• How coworking holds me accountable

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    Hi friends! Today I wanted to talk about coworking. If you don’t know what coworking is, some people call it body doubling, but it’s basically where you and one or more other people hang out, either virtually or in person to do your own individual work. Like you don’t even have to be doing the same thing. You don’t even have to be talking to each other, you’re just like in the same space doing your own thing at the same time. It sounds really simple, but it has changed my life.

    In January I started hosting coworking sessions and usually they’re between like an hour and a half to two hours long. And I’ve been doing it on an almost weekly basis since January, and I have gotten so much more done during coworking than I would have if I was just doing my own work whenever I’m doing it by myself, it’s kind of ridiculous. 

    I really struggle with motivation, especially to do tasks on a computer. I really don’t enjoy doing a bunch of the administrative stuff that is required on the computer. So since I don’t really enjoy it, I don’t really like set aside a lot of time to do it, and I avoid it and I just like procrastinate on it and it kind of just doesn’t really get done much… but since I’ve been doing coworking, I have like an hour and a half to two hours every week, dedicated to doing stuff on the computer with my friends. I’ve gotten so much done. It’s so much better than doing it by myself. So much better. Yeah. I’ve literally gotten way more done this year than I would have if I was just trying to do it on my own and it’s like, I don’t even always tell my friends what I’m even working on. I’m just like, hey, yeah, let’s get to work. Okay Let’s go and I do it.

    And coworking holds me accountable, like, oh my gosh, coworking holds me accountable better than anything else in terms of like work stuff. So it holds me accountable because it is a scheduled time to do work that’s on a recurring basis. That has helped me so much. So I know like, every Wednesday morning, I’m going to get on Zoom and hang out with my friends, and we’re going to get some work done, and it’s gonna be great. 

    The energy is different, like people join me during these co-working sessions because it’s kind of the point is, you’re not doing it by yourself. So people join me and the energy is different than if I was doing it on my own. It like even if I don’t feel motivated, just knowing that other people are counting on me to be there helps me at least show up and get started. And then once I get started, it’s so much easier to continue. Like, I think the getting started part is the hardest part is like, “oh God, there’s this thing I have to do. There’s all these things I have to do to get ready to do the thing. I don’t want to do it at all.”

    But then if it’s like, okay, today’s Wednesday and it’s coworking day so I’m going to like write down a list of all the things that I’d like to get done and I’m just going to start working on them one by one. And see how much I can do. Oh my gosh, I get so much more done. Sometimes I do more than what’s even on my list and I’m just like, how, how did I just get all the stuff done? If I was trying to do this by myself, I would have only gotten like two things done this whole week, but I just got like five things done in an hour and a half. I don’t know.

    There’s some magic with coworking and there’s probably some like science to it. But I just know that I get like a fuck ton more done when I cowork, than if I’m just trying to do something by myself. It just helps having friendly faces on a computer screen. Even if you’re not even talking to each other, even if you don’t even know what each other’s doing. It’s just like I’m here working on my stuff and my friends are here working on their stuff and just knowing that we’re working on our own stuff in the same time, in the same place, whether that’s virtually or in person. Like I just, there’s so much more motivation for me to actually do the thing because my friends are doing the thing. Why don’t I go ahead and do my thing because I know I need to get it done. Coworking is the best!

    Okay, so I hope that gives you some information about coworking, if you didn’t know what it was before and why I like it so much. If you would like to join me for coworking at some point Wednesdays at 10 a.m. Eastern time. That’s when I do co-working. It’s almost every Wednesday. It’s not every single one because sometimes I have like a tattoo appointment or something, but it’s most Wednesdays at 10 a.m. Eastern. If you’d like to join, I’ll put a link to the Eventbrite below and you can sign up to join me at some point if you want.

     

    Join us for coworking! Register here

    I also sometimes I’m doing them on Tuesdays for my Beyonders, like people that are members of this website and also on my Discord Channel because on Discord. I think I posted about last week. On Discord, you can do events on Discord like video events. So sometimes I’ll just do coworking on Discord too, that’s usually on Tuesday afternoons at 1pm eastern. That’s not every week, just sometimes. But yeah, if I can do coworking at least one day a week, then I can actually get some shit done. And if you’d like to join me. Link is below.

     

    Join us for coworking! Register here

     

    I’m also going to put a link to a survey if there’s any like, certain topic. You’d like to hear from me about, you can let me know in that survey. Yeah I hope you join me at coworking sometime, we get some stuff done, it’s real chill. Yeah and there’s a lot of queer energy because me and my friends are queer. So if you need some queer energy in your life, whether or not we’re even gonna be talking, we’re just hanging out doing our thing. Yeah come join us! Have a great day and I’ll see you soon!

