Productivity for Creative People: How to get creative work done in an "always on" world

by Mark McGuinness

“Of all the writers I know, I have learned the most about how to be a productive creative person from Mark. His tips are always realistic, accessible, and sticky. It’s not just talk, this is productivity advice that will change your life.”


Jocelyn K. Glei, author and Founding Editor, 99U


We are living in an age of unprecedented creative stimulation—via the internet, social media, all-pervasive technology, and an “always on” working culture.


Which means we are living in an age of unprecedented distraction from focused creative work—from all the same sources.


First, computers and the internet transformed the work we did at our desks. Then along came smartphones to transform our social lives and make our work mobile.


Now we have our work, our network, our media, and our social media with us wherever we go. Augmented Reality (AR) is layering more and more virtual elements over the physical world we inhabit, and Virtual Reality (VR) promises us escape to unlimited virtual worlds.


The pace of change is exciting, overwhelming, and unstoppable.


And creators are increasingly discovering a downside to the brave new world:


* countless distractions and interruptions
* endless email
* pressure to keep up
* anxiety about falling behind
* difficulty concentrating
* aches and pains from too much time at the keyboard


Dig a little deeper, and the biggest concern for many creatives is a nagging sense that their most important work is being left undone.


If you’re excited by the opportunities of the creative age, but worried about the effect of all those interruptions and digital distractions on your creative work, Productivity for Creative People has been written for you.


For the past twenty years creative coach Mark McGuinness has helped hundreds of creatives like you to overcome these challenges.


A poet and creative entrepreneur, he is the author of Motivation for Creative People and Resilience: Facing Down Rejection and Criticism on the Road to Success. He is also a co-author of the bestselling books from 99U, Manage Your Day-to-Day and Maximize Your Potential.


Mark’s latest book, Productivity for Creative People, is a collection of insights, tips, and techniques to help you carve out time for your most important work – while managing your other commitments. All the solutions he shares have been tested with real people in real situations.


You will learn:


* How getting organized can make you more creative
* Why multitasking doesn’t work
* How to tell if you’re really overloaded – and what to do about it
* The importance of panicking early
* How doing nothing can make you more productive
* The crucial difference between incubation and procrastination
* How to carve out time for your most important creative work
* Why boredom is necessary for creativity
* What to do about all that email
* How to nap like a fighter pilot
* A simple technique to reduce smartphone addiction


Productivity for Creative People is the perfect guide to creating extraordinary work without (necessarily) disappearing to a cabin in the woods, or even giving up your smartphone.


“Many creative people are busier than ever, but rarely get around to the work that truly matters. Mark McGuinness offers solid and practical advice for busy creative people who want to make their mark on the world.”


Todd Henry, author of The Accidental Creative


“Authors now have amazing online tools to reach readers all over the world, but those same tools can distract us from the focused creativity that we love and that we need to write better books. In Productivity for Creative People, Mark McGuinness outlines a way of working that will help you sort out what’s really important and achieve your creative goals, while still managing your daily tasks. Recommended for any author who is feeling overwhelmed.”


Joanna Penn, bestselling author and award-winning entrepreneur. TheCreativePenn.com

Genres: Nonfiction, Productivity, Writing, Self Help, Business

ebook

Published September 15, 2016

Reviews

[Alexandria Blaelock · Rating 4 out of 5]

I want to say this book is just common sense, but it can't be that common if I got so much out of it.

The most useful tips for me:
* the breakdown of work tasks (ongoing, events, backlog, and asset building), along with the "permission" to drop everything now and again to focus on getting stuff done.
* acknowledging different types of day, and the benefit of developing different kinds of template for those kind of days.
* after lunch naps are better than being tired and losing focus on your work.

Some of it I'm doing, some I'm going to try, and some of it can wait for another time.

[Carles Caño · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un libro muy accionable para mejorar la productividad de personas creativas y de trabajadores del conocimiento.

