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It's a simple solution that can be hard to commit to.

Limitations, at first, seem counterintuitive to creativity.

The belief that if you limit yourself, you limit your artistic output is misguided. It doesn’t take into account the numerous creativity breakthroughs that were a direct result of constraints set upon the creative.

Without limitations, the creative wonders. The creative navel gazes and overthinks, unable to pick up her tool of choice and just create.

If you are having trouble creating, perhaps there is an issue of not limiting yourself enough. Perhaps you need to set constraints on your creative work so you can just sit down and create.

And the one limitation to start with is setting a deadline.

Setting Deadlines

By far the biggest constraint that demands you work on your craft is a deadline.

Time is an asset everyone has to some extent and everyone wastes, especially in an age where your attention is being hacked by algorithms. There is a reason why all social media apps that don’t charge you a damn thing to use their platform want your time. Your time is valuable.

As a creative, you need to treat it as such, especially if you want to finish your projects and hone your skills in whatever creative endeavor you have a passion in.

Start with setting deadlines.

I know, I know. Sounds simple. But when you set deadlines for your creative work you place a pressure on yourself to get shit done. People know this but don’t do it. Hell, I struggle with this! It sounds easy, but it’s hard when you have other factors in your life that demand your time and attention.

Yet placing a constraint on your time reveals if something matters to you.

It forces you to either get the work done or reconsider if it even mattered to you in the first place.

It’s a harsh truth you must contend with.

My pursuit of becoming a master of many, a polymath, a renaissance woman, demands that I set deadlines and either meet those deadlines, or have a conversation with myself on why I couldn’t meet the deadline.

It’s a sobering conversation that allows me to figure out what matters to me and why.

So start with one project, just one, and commit to it by writing down somewhere, anywhere, when you will complete that project. Then, do everything in your power to meet the deadline you set for yourself.

By the time the deadlines comes around, ask yourself the following questions:

1. Did I meet my deadline?
2. How did I meet my deadline, or Why didn’t I meet my deadline?
3. How do I feel about the process?

Your answers should be the start of reflecting on your creative process.

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