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  • 5 Ways to Support Your Creativity

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    Hi friends! I’m here to talk some more about creativity because I know that that’s something that a lot of you are really interested in and I obviously am also very interested, since that’s like, I’ve turned that into my life. So yeah, I wanted to share with you. I created this like, short list of five ways to support your creativity. I’m just going to dive right in.

    So, I feel like a lot of us think that creativity just like comes to us and we’re just like hit or struck by the like lightning bolt of creativity and it’s something that we don’t really have to like work toward. It’s just something that like happens to us, but from my experience, if I wait for that then it kind of never comes. And you kind of have to like hold space for and create the, like, conditions for creativity to be able to thrive. So this five ways to support your creativity list is something I just came up with this morning because I was thinking about it and I was like, yeah, let me share this with you.

    So the first way that you can support your creativity is by creating a routine, or a ritual, or a habit around it. So whether that’s every morning when you wake up, writing 5 words in your Journal, whether that’s every afternoon after you have lunch you doodle for 5 minutes, whether that’s once a week, you have a day set aside to walk around the park and take pictures. Whatever that works best for you is something that is a repeatable like consistent time that you set aside to do something creative, whether it’s five minutes, an hour, a day. And whether that’s every day, once a week, once a month, just like something that’s consistent that you can be like, oh that’s my day to be creative, and that really helps a lot. Because I feel like if I don’t make time for being creative then it kind of like goes to the wayside and other things become more important than it. So that’s a way that I’m able to make space for and ensure that I have like creative time is what I actually put it on my calendar and turn it into something that’s a regular thing. That’s helped a lot.

    And also I want to say I’m not perfect at any of these. I know that these things work for me, but that doesn’t mean that I always like stick to them because I’m human and things happen and like, same for you. If you miss a week or a day or whatever, like it’s not the end of the world. You can always pick it back up. Don’t beat yourself up because beating yourself up really doesn’t help anything, it just makes you feel worse. So that’s the first one is creating a ritual or habit or routine around your creativity.

    Tip number two is create a space for your creativity. So that kind of goes along with the creating a routine around your creativity. So the routine is kind of like a time a time space, right. So this space that I’m talking about is like a physical space. So whether that’s like I’m going to have a corner of my room, be just for my like notepad and pencil and pens and like all the things that I want like to draw with. I have this like little desk and that’s, that’s my creative desk or it might be you have a whole room. If you have the privilege of having that kind of space, like having like a studio space, and be like, this is my photography studio space. And that’s the only thing that it’s there for, and that is like the dedicated space for my creative photography stuff. If that’s possible, if that’s available to you.

     

    If you don’t have the kind of like physical space like a desk or room, you could also like create temporary physical spaces for your art. So like maybe if you’re a writer, but you don’t have a desk, like maybe you share a desk with another person or you just like have to randomly find a spot in your house to do writing whenever you have time. Maybe to set that space and like turn it into that dedicated space like physical space, you could add some kind of ritual to it, like maybe like get a cup of tea and light a candle and like when you do that your brain is like, “oh I know what we’re about to do. We’re going to be creative because this is what you do every time you’re creative you like get a cup of tea and light a candle”. Like that’s the physical space that’s kind of created through that like repetitive like ritual of like creating like this isn’t my only, you know, I have to share this desk with someone, but when I do these things together, that means that like the space is for creativity.

    Yeah, that’s the second tip or way you can support your creativity and that’s the having a dedicated space for it. Whether that’s like physical or whether that’s something that you set up temporarily.

    The third way to support your creativity is to set a timer and do something, anything. So if I’m like, I don’t know what I want to do. Maybe I’ll just set like a five or ten minute or fifteen, however long timer you want on your phone and just like Doodle Draw Journal, take random photos, experiment like whatever your creative thing you want to work on is, do like five minutes of that. Even if you’re like, I have no idea what I’m doing. Just be like, it’s okay I don’t have any idea. I’m just going to experiment and play and I’m just gonna do it for five minutes. I’m just going to do it for 10 minutes. Whatever that time is that you’re able to alot. So within that ritual and routine of the first like time ritual, the first tip or way that you can support your creativity, that time ritual can be once a week. I’m going to at least five minutes. Every day, I’m gonna do three minutes of doodling, whatever.

    And then you have also that dedicated physical space, that’s either permanent or temporary where you set a timer and do the thing. Just be like, I’m just gonna do it, whether you like it or not like is maybe not as important because you doing the thing is going to help your brain and your body remember like, this is a thing that I like to do and I do it repetitively and… no one is perfect 100% of the time. Like that just doesn’t exist. Sometimes we just need to give ourselves the space to like make a bunch of shitty art and that makes the space for us to have like the art that we super love. The time that you know, everything comes together perfectly. So as long as you’re just doing it, whatever it is and it doesn’t have to be perfect. Let the perfection go out the window, because that’s not important. It’s the act of doing it. When you do it, it’s more likely that you’re going to get something that you like because you’re doing instead of not doing it.