El objetivo del autor es el de ayudarte a encontrar el método en tus hábitos de trabajo y a desarrollar una rutina creativa y un ritmo de trabajo en tu día a día.

Es un libro que contiene veinte capítulos y puedes accionar progresivamente lo que te convenga. Así como GTD es un monstruo que si no lo aplicas de golpe, no da buenos resultados, aquí puedes ir probando y valorando el resultado de la técnica productiva. El mismo autor te dice que pruebes poco a poco y te quedes con lo que funciona.

"Productivity for Creative People" está dividido en tres partes:

1. Sentando las bases
2. Hacer trabajo creativo
3. Tratar con el resto (las cosas no creativas)

En la primera parte se explican falsas asunciones sobre productividad, se hacen reflexiones sobre hábitos de trabajo y en la toma de decisiones importantes. Me ha gustado la clasificación del trabajo en cuatro categorías: Ongoing, Events, Backlogs y Asset building y la fórmula que da para reducir la sobrecarga de trabajo basado en esta clasificación:

Sustainable workload = Ongoing work + 1 Event, Backlog or Asset building project AT A TIME.

En la segunda parte se comentan técnicas para ser más eficaz en trabajos creativos. Desde el "Panic early" para evitar que todo se haga a última hora, pasando por usar rituales para entrar en la zona creativa hasta la diferencia entre incubar y procrastinar (externamente puede parecer que no aproveches el tiempo en ambos casos pero uno es positivo y el otro negativo).

En la tercera y última parte se detallan formas de tratar con el trabajo no creativo: responder mensajes de correo electrónico, escribir más deprisa, evitar el mal uso del móvil...

Algunas cosas ya las sabía pero la forma que tiene Mark McGuinness de contarlas, te entran ganas de probarlas de una vez por todas. Por ejemplo, hace mucho que sé que puedo escribir usando reconocimiento de voz. Mejora la productividad, mejora la fluidez de lo escrito, evita lesiones por exceso de teclado o malas posturas al poder estar de pie... Pues después de todo este tiempo, voy a probarlo. Mark me ha convencido.

Accionaré varias de las cosas que propone el autor. Un libro para releer siempre que tengamos un bajón en nuestra productividad creativa.

[Kathleen Jennings · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very practical, with tips and attitudes I'm usefully trying out. This book was free, but I'm spending money on the next.

[Emma Sea · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Some useful ideas.

[Gabriel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve been a fan of Mark’s work since discovering his fantastic blog Lateral Action. His application of productivity techniques in the creative space were mind-blowing and made me rethink how I approached my work. Mark’s 3rd book, Productivity for Creative People, is a continuation of the stellar advice he’s been sharing for years and an invaluable handbook on how to increase one’s creative output without stymieing the muse.

You can read it all the way through, but I would recommend analyzing the table of contents and diving into the sections that most resonate with your creative hurdles. Every phase of the process is covered with multiple strategies to help you along whether you’re working with a team in an office or running solo in your own studio. I personally found the tips regarding circadian rhythms and creative rituals to be the most useful.

These techniques are rock solid and I wish I had known about them when I first started out. I strongly recommend this book to anyone working as a creative professional or trying to break into the industry.

I received a complimentary copy of this book for review.

[Kate M. Colby · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brief, yet still detailed, book, packed with strategies and actionable advice that creative professionals can use to organize their work, maximize creation time, and reduce distractions. While some of it I had heard before, it was repacked in a fresh and concise manner.

This is definitely a book for creatives who are professionals or desire to be so. Due to the author's own career, I felt like it was slightly skewed toward writers and full-time entrepreneurs, but other creatives will still benefit from the content.

