I hated business systems. They seemed so...boring.

I thought they stifled my creativity and freedom.

I work for myself so that I could be free from restrictions, and now I was going to impose them on myself?

No thanks.

I want to wake up when I want.

Work on what I want, when I want in my business.

But I was wrong.

Because even though I didn't have a boss or set hours to work, I still felt restricted.

It was because I was depending on my feelings to guide me. I spent a great deal of time waiting to feel inspired or motivated to start.

And that led to a lot of frustration when my mood wasn't quite right.

I was relying on my feelings to tell me what to do and when to do it.

I was a slave to my emotional state and it was affecting my business.

We all know how unpredictable feelings can be.

It's not their job to think. It's their job to tell us how we are feeling.

And it turns out that feelings are not the best business guide.

Leila Hormozi @LeilaHormozi Fuck your mood… …do the workout …build the business …quite the job …do the work …keep the promise 6:45 PM • Aug 12, 2024 714 Retweets 5813 Likes Read 163 replies

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As a digital marketer I write a lot. Landing pages, email newsletters, product descriptions, ad copy, tweets, video scripts, hooks (and the list goes on!)

It was stressful to wait around for inspiration to strike. It led to inconsistency in the quality of my work, procrastination (lots of it!) and stress. But it was my relationship to email newsletters that I wanted to work on.

Here's how my email newsletter writing process would typically go...

Overwhelming guilt that it's been "too long" since I had sent out an email newsletter.

I'd force myself to sit down and write something in that exact moment (even if I had better things to do).

When it was complete and sent off, I'd feel relief.

But that was temporary.

I'd tell myself I'd be more consistent next time and seek out a business system to be my solution to this problem.

I'd spend days researching the best tools and ways other people organized themselves (even if I had better things to do).

I'd choose a tool and set it all up. I'd use it for a week.

And never use it again.

I have many abandoned Asana projects, Monday.com tasks, half started Trello boards.

I've tried every project management software out there to organize my writing process.

But nothing stuck.

It reinforced my belief that business systems didn't work for me.

Then I had an "ah ha" from the unlikeliest of places.

Instagram. LOL. I love following artists on IG and watching their creative processes.

I started to notice a similarity between the artists I followed.

I was shocked.

Their process would look like this:

A day for prepping their canvas.

A day for painting.

A day for framing.

A day for administrative tasks.

A day for creating social media content.

A day for packing up and shipping their orders.

The most successful artists were the most organized ones.

I expected to see messy, disorganized, flustered artists so deep in their creative processes they didn't know what day of the week it was.

Instead what I saw were masters at business systems.

It makes sense. We need planning and structure to create space for our creative process. (And yes, even writing email newsletters is a creative process).

It reminds me of little kids. They run around and play all day long, but are happiest with a set schedule with some structure: meal times, nap time, bath and book before bed.

If these full-time artists can create works of art and not be hampered by their systems, I figured I could too.

I looked at the different ways creative people organized their time aand one glaring thing stuck out to me...

Scheduling time to create vs. waiting around for inspiration to strike.

Can it be that simple? I was determined to find out.

Here's what I did:

• I set a goal to send out a weekly email consistently for 6 months.
• Scheduled 30-minute writing blocks every single morning in my Google calendar.
• Writing blocks were for outlining, writing and editing my newsletter only.
• Set a 30-minute alarm on my phone and would stop when the time is up.
• No technology, social media, or email before or during that time.

What I noticed:

• Once I got started the 30 minutes went by really fast.
• I looked forward to writing every morning.
• If I did continue past this time, around the 45-minute mark my focus and creativity started to diminish.
• When the 30-minutes was up I'd feel amazing. It didn't matter what else I did that day, I knew I did something productive.

Since I started this process 6 weeks ago I haven't missed sending out a single newsletter. Despite travel, illness and not "feeling" like it.

A good system is one that helps you accomplish your tasks whether you "feel" like it or not.

I always scoffed at systems in business. But this has been my greatest business break-through.

I don't need to feel inspired, happy, excited to start. But I can guarantee that I'll feel inspired, happy and excited after I start.

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Here's how to get started finding your own system:

1. Start with a very specific goal you want to achieve.

Mine was to send out a weekly newsletter I was proud of without stress, guilt or going MIA.

Yours could be to post on LinkedIn daily, for example.

2. Keep it simple.

Ask yourself: What's the simplest/easiest solution to solve this problem? What do I have in my tool kit right now that can help with this?

I set up recurring 30-minute tasks in my Google calendar and use a timer on my iPhone to keep track of my time.

3. Look for other people doing what you want in a way you like.

See what they do and how they do it and try their system on for size. There's no need to reinvent the wheel.

I "borrowed" much of my system from Dan Koe's 2-Hour Writer course.

4. Commit to the process of finding a system that works.

You might have to try a couple different ways before one resonates.

And take it from me, if there's a system that works for me, there is a system that will work for you.

The beautiful thing is, when you do find one you won't have to worry if you're "feeling it". And you won't have to apply superhuman levels of will power to stay consistent either.

Here's to systemizing our creativity!

~ Megan

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P.S: If you want to read a really good book on the creative process, I highly recommend "The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life" by Twyla Tharp.

P.P.S: Don't forget to check out the 7 days to your first paying digital marketing client course here if you haven't already.

👋🏼 Hi, I'm Megan! I'm a business coach & digital marketer who spends time in the Bay Area and the mountains of British Columbia. Each week I share stories, ideas, and resources from the online world world to help you get more clients and make more money. Check out my newest course, 7 Days to Your First Paying Digital Marketing Client here.

Let's stay connected!

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