Eamon WritesEamon Writes

By Eamon Storer

Creativity

The Complete Guide to Writing Gamification

By Eamon on

It’s no secret that being a writer is hard. It’s long hours, not much recognition, and it’s very lonely.

But I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Writing is also greatly fulfilling, satisfying, and just plain old good fun.

I’ve adopted this view of writing through the act of gamifying my writing, which is a not so gracious term of using the same dopamine pathways used when you scroll endlesslley on social media or play video-games.

Gamifying (Game-If-eye-ing) is an incredably effective way to drastically increase motivation and efficiency when it comes to writing.

The problem with getting hooked on writing is often the feedback loop or time it takes to get comments on your writing is so long that the dopamine you get from the results of writing are distant and infrequent.

The process of gamification uses rewards and challenges to spark the motivated part of your brain and is an excellent way to not only start your writing journey (this is me) but also for veterans of the writing trade (not me).

Understanding Gamification

In terms of writing Gamification is the act of implementing stuff from video games into your writing routine.

Key aspects of video games we will be taking advantage of are;

  • Objectives
  • Points and Reward Systems
  • Progress Tracking
  • Challenges and Quests
  • Competition
  • Motivation to Keep Coming Back

Doesn’t that sound exciting!?

Well, it definitely does for me.

Now, let’s discuss the benefits of applying gamification to our writing process.

In essence, we want to capture the addictive nature of video games, the part that makes you keep coming back again and again, just because it’s fun.

You don’t have an agenda when playing video games, not often you get in the mood to be apart of a special operations unit and shoot people you don’t know (or at least I don’t).

It’s not the game itself that is addictive, it’s the way it makes you feel.

That’s all we’re trying to do here. To capture those addictive emotions. Gamification is the PERFECT way to do this.

Setting Clear Goals

The first part of video games we are going to use is that there is always a goal or an endpoint, wether it’s getting strong enough to beat the final boss, or just by the grace of God somehow finish the game (I’m looking at you CupHead).

Therefore, we need goals, we need endpoints. We need specific writing goals.

This is so important as all of your motivation for sitting down to write everyday comes from your persistence in achieving the end product.

I’ve actually recently discussed making goals that actually motivate you, but the gist of it is that you find your goal from what you want to have achieved or own 10 years from now.

Creating Goals That ACTUALLY Motivate You as a Creative

Defining what you want in 10 years from now allows you to work backwards from experiecning what you achieved before you’ve worked for it.

An example I used in the post was that 10 years from now I want to have published 5 novels that I am proud of. This objective allows me to work backwards and find my goal is;

Publish 5 books in the next 10 years (1 book every 2 years) I’m proud of

Be Specific

There is a probelm with this goal. It’s not specific enough. Your goals have to be as specific as possible.

To make my goal more specific it would look something like this;

I will publish a horror novel of 100,000 words every 2 years that I am proud of because I worked my hardest on each book

This is rather long winded and clunky but it gets the gist of the idea across.

Specficity is KEY.

This is because now our next step is that we break down this big ol goal into smaller achievable milestones, what I call fragment goals.

Additionally you want to build a deadline into your fragment goals

Smaller achievable tasks for my goal of writing a novel every 2 years is;

Write 1000 words everyday on a novel

This is still a hefty goal but is much more achievable and has a deadline built into it.

By this point you will have at least 1 long-term goal and at least 1 fragment goal, these goals are going to be the basis by which our ‘video game’ of writing will reward us.

Gamification Points and Reward Systems

Now we want to create a system that rewards us for making progress on our long-term goal, which in essence will reward us for reaching a fragment goal.

Your system needs to work for you, in this way I can’t assign you a reward system but I can give you characteristics that you should look for and of course share my own system with you as well.

First of those an effective reward system needs to have 4 characteristics;

  1. The reward must be consistently appliedd
  2. The reward MUST be enjoyable
  3. Rewards must be given for achieving a fragment goal
  4. You should be able to ‘cash in’ your rewards for greater rewards

These 4 characterstics of your reward system will lead to peak motivation on a daily basis.

Personally, I’ve named my reward system The Bottle Cap Economy. The Bottle Cap Economy is where I am rewarded for achieving tasks by adding a bottle cap into a tally jar. At the end of the month I can cash in my bottle caps for actual dollars that I spend on something for myself as a proper reward.

This system allows me to constantly be rewarded for little advances towards my ultimate goals.

You can steal my system or can create your own, although I emplore you to make up your own as it will work for your personal motivations and the. way your brain works.

The Ultimate Productivity Motivation System – The Bottle Cap Economy –

If you were to just implement an ultimate goal/ fragment goals with a Points and Reward System you would quickly be able to see the benefits of Gamification on your motivation and productivity.

But alas, we keep moving.

Progress Tracking

Video games do a great job of constantly letting you know how far off you are from your final goal and more importantly the extent to which you have progressed at the end of a session compared to the last session.

We’re going to yoink this concept because personally, being able to see your progress towards your goals is deeply motivating.

So what you want to do is set up either a page in your notebook or calendar where you highlight each day you achieve specific goals, be sure to keep this progress sheet at somewhere you can constantly refer to it.