    The fourth way you can support your creativity is through having, whatever your creative supplies are… so like if your’re a writer, your pens or pencils. If you’re like a sculptor, then your sculpting supplies. If you’re an animator or something, then your computer or your like markers or, as a photographer like me your camera, your maybe your tripod, whatever, whatever the tools are that you use for your creativity, put those in a space that you see often, and that it’s easy to reach and like “Oh my camera’s right there, I’m just going to grab it and take a few photos because I like I’m inspired!” If the tools that you use for your creativity are like hidden away, then it’s going to be harder for you to like see them and be like, “oh I have an idea” or it’s also going to be like a barrier to getting you to doing the thing. It’s like, oh, everything’s packed away. I don’t really feel like unpacking all that stuff right now. I’m just not going to do it. 

    Like make it really easy on yourself. Have it somewhere that’s like in plain view, easy to reach, easy to get to. So that as soon as you feel the like creative urge then you can just be like, I got it. Let’s go. Let’s do it! So that’s the fourth way that you can support your creativity, is having your supplies in an easy to see and easy to reach place. Having it just being easy on yourself.

    The fifth and final way to support your creativity is to have an accountability buddy, like have a friend that you say I’m gonna do art every Friday at 4:00 for five minutes or however long. But at least five minutes, every Friday 4:00. Tell your friend, be like is a thing that I really want to do and actually like think it’s going to be good for me and I’m telling you because I don’t want to just hold myself accountable. I’m hoping that you might also hold me accountable to doing this thing every Friday. And you don’t have to do with me. I just maybe… can you check in on me and see if I was able to do it every Friday, like maybe in the evenings like 5:00 or 6:00, see if I was able to do the creative thing at 4. Just having a friend that you can talk to about it and like to remind you or support you or encourage you through doing this thing. It’s really helpful.

    And even if it’s not just like a single person. Maybe you’re going to post, maybe go post on social media be like “hey, this is my day and time to do this thing. Just telling everybody, I’d love to hear what your like art routine is.” Just if you are able to put it out into the world in a way that’s not just like it’s just something you’re doing for yourself, it’s some you’re doing that other people know about you’re more likely to do it and like hold yourself accountable whether other people that are also holding you accountable to doing it.

    You also kind of in that same accountability vein, you could do like a co-working or body doubling session with someone or a group of people. Coworking and body doubling to me, I kindof use them interchangeably, but it’s basically like having a set day of time where you and one or more people get together, virtually, or in person, to do your own work individually, but like in the same space either in person or virtually.

    So like for instance, maybe on Zoom every Friday at 4:00 is the time that I meet up with like two of my friends and we all like, we’re all in the same place, we might like chat in the chat box. But what we’re really doing is, like, focusing on doing whatever projects are working on. We’re going through photos, we’re writing up letters or, you know, but if it’s… it’s not necessarily like these are the things that I’m doing here. Will you make sure I do them? And also this is all the stuff that I’m doing, like, while I’m doing it. It’s more of like, you can do that. You don’t even have to really talk about what you’re doing. You can just be like, hey I’m going to do this thing. Thanks for being here with me. Let’s do it. Okay, bye.

     

    And then you’re like, sitting all on the computer and doing your own individual work. You’re just together in a space. That’s another way for like accountability. Because like whether or not you actually discuss what it is you’re doing, which you can, or you don’t have to, just having another person working alongside you on their own stuff is like a lot of encouragement and accountability for you to also do whatever your stuff is. So yay, that’s the five ways to support your creativity! And I’m going to go through those again really quickly just because I feel like I rambled.

    So here’s the list, five ways to support your creativity: create a ritual routine or habit around it. Have a dedicated space for your creative project or idea or thing. Set a timer and do something, anything, even if it’s like five minutes. Get accountability buddy or co-worker or body double. And store your supplies and a place that’s easy to reach and see so that you can use them in a pinch really quickly. 

    Yay! Creative things! If you liked this, please let me know. I might do more videos like this if you’re interested, I’ll put the link to my survey below and you can let me know what kinds of things you want to hear from me if you haven’t yet. And if there’s something that you want to like you want me to talk about that I haven’t yet. I’d be happy to hear your feedback. 

    Survey link is below and yeah, I want to make the things that you’re excited about receiving from me. So yeah, hope you have a wonderful day. I hope these tips to support your creativity are helpful to you, and I hope that you have an awesome day, weekend, whatever time it is where you are, okay. Have fun being creative! Support your art dreams! I love you so much! Thank you for being here!

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