[Jennifer Louden · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great overview for beginners in the creative practice. Love Mark's clear writing and obvious love for his work and clients

[A.M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of those titles that I keep forgetting isn’t in my phone kindle app because I downloaded it direct from the author. [one day I will work out how to transfer files, but not today]
I was supposed to sleep in today but my brain can’t tell the difference between Sunday and any other day because I work from home and it all blurs together. Mark has a solution for that.
Another chapter heading is ‘Panic Early’.
Lmao
***

So there’s no such thing as multitasking— just task switching, or at best background tasking, in which one activity consumes our attention while we’re mindlessly performing another. (Kindle Locations 321-323).

I have read this everywhere and now I totally believe it. Working in 20 minute Pomodoros makes a HUGE difference to my output. Whenever I’m losing ground, I go back to it.

The more times you see the pattern— first boredom, then curiosity, then interest, then absorption— the more easily you will recognize the boredom as just the first part of the process, and the easier it will be to persist. (Kindle Locations 933-935).

Allow your mind to wander.
It’s worth going to his website and signing up for his free course, too.
http://lateralaction.com/
It’s a number of short chapters, squashed full of good ideas and great advice. Some of which I have already embraced… some of which I clearly NEED to embrace.
4 stars

[C.A. Edwards · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can't dislike a book that I agree with. In fact, it would seem that I am already a very productive person and my concerns about taking in a little downtime while working on a project were nicely retitled in the book as "incubating".

If you are a creative-type who already knows the basics, you may be looking for something to take you to the next level in your productivity, but if you are looking for some tools to help you get out of a chaotic, disorganized, and seemingly overwhelming current state, this book will help you get on the right track.

Expect a conversational style of writing. There are many links to other articles and books throughout that should you want to dive into a topic a little deeper, they are a click or google search away. Just don't let the desire to research sidetrack you and let it kill your productivity.

Overall, a good read to reinforce good habits and try some of the author's personal tips as well.

[Clare Walker · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am an independent author of fiction and non-fiction, and I found this book extremely helpful in learning how to find balance. Chapter 3 ("Reduce Overload") was the most practical and actionable section for me. In this chapter, Mark encourages you to organize all your various tasks into four types: 1: ongoing work (repeating stuff and stuff you do every day. Admin-type stuff usually ends up in this category), 2: special events (one-time things that need a lot of preparation ahead of time), 3: backlogs (stuff you're behind on), and 4: asset creation (the creative work -- stuff that stays done).

I would venture to guess that many creatives are overloaded with 1 and 2 stuff, frustrated that the amount of 3 stuff keeps increasing, and even more frustrated that hardly any 4 stuff is getting done. That's definitely where I was when I read the book, and Mark's advice on this helped me a lot!

Bonus: the rest of the book is excellent, too! Thanks, Mark!

[Hannah Braime · Rating 5 out of 5]

People who do creative work for a living are often faced with a dilemma: how to carve out time for their most important work while dealing with all of the necessary but distracting activities that come with modern business. Mark's book is a short, practical guide to reclaiming control over our minds and our days so we can do more in the creative realm while tending to things like email, social media and other common distractions. He also covers the perennial issues of resistance and procrastination that all creatives face at one point or another.

This book is packed with actionable tips. It doesn't tell readers exactly how to run their days but provides us with a selection of tools and questions we can use to overhaul our productivity and spend more time doing the things that inspired us to start in the first place.

[Colin Marks · Rating 5 out of 5]

I suspect Mark McGuinness and Steven Pressfield are good friends. I discovered this free ebook from a link on Steven's site, and Mark frequently references Steven's acclaimed The War of Art in this book. Still, since you're judged by your associates, this doesn't harm either of them - both are talented and knowledgeable in the field of creativity.

This book is a quick read, a taster for Mark's other publications and websites, but crammed with useful suggestions on managing your time to focus on the important things in your life - whether that be family, friends, or your creativity.

Well worth a read.

[Anne Janzer · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a writer, I'm always looking for ways to fine tune my process. This book is a worthy addition to my arsenal!

McGuinness offers practical strategies for protecting creative time, such as putting "hard edges" in your schedules, and being smarter about picking up the smart phone. I particularly loved his differentiation between incubation and procrastination - procrastination happens before the hard work, and incubation after.

