How to Stay Creative During Your Workdays

Being creative and working full-time can be tough. It is tough. Work is necessary to make money for paying bills, buying food and whatever else is needed in life. When there is a need to create though, that need beckons whether it’s a workday or not.

I’m here to tell you that it doesn’t have to be one or the other. You can be creative on your workday. Since this is a photo blog, I’ll refer to photography as the medium of creativity, but what’s written here could be applied to many other creative pursuits.

Some options to remain productive with what fulfills you are to wake up earlier. The light for photography is magnificent and it can be a wonderful time to make images. Another option is to have a camera with you and photograph after work. This is fantastic because work is done and you’re able to carve out some time for just you to take pictures.

Lately though, I’ve been taking pictures, even on my lunch break, and it’s really satisfied the need I have to stay photographically productive.

Have A Camera Ready

One of the most important ways to achieve the ability to remain creative and productive is to make sure it’s as easy as possible to do so. I achieve this by using my iPhone for photography.

For example, last week I parked my car by the shop and one of my boss’s wooden boats was parked outside. The early-morning light was cascading through some tall landscape shrubs, the grain of the boat was illuminated nicely and I was early to work, so I decided to make some quick pictures.

Not only did I have some photos I was happy with, but it also invigorated my mind and body and I felt more prepared for the rest of the day.

Once lunch time hit, I did the same thing. The light wasn’t my favorite: it was high-noon sun that was unencumbered by clouds so it was a contrasty, harsh-shadow situation. It didn’t matter though, the act of taking pictures excites me and I was making the time to do it.

Get Out of Your Head

This may not apply to you or it might, but it definitely applies to me. There are times when I’ve been discouraged by not having enough time to photograph. Or, maybe the situation and lighting isn’t to my liking. Instead of overcoming it, I’ve been so dismayed that I’ll forgo being creative and hope that a better situation presents itself.

How wrong I’ve been to do that. What I needed to do, and what I’ve been doing now, is to seize whatever opportunity there is and get creative. Now that I’ve started maximizing the time I do have, I’ve found that I can look back and see that I’ve produced a nice body of work that I wouldn’t have had I let me negative thoughts get in the way.

Being creative during a workday is possible by basically utilizing the same skills you’d use to be creative any other day: by being observant, prioritizing your power to free yourself and maximizing the time you do have.

So, stay positive, try to find times that work with your already-busy schedule to be creative and try your best to overcome the adversities of life and have fun with what fulfills you.