Home > Videos

🎨🧱🔄 513 - Why Creatives Have to Build Habits Differently and How to Do It

🤖 AI Summary

🎯 The 📺 video discusses how 🧑‍🎨 creative individuals can 🤗 embrace 🎨 creative discipline, especially when forming 🏃 habits feels 😟 impossible [00:21].

The 🗣️ speaker, Andy J. Pizza, covers several 🔑 key issues:

• 😥 Difficulty with Conventional Habits: 📚 Traditional advice on habit formation, which often emphasizes making behaviors automatic, doesn’t 📈 work well for 🎨 creative or 🧠 neurodivergent individuals, particularly those with ADHD [04:54]. The 🗣️ speaker highlights that 💡 creativity requires active thinking, not 🤖 autopilot [05:22], and that the point where habits become automatic is often when creative individuals 📉 lose interest and 🛑 give up [06:29].

• 🧠 The “Manual Transmission” Brain: The 🗣️ speaker likens his creative brain to a 🚗 manual transmission car, meaning he needs to constantly keep things 🤩 interesting and 😂 fun, unlike those with an “automatic” brain who thrive on routine [06:56]. This means 🕵️ finding different ways to do the same thing [11:32].

• 🤯 Oxymoron of Creative Discipline: The very phrase “creative discipline” is presented as an 😜 oxymoron, as “creative” implies 🆕 novelty while “discipline” implies 🔁 repetition [03:06]. ⚖️ Striking a balance between these two is inherently 🤹 challenging [03:15].

• 🚀 Importance of “Chase” (Dopamine): For 🎨 creative and ADHD individuals, 🏃 motivation is often driven by the “chase” (dopamine) rather than just the 🎉 pleasure of achieving the goal [23:20]. This means 🎁 immediate gratification needs to be integrated into the process of pursuing 🎯 long-term goals [24:37].

• 💡 Three Habit Science Insights Adapted for Creatives:

  • 🤝 Find Groups Where Desired Behavior is the Norm: 🫂 Surrounding oneself with people who naturally exhibit the desired 🎨 creative discipline can make it 😌 effortless to assimilate those habits [17:02].

  • 🌟 Make it Your Identity: 🔄 Shifting one’s self-identity to align with the desired 🎨 creative behavior (e.g., “I am an artist, therefore I create”) is more 💪 effective than just trying to force a habit [19:28].

  • 🛣️ Process Over Goal (with a twist): While focusing on the 🗺️ process is important, for 🎨 creatives, it’s crucial to have “road trip goals” that include 🥳 instant gratification and 🤩 enjoyment along the journey, not just a 🏁 distant objective [24:44].

The 📺 video concludes by introducing the concept of a “road trip brief” to help 🎨 creatives build discipline in a way that focuses on 🤩 fun and avoids 😴 boredom, comprising an 🎯 objective, 🚚 deliverables, and 🔀 variables [29:05].

🤔 Evaluation

While this 📺 video provides a compelling framework for 🎨 creative and 🧠 neurodivergent individuals to approach discipline, it primarily focuses on an internal, psychological perspective. 🧐 Other perspectives might explore the role of external factors, such as environmental design or accountability systems, in fostering creative habits. For a better understanding, it would be beneficial to explore topics such as:

• 🛠️ Practical tools and apps specifically designed to support flexible, non-linear workflows.

• 🤝 The impact of community and collaboration on creative output and accountability.

• 🔬 Deeper dives into the neuroscience of creativity and ADHD beyond dopamine, exploring other neurotransmitters and brain regions involved.

• 📚 Case studies of successful creative professionals who have implemented similar “manual transmission” approaches.

📚 Book Recommendations

• ⚛️🔄 Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear: A contrasting view offering a comprehensive guide to building good habits and breaking bad ones, with a focus on systems and environment.

• 🤿💼 Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport: Explores how to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task, which can be challenging for those with a “manual transmission” brain but offers valuable strategies for focused creative output.

• 🪖🎨 The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles by Steven Pressfield: A powerful and inspiring book about overcoming resistance and embracing the professional mindset of a creative, aligning with the idea of making creativity an identity.

• 🏎️⛽ Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel H. Pink: Examines the science of motivation, focusing on autonomy, mastery, and purpose, which complements the video’s discussion of intrinsic motivation and the “chase” for creatives.

• 🌊🧘🏼‍♀️🧠📈 Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: Explores the concept of “flow state,” where individuals are fully immersed in an activity, offering insights into how creatives can find enjoyment and engagement in their work.

• Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time by Jeff Sutherland: Offers a different perspective on project management and iterative work, which could provide a structured yet flexible approach for creative projects.

• A Mind for Numbers by Barbara Oakley: While focused on learning, this book delves into different modes of thinking (focused and diffuse), which can be highly relevant to understanding how creative brains work and how to leverage their unique strengths.