I've come away with new strategies to apply to my life: managing to-do list, handling email, and being smarter about my smart phone. It's a quick read with a long-term payoff.

[Travis Chapman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my first Mark McGuinness book, and I presume his earlier works in the series are equally value-added. I've spent a good amount of effort reading productivity works over the years, so there were few things in his book that were earth-shattering and new, but it was an excellent look at 1) how one person puts it all together, and 2) a good chance to review my own systems through the framework he presents. I've recommended this to several friends who want to establish themselves as authors, and I feel Mark's book will help them jumpstart that effort compared to reading multiple, longer volumes. Can't wait to read some of his other works now! Thanks Mark!

[Laurie Evans · Rating 5 out of 5]

Easy-to-read book with practical ideas on productivity for creatives. I'm a writer, and struggle daily with distractions. I like Mark's idea to only work on one day's worth of email at a time. I've also set a schedule for writing part of the day, and answering emails and other work at another point in the day. I'm also writing first, to make sure I make the best use of my creative energy.

It's a work in progress, but things have already gotten a bit better since using some of the ideas in this book. Recommended for authors and other creatives.

[Miguel Ángel Alonso Pulido · Rating 5 out of 5]

La mejor forma de describir este libro es como una pequeña joya para gente creativa. Todos los que creamos sabemos lo complicado y difícil que es dedicarnos a nuestra pasión en el ajetreo de nuestra vida diaria y Mark McGuinness nos cuenta en este libro, corto y al grano, varios trucos y consejos para organizarnos mejor y ser más productivos. Todo lo que hay aquí es puro sentido común y un poco de experiencia, pero es que no necesitas más que eso para poder mejorar. Este libro puede ser el empujón que necesitas y a mí me ha ayudado mucho. Muy recomendable.

[Travis Chapman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Actionable advice

I'm a part-time creative, but even my day job has creative aspects. Mark provides actionable advice for staying on track with your projects and activities, as well as the bases behind those recommendations. Even the points I'd heard before were explained in a different way or from a different perspective that I found valuable. Well worth the read!

[Ed Ashford · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really great advice. While some of the tips and tricks in McGuinness' books touch on common ideas, he has a way of spinning it in a new light or showing the validity to the common advice. He's also very good at point out when common advice simply doesn't work and what an artist should be pursuing instead.

[Rob Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some really great ways to get productive in this book. The tips in this book were precise and to the point. This is a book that those having trouble with productivity should read over and over again.

Peace and Love,
Rob @ http://authorstalkaboutit.com

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you have a productivity book addiction, as I do, this book won’t really add much to your stockpile of ways to stop procrastinating. If your are a creative, and haven’t read a lot of these books it may be just the book you need to start your addiction.

[Mike Vardy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another book I was able to devour in one sitting. Some great practical tips and tricks offered by the author that anyone can start using today. Well worth the read.

[Alison Clifford · Rating 4 out of 5]

An easy to read and understand book with loads of helpful tips and ideas. A good book for anyone needing help with productivity.

[Nicole C · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some interesting ideas, but nothing new. Reading this has helped me to realize that I have to wake up earlier to get more done though.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't do creative work, but this has good advice for anyone who works, especially those who are any kind of freelancer. Even those who aren't, but who want to write more in their spare time (me).

[Ahmad Moshrif · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick nice read for the people who are seeking for valuable tips in freelancing and artistic work.

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great short book on how to harness your creative mind and become more productive and happier by being creative in a controlled way.

[noseinabook · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clear, concise, conversational, and full of great ideas. A lot of my current habits/feelings were validated, and I've got plenty of ideas moving forward. I'll consult this book periodically and see what new stuff I can apply.

[Katje van Loon]

Highly recommended for creative people struggling to remain productive both in creative and non-creative areas of life.

[Lorena · Rating 4 out of 5]

Para leer y releer.

[Leslie Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very helpful tips. Recommended!