Kevin Richardson describes the issue of matching your times of creativity with your life's schedule. As a father of many youngsters, this resonates with me — I know exactly what he means.
As a result, this impromptu late night motivation is essentially wasted. If only I could bottle it and save it for the morning… While I occasionally indulge myself by working a late night just to scratch my creative itch, I know it’s not practical to work that into my routine.
I love his conclusion as well, but I also have a few methods of actually capturing the inspiration. When an idea or a creative direction strike me in the late evening, I do one thing: write it down. I get a big pad if I need to sketch, or a separate piece of paper that captures the project or idea. I get it all out of my head.
Then, when time allows, I knock off as many little pieces of the task as possible. The key for me is remembering not to buy into the guilt. Rather, I remind myself that even a small bit of progress is just that — progress. And so I do my best to break that idea, that inspiration, into pieces as small as possible, then move them forward. It's slow, but at least the idea isn't lost in the business of the workday and its minutiae.
For me, the key is knowing that the creativity may not be there in the morning, but the motivation is. So if I can capture enough of the creativity when it strikes, the motivation will keep me moving forward.
