Set Goals - Daily Planner
There are days when, as a creative person, you find yourself cruising at 80mph in the creative zone, and then suddenly with no warning, you twirl over a cliff and plunge into cold, dark water.
Your body becomes lifeless and you collapses from exhaustion.
I have a tendency to ramp up on an idea, especially when writing my screenplay, which I try to do on a daily basis. Whether it’s outlining, writing a scene, or figuring out if the scene has a push/pull effect on the characters, before I know it, I’ve neglected all aspects of my life, which, as you get older, there are two things that are important: health and family. Well, for me, those are my priorities.
Does anyone else ever feel this way? So focused you are in a tunnel vision? With spring in the air, I feel inclined to eat healthier, exercise regularly, and spend my time wisely planning out my week ahead. What's been helping me is writing my goals for the day, the week, the month, and the year in a daily planner. I have to thank my wife, Karis Takaki, who introduced this idea to me. Watching her be more productive and strategic with her life as a painter, I’ve seen how much she’s able to accomplish running her business. I started spending 15-30 minutes writing down my goals and
3 main tasks I want to complete during the day.
I complete my main THREE TASKS and for me they are exercising, eating healthy, and writing. The writing can be my current script which I’m outlining, it can be my blog which I’ve sadly neglected, or writing a scene or ideas that pertain to my story.
Once I complete my three main tasks, I have a list of other smaller task and you fit it in your busy schedule and complete them. Here’s the thing, life is busy and you have to priority your time, instead of endless scrolling on your phone, you can be working on your task.
I feel like I’m moving much closer to my goals. I have a very scattered brain (hello ADHD!). So, for anyone trying to find structure in their life, let’s start simple:
Write down 3 main tasks you need to complete on a day-to-day basis.
Start with one week, and you can also order a daily planner online to help you write down your goals. For me, I’m using my daily planner to eat healthy, exercise, write my script, work on my newsletter, finish post-production of my current feature “The Wild Dreamers,” and so on. By writing down a week ahead, I can prioritize what needs to get done and not feel stressed out.
I hope this helps you out and encourages you to come up with your own solution on how to keep the voices in your head from overtaking your creative flow.
