No more coffee shops for me
Where does content creation happen for you?
After years of experimenting, I have found my sweet spot, :)
Do you geek out and get excited when you figure out a new process for content creation that vastly improves your workflow?
I know I do, :)
As my content schedule demanded more original content, I’ve been experimenting with how to increase my creative productivity. So, I’ve tried out several, different locations with which to see which I respond in best.
At first, I struggled to locate my stride while working from home in different parts of my house. I decided to give other locations a shot.
What the hell, right?
My first option was to be that guy and do the Starbucks thing.
Fortunately, there’s about 1500 in my neighborhood, so, I wanted to give a couple a shot - although I did give preference to the one on Broadway - I’m in Astoria - that has a Clover machine, :)
What I discovered was that the store was way too congested and busy for me to get any real work done. I can’t tune out people on their phones or having conversations near me all the way, so, I just end up having to move, and eh, that doesn’t work for me.
I found that to be a common pattern throughout the other Starbucks near me that has ample seating. The coffee jacked me up and got me ready to work, for sure, but, the people inside were too distracting.
Scratch the Starbucks idea.
Next up, I went old school - the New York Public Library.
There’s one a couple blocks from my apartment, but, that was a quickie, one-and-done proposition for me. I dunno, I got in there, gave it about 20 minutes, and honestly, it felt stale and crowded, and was just not lighting up any thoughts in my head.
There were a ton of people in there that day, and incidentally, it wasn’t even as quiet as I thought it would be, it was quite interesting.
Eh, what can you do.
After the library, I tried a couple other options - parks, by the river, different coffee shops - none of it I found to be the right space for content creation.
Although it took me a couple years to become self-aware, I realize that for me to be at my creative best, I have to be in a relatively quiet space, with zero distractions, over which I have full control of the space.
Wow - so high maintenance, :)
Be as it may, working from home it is!
Now, I don’t just create in one space - I mean, why make that shit easy, right?
Actually, it was through some further experimentation that I found a nice production frequency by breaking up the way I put my blogs and social posts together.
First, we have the idea germination, rough draft phase - performed mostly on my living room couch, while typing into my Chromebook. This is where I explore an idea, concept or conversation snippet I wrote down in my Notebooks app and start to think about how to make this thing blossom into something informative or inspiring - or, at the least, entertaining.
Once that’s done, I shift gears and head into my office to complete the refining and content scheduling phase, which is where I copy edit, add photos and tags, schedule the blogs on Squarespace, and schedule the daily, social posts on Smarterqueue.
In case if you were wondering, yeah, it keeps be busy when I'm not behind my camera.
Regardless, I’ve found that in order to foster high-level, content creation, it’s important to test your boundaries, shake up your systems if it’s not working for you and see what works best.
Did I go too in the weeds with this story? I know, I get excited about stuff like this…
How about you? What have you discovered about your own creative process? Where are you at your best?
Please share in the comments section.
PS - For those of you who aren’t in the know, I mail out these blogs 3x a week, and lemme tell you, they’re a real party, so, if you’d like to get in on this, sign up for it here and I’ll throw in a free gift for you...because I care, :)