The Minimum Creative Dose

Maintaining a daily schedule full of creativity is challenging—almost impossible. Life's other responsibilities make the dream of locking yourself in a room to focus on a creative project feel more like a mirage than reality.

As creatives, we starve when we neglect that part of ourselves. One of the hardest struggles for me is starting a project. All I see is a massive mountain of work. And with limited resources—time and energy—I end up feeling overwhelmed and unmotivated.

My mistake is that I tend to think too big, imagining the whole project at once instead of breaking it down.

Recently, I came across the idea called "The Minimum Creative Dose" in one of Kirby Ferguson's newsletter, which he got from David Kadavy. It's a simple idea. Instead of trying to do a lot at once, take the minimum of action to make progress in a creative project.

It's kind of like taking medicine or vitamins. If you take more than you're supposed to, it won't help you—can even make things worse. But if you take a little bit every day, it adds up and works much better in the long run.