Another progress tracking method is setting up a Notion page with a bar tracker for the mount of time you achieve a goal.

Notion is a perfect app for gamification of your writing, if you don’t have Notion, be sure to download it, watch a couple of tutorials on YouTube and create your own aesthetic habbit tracker pages.

Great things for writers to have a daily tracker for would be word count, hours spent writing, and number of writing sessions a week.

A very important part of this process is that there needs to be rewards at predesignated milestones. Just like a game will reward you with a new sword if you play enough hours, you want to reward yourself every time you hit a milestone.

A milestone can be anyhting from having a writing session every day for a walk or spending 15 hours in a week writing.

Progress tracking is a great way to get a feeling of progression with your writing so be sure to set up a habit tracker and constanly refer to it.

Writing Challenges and Quests

Constantly fighting against yourself will eventually get boring, you will get stagnant. That’s where adding challenges to your writing can spice up your routine and drastically increase motivation.

A great way to do this is to take part in writing challenges. Just as games like The Legend of Zelda has a TON of sidequests you can do to just get a bit beefier, writing challenges are the challenge that actually makes you a better writer for just taking part.

The most popular writing challenge I can think of is NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) where you write a novel in a MONTH! It’s absolutely insane but quite an interesting challenge for especially newer writers.

You can also synthetically create quests for yourself to do to beef up your abilities. The best example of this I can think of is using a prompt when writing or specific restrictions like you will only write sentences that end with a rhyming word.

Another challenge you can create is one with a community. If you have any community that is willing to become better writers than setting a challenge as a group is an excellent method of shaking your routine up a bit.

Use quests and challenges to shake you up a bit, but also make you better.

Incorporating Competition

One of the best ways to become motivated daily to write your best work is if you are fighting against an ally.

If you have a challenge set for your writing group, and you are a somewhat competitive indivdual you WILL push to get stuff done because you want to beat those lazy sods call themselves writers.

Records are the best. If you set a record with yourself and/or your friends that will ALWAYS be a means of motivation as you’ll constantly be trying to beat your record as well as your friends.

So just do it, join online writing challenges or competitions. Your skills will thank you.

Gamification Writing Tools and Apps

We are in the technology age so we might as well use it.

There are TONS of writing tools that allow you to easily gamify your writing. Here’s a couple;

Write or Die

  1. Write or Die is a unique application that enforces writing discipline through positive and negative reinforcement.
  2. Features: a. Consequence Mode: Imposes consequences for not meeting writing goals, fostering a sense of urgency. b. Reward Mode: Offers rewards for achieving writing targets, motivating writers with positive reinforcement.
  3. Benefits: Enhances productivity by creating a playful yet structured writing environment.

Forest

  1. Overview: Forest encourages focused writing sessions by growing a virtual tree during a designated writing period.
  2. Features: a. Tree Growth: The tree grows while you write, but if you exit the app, the tree withers. b. Pomodoro Timer: Incorporates the Pomodoro Technique to break writing sessions into focused intervals.
  3. Benefits: Promotes writing consistency and concentration through the visual metaphor of a growing forest.

These apps are great, there are plenty of other apps just like them, just try them out and see which ones work and which ones don’t.

Technology is your friend when gamifying your writing, don’t be afraid to experiment

Overcoming Writer’s Block With Gamification

Writer’s block is something that effects EVERYONE no matter who you are, at some point in your writing life you WILL get stuck.

Luckily, gamification has anti-writer’s block code built right into the system.

Sometimes its easy to lose sight of why you started writing in the first place, this is where the long-term goals you created are imperative. You will be able to point at that goal and say, “That, that’s why I do it”, and this simple act will likely lead to endless motivation.

Remember that writing should be FUN. You shouldn’t feel obliged to write you should be urged to write. Of course its fine if you’re not but just reflect on why you started this juorney in the first place, and just don’t be too serious.

Another way gamification combats writer’s block is the use of challenges allows for fresh persceptives on your writing and by itself is a great method of avoiding writer’s block.

Using writing promts or restrctions allows you to be unrestricted with your creativity, this is where the term “Discipline = Freedom” comes from.

Similar to gaming there are other things than the blank page. The beuty of video games is that they’ll always be there, so will your writing.

Taking a break from writing is as fine as taking breaks between gaming sessions. Sometimes you get exhausted. And that’s fine.

Taking breaks is not a sign of weakness but is a valuable method of refreshing your creative spirit.

Luckily, all of these protective factors to writer’s block are fundamenttally apart of gamification and you will reap the benefits from simply having this sort of system.

Overcoming Writing Block: Strategies to Reignite your Creativity

Conclusion

As we conclude our exploration into gamifying the writing experience, it becomes evident that incorporating game-like elements can transform writing from a daunting task into a captivating endeavor.

The benefits are multifold, ranging from heightened productivity and goal achievement to a renewed sense of inspiration and enjoyment.

In essence, the marriage of writing and gamification creates an environment where every word written is a step forward in an epic journey.

It transforms the writing routine into a series of quests, challenges, and rewards, making the process not just productive but also enjoyable.

As you embark on your own gamified writing adventure, remember that the ultimate goal is to find joy and fulfillment in the act of creation.

