Getting Creative Things Done: How To Fit Hard Thinking Into a Busy Schedule

Here's a trick that works for me:<p>I've noticed that creative ideas often pop in at random times when I'm doing something unrelated to the idea. So I created a little script that, upon hitting the F10 key, opens a dialog. I type in my thought and it writes it to a file called jot.txt. At the end of the day, I review jot.txt and act on the ideas. This allows me to capture interesting ideas when they happen without losing my current train of thought.<p>If you're interested in adapting this script for your own use, I've published the script here: <a href="http://techiferous.com/2009/12/streamlining-your-workflow-with-applescript/" rel="nofollow">http://techiferous.com/2009/12/streamlining-your-workflow-wi...</a>

I think that for me this only makes sense for projects that have no explicit deadline. For a procrastinator, a deadline is the only thing that matters. I can block off all the time that I want to for a project, but if my brain is in procrastination mode, virtually nothing productive will get done.<p>Early on, I imagine that guilt about doing nothing during the creative blocks would motivate me. Over time, I suspect whether anything got done would roughly break down based on whether there is an explicit deadline. With no explicit deadline it would depend on how excited I was about a specific creative project.<p>If you're doing creative work for a living, I don't think that you can assume deadlines away.