app on my phone. By recording the idea, I know it will be waiting for me when I am ready to use it.
Sometimes, I create an entire to-do list while I am at work. I do not merely list the things I could work on. I arrange them according to priority, with the most important tasks at the top. I may spend a good part of the workday thinking about the list, deciding what needs to be done first and determining what I realistically want to accomplish that evening.
That completely flips the script.
Instead of spending my free mental energy thinking about the job, I use it to think about my creative work. Instead of carrying the day job home with me, I carry home a prioritized plan and the ideas I developed throughout the day.
Some people wait until they get home before attempting to enter what they call “the zone”—the frame of mind they need to become focused and productive. I don’t. I try to come home already in the zone.
By the time I walk through the door, I frequently know exactly what I intend to do. I have already chosen the project, identified the most important tasks, thought through some of the ideas, and mentally prepared myself to begin. I do not have to waste the evening deciding what to work on or searching for inspiration.
I have already made those decisions.
This does not eliminate exhaustion, and it does not make every workday easy. However, it gives creative focus a fighting chance. It also prevents the negative aspects of the job from occupying all the mental space I need for my real work.
A day job may control many hours of your day, but it does not have to control your thoughts after you leave. Use whatever mental space you can find to collect ideas, build your to-do list, establish your priorities, and maintain your connection to your creative purpose.
Do not wait until you get home to become a creator again.
Start entering creator mode before the workday ends—and arrive home ready to create.
Bob Craypoe
Founder of Craypoe Productions®
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