Experiment with different strategies, personalize your approach, and celebrate every milestone along the way.

By infusing your writing journey with the spirit of gamification, you not only enhance your productivity but also rediscover the magic and wonder that drew you to writing in the first place.

May your words flow effortlessly, and may your writing adventure be filled with triumphs and discoveries. Happy writing!

If you enjoyed this post then you’ll love this one about creating goals that ACTUALLY motivate you;

Creating Goals That ACTUALLY Motivate You as a Creative

Leave a Reply

Creating Goals That ACTUALLY Motivate You as a Creative

By Eamon on

Goals are so important in every part of your life. If you don’t have a goal it’s the same as shooting an arrow blindfolded and trying to hit a target.

It’s just not gonna happen.

The bottom line is if you don’t have goals you don’t have direction.

If you don’t have direction who knows where you’ll end up.

This aimlessness IS avoidable

Your life is too important to be spent doing things you don’t want to do for results you don’t even want to end up living a life given to you.

Luckily, creating and setting goals for yourself is not a difficult process, however, there are definitely nuts and bolts of goals that can affect how motivated you are by those goals.

So, I have compiled three major points for creating motivational goals for you as a creative.

Tip 1. Define Your Aspirations

The very core of creating goals that are meaningful for you is that they are completely lucid with your dreams and aspirations.

In order to create a motivational goal you NEED to understand what you dream about happening with your future.

So your first step is write down EXACTLY what you want to happen in your life. If it’s not written down it’s nothing.

Do Now

Do it right now, find a bit of paper or a blank document at the top of the page and write;

“In 10 years from now, what will my life look like?”

Just write everything down you dream would happen.

For example, something I wrote is that I will have published 5 novels that I’m proud of.

This question of the 10 years from now question is from David Schwart’s Excellent book The Magic of Thinking Big

This exercise has shown you exactly what you want to happen in the far future. This is known as your long-term goal.

Now to reach your long-term goals you need to work towards that goal every. Single. Day. This is done through short-term goals.

Short-term goals are things that you want to achieve in the near future, such as I wrote words for my novel every day this week. These goals are supplementary to your long-term goals and are often the steps you take to get to the best success.

Now I want you to pick one of the things you wrote would happen 10 years from now, and consider;

“What would you have to do every day/ week to achieve this goal?”

For my goal of having completed 5 novels in that time, I would have to consitently write about 500-1000 words a day for the next 10 years.

It is important however that your short-term goals are HIGHLY SPECIFIC if you want to hit them consistently. Your long-term goals can be abit broader but specificity will always result in a more concise intention.

For example, if I want to make my short-term goal of writing everyday more specific it would be somethinglike;

“I will write 1000 words between 4pm and 7pm at my desk for the next week”

Keeping this goal consistent for each week allows for massive progress over minimal stakes.

Tip 2. Find Your Motivation

If we are to make these goals motivating for you, we need to understand what are your motivations for achieving this goal.

In their essence goals are intimately linked with your intrinsic passion for a concept. This is important as more often than not, your motivation for some result is because it’s something you can point at and say I did that thing and I loved doing it.

So ask yourself;

“what are/is the reason/s for wanting to achieve this goal?”

For example, for my goal of publishing 5 novels in 10 years, I want to achieve this because a novel (for me) is a clear indicator of discipline, motivation and passion, and I think being able to publish 1 novel alone is a great achievement of grit and perseverence, which is what I’m all about.

If you understand why you want to get a result then you can make sure you are constantly reminded of why you are putting in the hard work.

It’s all to easy to put in so much work for something and forget why you started doing it in the first place. Understanding your motivations will allow us to negate that situation from ever happening.

This step is important before going to the next and final step. Personal motivations are going to be a critical energy source for sustaining your commitment to the goal over extended periods of time.

Tip 3. Cultivate Consistency

It is critical that you develop a consistent and realistic routine to achieve your short-term goals consistently as well as eventually reaching your long-term goals.

You need a system or a habit that gets you to have repeated acts of progression towards your goals otherwise you can get stagnant, not moving anywhere.

There are lots of factors that effect the creation of a sustinable schedule that works for you. I have made a post that talks about creating a creative routine but I will summarise the main points, although I do reccomend you read the post as well.

3 Simple Steps to Build A Writing Routine For Maximum Productivity

In making a creative routine it needs to be based on your passion and motivation for your creations

Progress is the goal. Your routine wont and doesn’t need to be perfect the goal is just to get progress not perfection.

Regularly adapt and change your routine as needed.

Routine is the means by which you can create order from the chaos of your daily life. It creates a sacred time of the day seperate from this chaos forming balance between your aspirations and daily commitments.

So, if you want to be regularly motivated to achieve your goal you just need to see yourself making progress, and a daily routine is perfect for that.

Conclusion

Congratulations! By this point you have at least one long-term goal backed by some short-term goals that motivate you to achieve what you set your mind too, the tips I discussed are;

  1. You need to define your aspirations to truly find a motivating goal
  2. Motivation is key to consistency and progress
  3. Routine is essential to regularly achieve this progression towards your dreams

However, do recognise that these tips are adaptable and can evolve with your creative journey.

