5 Ways to Create Momentum and Crush Procrastination

Something I’ve been really concerned with lately is productivity, getting things done, creating in a good working environment. Creating room for me to gain daily momentum.

A lot of the time recently its not the doing of the work, the quality, or the “what to do” that’s an issue…but its my state of mind, the level of franticness, or just the pure joy and happiness factor during the work that is all affected by external circumstances rather than the actual work.

Part of what I’ve been discovering is that while focusing on outcomes or tasks or deliverables is good for planning … when its time to sit and work I’ve been trying to be in more of a momentum mindset.

What does that mean?

Well, for starters, when I’m sitting down to write or work, my goal is to create as frictionless of a runway as possible. What can I do to have the least amount of distraction or setup or “work” to do before I need to get into the flow and actually do the important thing.

Some examples of friction:

• Answering emails
• Being on Social Media
• Doing invoices
• Setting up and taking calls
• Installing things
• Troubleshooting software or hardware
• Cleaning the office
• Etc etc,

While these are all things that happen at some point in the day … I’m trying to be mindful about doing this away from the workstation. At least in the first half of the day. Ideally, these sorts of things don’t happen for any significant length of time before 1pm …. Which I know for me is when my own productivity and creative flow starts to diminish in a day.

If you’re like me, I know that before 1pm is when I need to be attacking MAJOR work projects for the day. Like writing new music, composing, etc. I can do more 2nd level work like orchestrating or working on the business etc. in the afternoon, but that stuff that I’m putting into the universe, the purely me creative energy I try to prioritize before 1pm.

These are all patterns that I’ve been identifying over years of practice…and while there is some level of “just be who you want to be and work when you want!” There is a reality of biology, psychology, family and social commitments that can add a slightly chaotic barrier to doing good consistent work everyday.

And let's face it … one of the formulas for success is compounded growth. Meaningful action taken deliberately and daily over a long period of time. When we’re in “putting out fires” mode yes we’re being super productive that day … but at the cost to our long term growth and achievement.

CREATE MOMENTUM

What are the things we can do to focus our energies towards the things we want to do?

1) 🌞 Wake up earlier / Go to sleep earlier / Get good sleep

If you can find a way to wake up earlier and create a routine that works for you in the morning, you can basically create much more of that fertile mental work time before your own personal diminishing work time of the day (for me its around 1-3pm). The more rested you are the better you’re going to be prepared for the work you need to do. Sometimes you have to buckle down and crank to meet a deadline … but if possible avoid this. All you’re doing is diminishing your ability to do that consistent daily work.

2) 🖥 Declutter and create frictionless runways for work

Get everything ready to work as the last thing you do each day. Clean out the desk and the office space so that when you walk in in the morning you can get right to it. That sort of work for me kind of sap my mood and energy and I dont want to waste any of that morning momentum energy on cleaning. Some people might find this sort of work as a good ritual to get started … if that’s the case make it point to do it consistently…whatever it takes for you to have the least friction to your creative flow state.

Another example of this is having templates. For example, for me with writing music, having a good template that’s a starting point for projects means I’m spending less time firing up and loading instruments and software connections … and getting right into the creative work.

One other version of this for me - specifically for music - is that most people will use some sort of keyboard controller for their music software. One tip I’d recommend is getting a digital piano instead of a midi controller. Something that will still transmit midi to your DAW or notation software …. But most importantly something you can turn on and be making sounds without having your computer on. This way, if Im feeling creative or have a musical idea that i want to quickly explore, im not wasting precious minutes getting everything fired up … I can be playing immediately when the idea hits.

Here’s what i use : KEYBOARD 🎹

3) ☕️ Take breaks

I’ve found myself working 5-8 hours straight somedays. … I know that severely drains my energy and even affects my mood and mental state beyond the one day. This leads to burnout and can create lots of negative energy around work. Even if you’re totally loving what you’re doing. I’d recommend taking a 3-5 min break every hour. Even just to get up and refill your water. Get away from your station and just stare out the window, stretch, walk the dog, get a snack….whatever you want. Just take a quick break and get right back to it. It’s gotta be short enough that you dont lose momentum, but long enough so that you change your physical state from just sitting at the desk.

4) 📝 Do your planning / to do lists away from your main work station.

Part of this is training yourself and anchoring your main workstation for positive / creative / productive work. The actual DOING of the things that are on your list. Try doing your planning / journaling / task lists / emails … whatever that isn’t creative level work away from your desk. Either on another laptop, iPad, journal whatever you can somewhere else. This can help you get more into that momentum mindset when you sit down to work.

5) 📞 Limit meetings / zooms / phone calls during your productive time window.

Protect your creative window as best as you can. This is hard and I still struggle with this. But this can be a process or mindset you can adopt when scheduling and agreeing to calls. Most of the time you don’t need to explain yourself … you can just say “I’m not free at that time, but how about x:xx”. Because you’re not free, you’ve made a commitment to yourself and your own creative time to be focused. You should 100% not feel guilty about this.

CONCLUSION

At the end of the day, my personal goals recently have centered around building systems of productivity so that I can really think about my long term output and impact. I’m always learning and this post is really just a documentation around a lot of the different things I’m exploring as I continue to evolve.

✌️ Kevin