If you have any experiences or insights of effective goal setting don’t be afraid to share it in the comments.

Thanks for Reading and Goodluck Creating 🙂

Hope you enjoyed this post, if you did you’ll enjoy this post about creating a distraction-free writing space to boost your productivity;

Creating a Distraction-Free Writing Space: Boosting Focus and Productivity

Thanks for your support, happy writing

Leave a Reply

3 Easy Ways to Come Up With New Ideas

By Eamon on

Generating ideas doesn’t have to involve a painstaking brainstorming session; it can actually occur quite organically.

Since I’ve started writing I have found a few things that reliably allow me to come up with all sorts of ideas.

3 of the easiest and most reliable follow;

Tip 1. Do something different

Our brains easily fall into the patterns of daily life: driving the same way to work, talking to the same people, and doing the same things every day.

No wonder you can’t think of anything new!

You’re not doing anything new!

I’ve found it so valuable to do things I otherwise wouldn’t, for instance, I use my daily walk as an idea-generating machine. I’ve found my best ideas come when I reverse the track that I walk or stop at a spot I otherwise wouldn’t.

By the way here’s a post about why you should walk every day as a creative;

3 Reasons Why You Should Go for a Walk Everyday as a Writer

Changing your scenery forces your brain to become more active, and more involved.

Luckily for us creatives, the very design of our brain highlights things we like and take inspiration from them.

Our brain is always working in the background.

So when you jolt your brain with a change in your daily routine, it becomes more active and more creative, generating more ideas.

Tip 2. Experience Boredom

I’m a BIG proponent of willful boredom.

If I have nothing to do quite often I will just sit by my bedroom window and stare out at the scenery.

After a while, this becomes extremely boring.

That’s what we want!

When boredom strikes a creative individual, the creative part of the brain lights up, prompting thoughts like, “Hey, I could do something with this concept,” reigniting motivation.

Try it out; be bored for 10 minutes and do nothing.

I bet you will come out of that 10 minutes with some sort of direction of what you want to create next.

Tip 3. Mix Stuff Up

The best ideas often emerge when combining two entirely different things in a unique way.

I love lots of things so being active in mixing genres concepts or environments breeds creative ideas.

I’ve trained myself to see a workable idea through a drawing inspiration technique I do.

I really enjoy creature design.

So when I want to come up with some new funky creature design I will get a random animal generator, and get it to spit out 2 or 3 random animals, that I have to use to create a unique design of a creature for a story I am going to write.

Using this method of slicing different media and information contributed massively to creating many many ideas and creative concepts.

Conclusion

Basically, the way to generate new ideas organically, is to;

  1. Put yourself out of the ordinary everyday
  2. Spend time being bored
  3. Mix your interests

I hope you can apply at least one of these things to your work, so you can create all sorts of wonderfully creative things.

If you enjoyed this post perhaps you will like this one about how to get yourself to write consistently through discipline;

Focus on Discipline NOT Motivation – How To Do What You Love

Thanks for reading. Happy Writing 🙂

Focus on Discipline NOT Motivation – How To Do What You Love

By Eamon on

Motivation is what makes you want to do more whereas Discipline gives you the freedom to do more.

It’s a well-known fact in the self-development space that relying on motivation is iffy at the best of times. Motivation for people is this magical extrinsic force that hits you like a lightning bolt and suddenly you are ready and raring to write your magnum opus.

That’s NOT how motivation works!

Motivation VS Discipline

Motivation is an added bonus of doing the stuff you love, for example, you start writing about an interesting scene that you’ve come up with and suddenly you get all this motivation to create all this lore and you are just propelled through your work.

Therefore, motivation follows action, NOT the other way around.

If we want to be consistently doing our best work we have to find a source that constantly pushes us into action, where then we can be propelled forward by motivation.

This source is discipline.

When you become disciplined you do the hard things you don’t want to do with ease because it is just a part of your identity, that you are the person that does the thing consistently.

Jocko Willink, (Ex-Navy Seal and motivational podcaster) has this interesting concept;

Discipline = Freedom

Jocko Talking About Discipline

The more disciplined you are the more you are free to do the things you love doing because you know that you’re doing the things you have to do.

I find that insight so important when I think about my routines and habit-building.

The key point I want you to understand from this is motivation is a result of action, that was initiated by an external force, being discipline.

How to Use Discipline Rather than Motivation

This is all well and good Eamon, but how can I rely on discipline over motivation?

The first thing you have to understand is the stuff you’ve just read, you have to rely on systems that instill discipline into your life, waiting to be stricken by the gods for motivation.

Secondly, make your system.

I have done this recently with my life. I’ve set out a page in my journal with the question at the top;

“If you could achieve anything in your life, what would you want to achieve?”

Well, I filled out that entire page with about 25 things. For example, some of the things are “I want to have a horror anthology series that I am proud of”, “I want to have confidence in myself” and “I want to become a celebrated writer”.

These are 3 pretty different goals, and that’s fine, you can have as many goals as you like. Then the discipline bit comes in.

Flip the page.

Next Question.

“What are the daily habits that will compound over the long term to help you achieve your goals?”

You now come up with a list of habits that you need to do Every Day to get you closer to your goals.

For example, my habit for creating a horror anthology series is that I need to write 1000 words of fiction a day, to make progress.

Now you have a system. You know that if you’re disciplined enough to do these habits consistently, you will make progress.

Conclusion

I hope you have a better understanding of yourself and how you can instill habits into your daily routine, through discipline to achieve your goals, rather than waiting to be motivated to act.

Motivation is a result of action.

Action is a result of Discipline

Discipline is a result of keen planning.

I hope you enjoyed this post, if you’re wondering how to get a habit into your daily routine, here’s a post about just that;

4 Simple Steps to Creating a Writing Habit – Atomic Habits

Thanks for reading. Happy Writing 🙂

Leave a Reply

Writing and The Art of Not Trying – Wu Wei

By Eamon on

When I understood this concept writing became so much easier!

There is a fascinating philosophy from Taoism that I have implemented when I am writing that has resulted in so much clarity and peace of mind.

The concept is Wu Wei.

What is Wu Wei?

Taoism is an ancient Chinese philosophy that emphasizes the importance of being a part of the flow of the universe, what Taoists refer to as the Tao (pronounced Dow). The Tao Te Ching depicts the teachings of the Tao, as a sort of beginner’s manual to Taoism, written by a fella called Lao Tzu.

Wu Wei is an interesting concept in Taoism, roughly translated to ‘Not Forcing.’ Wu Wei is the means by which the ancient Toaists live their everyday life, by being a part of the flow of things and not forcing anything into being.

The most interesting application of this theory is that the more you chase something the less you will have of it. Initially, this idea makes no sense, but let me explain it to you.

Lao Tzu explains Wu Wei the best in the Tao Te Ching;

The Man of Superior Virtue is not concious of his virtue, and in this way he really possesses virtue.
The man of inferior virtue never loses sight of his virtue, and in this way he loses his virtue.

-Lao Tzu

This means that the more you concentrate on what you don’t have the fact that you don’t have the thing is compounded whereas, if you are not conscious of the thing you want you in fact really possess the thing.

How Does Wu Wei Help My Writing?

The teachings of the Tao Te Ching are so valuable for writers who have a goal in mind for their writing. Such as wanting to be famous, or write a best-selling novel, or writing an amazing movie.

Wu Wei teaches that although it is important to have a direction in mind, we should not be all-encompassed by this goal.

So, to truly attain what you want from life you must not force it into being but rather go about you’re daily life writing because you enjoy it, and if you do what you love day after day, doing something that you don’t force on yourself evidently you will achieve your goals by not relentlessly wishing them into being.

How Can I Use This Concept With My Writing?

The way I think about the theory is that writing should be a thing you love doing, not something that you force yourself to do every day, because if you force yourself to write the more it becomes apparent that you are not as good of a writer as you would hope to be.

I implement this theory through 2 simple steps;

  1. Get clear on the goals that you want to hit with your writing
  2. Consider the daily habits that someone who had achieved that goal would do and do them every day with enjoyment.

In this way, you will be able to achieve your writing goals through the art of not forcing, Wu Wei.

Thanks for reading this post if you liked it check out this one about how to focus when you’re writing;

3 Simple Steps to Laser Focus When Writing

Happy writing 🙂

Leave a Reply

3 Ways to Avoid Procrastination

By Eamon on

I have come to know myself as no stranger to procrastination.

If it isn’t necessary now, I’m not doing it. My quote in my yearbook was “Never put off tomorrow what can easily be done the day after tomorrow”

However, I am into productivity so I have read about actionable ways that you can fight procrastination. Some tips are obvious but they work amazingly.

So here are my three favorite procrastination combat strategies;

Tip 1. Be Bored

Boredom is terrible, in this day and age where dopamine stimulation can be gotten at the click of a button I’ve found it useful to use the pain of boredom to get me to do things that I am procrastinating.

This technique is where I remove all distractions from my space and set a 10-minute timer, I promise myself that in this time I am more than welcome to do nothing but that’s all I can do that or the thing I’m procrastinating.

This technique works so well because you can stare out the window, or spin on your chair all you want but eventually the boredom is gonna get ya, and it SUUUUUUCCKS to be bored, so I just do the thing I’m procrastinating.

Tip 1. Use boredom to your advantage

Tip 2. The Power of 3

Upon re-reading James Clear’s Atomic Habits I found this really interesting insight where Clear talks about ‘microhabits’ where you break the habit you want to do down to the bare bones. For example, if you want to adopt an exercise habit a microhabit would be to tie your shoes.

These micro habits allow for progress to be felt when very little has actually been done.

I use this concept in technique 2 which I call the Power of 3.

The Power of 3 is when you break down the difficult thing you procrastinate about into something that takes 3 minutes, that’s it. You just have to do the thing for 3 minutes and you’re done, you can move on.

I’ve found that more often than not that burst of momentum you get after those 3 minutes is enough to keep the ball rolling.

This is how I start hard things and keep working on them over time.

I’ve actually done a whole post about The Power of 3, check it out if you want;

Boost Your Productivity: Master the ‘Power of 3’ Technique

Tip 2. Trick yourself with the Power of 3

Tip 3. Use Dopamine

Dopamine is the happy hormone it’s that little chemical that fires in your brain when you are rewarded, more specifically during the anticipation of a reward.

That’s why it feels so disproportionately good when you have a package on the way versus having the contents of the package.

This is all due to dopamine.

I use this chemical by applying a system I have created called the Bottle Cap Economy.

The Bottle Cap Economy basically is a system that I made where I reward myself with bottle caps as a form of currency which I can spend for stuff that I want at the end of each month as a reward.

The anticipation of being able to add a bottle cap to the tally jar is enough to motivate me to do the stuff I am procrastinating about.

I also recently did a post about this system if you want to check it out in more detail;

The Ultimate Productivity Motivation System – The Bottle Cap Economy –

Tip 3. Dopamine is a cheat code to motivation, use it

In Conclusion . . .

The top 3 procrastination-combating techniques I know of are;

  1. Use boredom to your advantage
  2. Trick yourself with the Power of 3
  3. Dopamine is a cheat code to motivation, use it

I hope you can find use in at least one of these techniques, please let me know if you have any other techniques you use, I would love to hear them.

If you like productivity and being creative, there’s this post about why you should keep a pocket notebook for enhanced creativity;

3 Reasons Why Creative People NEED a Pocket Notebook

Thanks for reading, have a great day 🙂

3 Reasons Why Creative People NEED a Pocket Notebook

By Eamon on

For about 3 years there’s one habit that has been the sole reason for the majority of my good ideas, and that has been my pocket notebook.

Everywhere I go I bring a pen and a Moleskine blank pocket notebook (here’s the one I have), I get the little book out whenever I have an interesting thought or a specific observation.

This constant documentation of ideas results in a book filled with writing prompts and ideas to riff off giving me an unlimited database of ideas if I ever get stuck.

In this post, I am going to point out the 3 major reasons you, as a creative person, should carry a pocket notebook with you.

Alright, let’s get started;

Reason 1 – Notebooks allow for Clarity of Mind

Have you ever come up with some interesting idea, that you didn’t write down and later can’t think for the life of you what it was?

This is exactly what my pocket notebook solves. The book lets me write down any interesting thoughts and immediately they are out of my head, with no cognitive strain trying to keep several ideas in their.

The book gives me peace of mind that the thoughts I want to use in the future are safely stored and documented, so I need not waste any mental stress about losing valuable ideas.

Thus, a pocket notebook will give you peace of mind.

Reason 2 – Effective Reflection

My favorite thing to do when coming up with a new monster idea for my creative writing or ideas for blog posts is to pick an idea from my notebook and just riff on it for 10 minutes.

Often, this results in incredible motivation and really creative answers to what, effectively, is a writing prompt.

Using the notebook means I have a system by which I process ideas and can thus systemize my creativity, in a consistent way.

Pocket notebooks are an excellent reflective tool for creativity.

Reason 3 – Great Idea Store

The main thing I love about the notebook is the physicality of it.

The fact that everything I write is in there for good, unless some crazy accident results in combustion. There’s a permanence, a meaningfulness in expressing your ideas on the page.

I really enjoy looking over my past ideas and brainstorms as they also provide me with extra bonus amounts of creativity that spark my motivation.

For instance, here’s a character design for a creature for my first horror short story ‘Totem’;

Thus, a pocket notebook is a great idea storage device

In Conclusion. . .

These are the three main reasons I keep a pocket notebook to aid creativity;

  1. A pocket notebook will give you peace of mind
  2. Pocket notebooks are an excellent reflective tool for creativity
  3. A pocket notebook is a great idea storage device

If you liked this post then you should check out this one about the productivity system I use;

The Ultimate Productivity Motivation System – The Bottle Cap Economy –

Hope you enjoyed it, have a great day 🙂

3 Reasons Why You Should Go for a Walk Everyday as a Writer

By Eamon on

They say ‘success leaves clues’. Those who are successful leave behind little tricks and habits they did that are in common with others of the same successful caliber. One of these ‘clues’ is going for a walk.

For example, many of the greatest minds in history had a daily walking routine. Albert Einstein, when working at Princeton University, walked the mile and a half (2.5 kilometers) distance there and back, Einstein held his walking time in high regard (here’s a BBC article on it)

Similarly, Charles Darwin went for three 45-minute walks. Every. Single. Day.

The biggest question is why?

Why are the greatest thinkers all going on walks outside, specifically in nature?

Well, my friend, I’ve been walking for at least 30 minutes every day for the last month, and I have experienced the benefits of walking firsthand.

So, hopefully, I will convince you to try it too, by showing you the three major benefits I have experienced.

First of All

The three benefits I will be discussing are not physical, meaning it is obvious that walking every day will make you physically better, but that is not in my top 3 benefits of doing this habit.

Similarly, all of these benefits are a result of my personal 4 rules of walking;

  1. You must walk for at least 30 minutes a day
  2. It must be in nature specifically, near a body of water
  3. NO MUSIC/ PODCASTS!
  4. Write down your thoughts at the end of each walk

These 4 rules allow for maximum concentration and contemplation.

Benefit of a Walk 1. Idea Generation

If you are an aspiring writer like myself, I have found no greater source of idea generation than from my daily walks.

I really enjoy writing, these posts but I also really, really enjoy fiction writing. Coming up with interesting creatures and writing short stories about them is extremely fun. I would be willing to bet that about 90% of my short story ideas and post ideas came while walking.

I’m not sure quite what it is about being alone with your thoughts or the rhythmic crunching of rocks under your shoes that puts you into a sort of trance, where you’re observational thoughts are mixed with your creative thoughts which, at least for me, results in a lot of interesting ideas.

So, Benefit 1- Walking generates ideas like nothing else

Benefit of a Walk 2. Creativity

Similar to ideas, creativity is greatly spiked for me when undergoing my walks.

Many times, I am just observing my surroundings, not thinking of anything and I suddenly get an image of an interesting creature based on what I’m seeing.

One day I was walking, as I do, when I noticed on the side of the path a tree stump at about waist level that looked like it had a stern face staring straight at me, and I genuinely felt like I was being watched by the stump.

This experience made me come up with the idea of a small stump, with a head whittled out of the top that would follow an unfortunate individual, and the character would know when it was near when he felt he was being watched.

Now I know that’s not a particularly creative idea but it is just an example of how what you see on your walk will boost your creativity.

Thus, Benefit 2- Walking WILL make you more creative

Benefit of a Walk 3- Concentration

The last benefit that has significantly affected me has had more of an effect on my life when I’m not walking.

I found after a month of walking every day I was able to concentrate for more extended periods of time in my everyday life.

Also, I found I could follow a train of thought with more vividness, rather than foggily reflecting on my thoughts I am able to travel through the thought process, with precision and ease.

I have particularly noticed this effect in areas of my life where I am usually on auto-pilot such as playing video games or eating. My brain seems to be primed to be active even when I’m not consciously trying to concentrate, which has provided countless benefits in my life.

Finally, Benefit 3- Walking increases your ability to concentrate in your personal life

In Conclusion. . .

The three benefits of walking every day I have noticed are;

  1. Walking generates ideas like nothing else
  2. Walking WILL make you more creative
  3. Walking increases your ability to concentrate in your personal life

So I hope you will adopt a daily walking habit to skyrocket your effectiveness as a creative and experience lasting benefits.

Thank you for reading, have a great day 🙂

Unlocking Flow: How to Achieve Creative Productivity

Leave a Reply

Unlocking Flow: How to Achieve Creative Productivity

By Eamon on

What is flow?

Every writer, at some point, has experienced that magical moment when the words flow effortlessly from their fingertips, and time seems to stand still. It’s a state of pure creativity and productivity, a feeling often referred to as “writing flow” or simply “the zone”. In this glorious state, distractions fade into the background, self-doubt dissipates, and you become one with your writing.

Imagine what you could get done when every time you sit down to write you go into this zone?

That’s what I’m here to help you do

Conditions of Flow

Flow has been studied quite a bit, for instance, Steven Kotler, a New York Best Seller and an award-winning journalist whose book, The Art of Impossible delves deep into the features of this mysterious state, outlining the rules and regulations by which you can achieve the extent of your potential.

There is a man though, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi who is known as ‘The Grandfather of Flow’ in the 60s, 70s, and 80s this man really advanced the science of flow.

Csikszentmihalyi ran a gigantic investigation where he asked people all around the world about the times in their life when they felt their best and performed their best. Interstingly, the vast majority described this state where time moves in weird ways, where their concentration is through the roof and they feel they are in the zone.

The Grandfather of Flow talking about it.

In his TED talk titled ‘Flow, the Secret to Happiness’ Csikszentmihalyi shared what it feels like to be in the zone in 7 dot points;

  1. Completely involved in what we are doing – focused concentrated
  2. A sense of ecstasy – of being outside everyday reality
  3. Great inner clarity – knowing what needs to be done, and how well we are doing
  4. Knowing that the activity is doable – that our skills are aquequate to the task
  5. A sense of serenity – no worries about oneself, and a feeling of growing beyond the boundaries of the ego
  6. Timelessness – thoroughly focused on the present, hours seem to pass by in minutes
  7. Intrinsic motivation – whatever produces flow becomes its own reward

Well this is all well and good Eamon, but how do we get into this wonderful state?

Why, I’m so glad you asked!

How To Get Flowy

  1. Flow is found where struggles are around

The golden rule of flow is the flow state is the balance between challenge and skill.

Therefore, to get into the flow state you need to be doing something that is slightly outside of your capabilities, just a little bit too hard. Obviously, you achieve this by doing something that you find difficult in the area you want to be in flow.

For example, if you like to write and want to unlock your concentration, time yourself give yourself 10 minutes to do a certain amount of words that makes you think “Is that even possible?”. No matter if you do it or not the level of concentration you are in will likely trigger a flow state.

2. Distractions are the bane of concentration

It’s pretty self-explanatory if you become distracted it is much more difficult to concentrate on your task so be sure to eliminate distractions such as your phone, the television or any other environmental cues pandering for your attention.

Don’t Multitask!

Multitasking is not actually multitasking it’s switching your attention between two or more things, and all this switching comes at a mental cost. Fatigue. To get into the flow state we want to be awake and alert not fatigued by scrolling Tik Tok or replying to emails, we want to have one task, and one task only.

3. Have fun

One of the best ways to get into the flow state is through curiosity and enjoyment. If you are doing something you love and are genuinely interested in, the dopamine that you get from this activity is enough to trigger your brain into a higher concentrational state.

How I Get Into Flow

I’ve recently got into sudoku as a means to trigger flow. I love sudoku. Every day I use the New York Times free Hard sudoku, as a way to trigger my higher concentration state. The Hard sudoku (as the name infers) is difficult. It’s just on the edge of my cognitive abilities so it makes the perfect task for flow state. When I’m doing the sudoku I make sure to be fully concentrated on it and just have fun. I find this concentration I get through completing the puzzle has a residual effect on the next task I do.

So, I recommend either beginning with the task that you want to achieve flow with, or even find a trigger such as completing a puzzle or playing some tetris. This will likely get you into the flow state to unlock what you’re truly capable of.

In Conclusion

The key takeaways I want to leave you with are;

  1. Engage in a difficult task
  2. Eliminate distractions and don’t multitask
  3. Enjoy yourself
  4. If you struggle getting into flow of your chosen activity, find a flow trigger, like me and sudoku puzzles

Thankyou, for reading this post, have a great rest of your day 🙂

Boost Your Productivity: Master the ‘Power of 3’ Technique
If you like productivity and that sort of thing check out this post about how to start hard things

-Eamon

One response to “Unlocking Flow: How to Achieve Creative Productivity”

  1. 3 Reasons Why You Should Go for a Walk Everyday as a Writer – Eamon Writes
    […] Unlocking Flow: How to Achieve Creative Productivity […]
    Reply

Leave a Reply

What can Mental Illness Teach you about Creativity?

By Eamon on

There seems to be a link between mental illness and creativity, which is interesting. Obviously, theirs the example of one of the most famous artists of all time, who cut his ear off in a mysterious act of self-mutilation but also went on to make many a masterpiece, Vincent Van Gogh.

His painting, The Starry Night, depicts his view from the east-facing window of his asylum just before sunrise. The artwork depicts a sense of calmness, a dark, peaceful feeling, and a plaguing depression. Throughout his life, psychiatric illness plagued Van Gogh. Most experts agree that he lived with psychosis in some form. After cutting off his ear in December of 1888, psychiatric professionals diagnosed Van Gogh with “Acute mania with generalized delirium” and “mental epilepsy.”

Historical Links

Everyone knows about the mad genius, the scientist who, although clinically insane, is incredibly inventive and evidently creative. This idea of the link between creativity and psychopathology dates back to the days of Aristotle, known as antiquity.

Antiquity is the period of cultural history between the 8th century BC and the 5th century AD, mainly centered on the Mediterranean Sea, including ancient Greece and ancient Rome civilizations. Since then, the greatest minds have associated creativity with psychopathology, resulting in the mad genius idea.

Evidence

Since antiquity, this idea has been developed and expanded by various psychiatrists, psychoanalysts, and psychologists. In 2012, a study was published titled Mental Illness, Suicide, and Creativity. The study investigated “i) if creativity is associated with all psychiatric disorders or restricted to those with psychotic features, and ii) to specifically investigate authors about psychopathology.” The study found that by looking at the Swedish population registers, people with creative professions are less likely to suffer from psychiatric disorders than controls. However, being an author was specifically associated with an increased likelihood of mental illness. They also found a link between creative professions and first-degree relatives of patients with mental illness.

How Does the Evidence Apply to You?

This is fascinating. The study depicts that if someone is creative, more likely than not, they have some form of mental illness. It also interestingly describes that creative people have no more significant chance of developing a mental illness. Instead, if you have a mental illness, you will likely go on to be creative.

Although the facts state this, the why of the situation still needs to be clarified. Where does creativity come from, and how can we tap into that?

Creativity applies thoughts from the ebb and flow of daily life; to feel emotions, dreams, and the world around you. Then we make art or express ourselves to organize all this information. Human beings are inherently creative. It’s in our genes. Pablo Picasso said, “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.” 

Through our upbringing and particularly school, creativity is not graded nor placed on a pedestal but instead shunned. As I’m in my last year of secondary education, my concentration is on my job after school, where I’m going to university, and what I’m doing for the rest of my life. Which is harmful in fostering the creatives of the future; first, you find a job, then you work around it to do what you love; it seems backward to me.

Steps to Kickstarting Creativity

I have learned from this post that to be creative, you must look at the world differently. You must question things others ignore, be interested in everything, and question everything. I am going to foster this way of looking at the world in the following steps;

  1. Keep a small book on me and a pen to filter the world, looking for things that interest me.
  2.   Come up with 3 creative ideas a day. Whether that is a story idea, a weird concept, or a funny drawing. This is so I get in the habit of thinking creatively.
  3.   Finally, I will spend more time bored. I plan to spend 30 minutes alone with my thoughts. I will do a daily 30-minute walk with no music or stimulus but my thoughts and the environment.

Please join me in your journey for creativity. Thank you for reading

Leave a Reply

Previous
✕