Haven’t you always wanted to take a couple of months and move to the French countryside to write a book like Colin Firth in Love Actually? Or what about writing a Broadway play from a beautiful room with huge windows overlooking the ocean? (Something’s Gotta Give, anyone?). A dream job, right? Is there anything better than turning your passion into your profession?

If you’re thinking that you aren’t creative at all, consider this: When we think of creative activities, painting, photography, songwriting, film making and such come to mind, but there are also less sexy creative professions, such as web design, advertising, marketing, or graphic design, that also require a creative mind! I thought I wasn’t creative until a friend of mine pointed out that I was creating new content constantly! I was so happy when I realized that I was also a creative mind!! 💫

Now, for your passion to become a hobby, you have to take it seriously, and that means hard and consistent work! There’s a difference between creating something as a hobby or as a business. And if you aren’t willing to spend many hours working, you should consider letting hobbies be hobbies.

Strategies to make money with your creativity

A problem – probably the biggest one – with creative professions is when inspiration doesn’t come. Call it writer’s block, lack of focus, or whatever you want. Imagine the recurrent image we see in movies, where a writer is staring at a blank page and doesn’t know how to continue with her novel. Well, unfortunately, that’s more than common! Sometimes, you’ll feel you’re in a flow, and you won’t be able to stop writing… but other days… you won’t even know what your novel was about! So you want to know what the solution to this “problem” is? You need a plan:

1. Take some time to figure out when you’re at your most creative. Is it early in the morning? Late at night? When can you give your best? Once you know, make sure to let enough time slots free in your agenda to work on your creative tasks.
2. Not only time is important, having your “creativity space” is a big help, too! Where do you feel that your creative juices flow? Can you make it accessible and always clean, organized, and with all tools and anything you need ready?
3. Planning and organization have to be part of your daily work. Here are some ideas for you to be as productive as possible:
   • The more routine you can bring into your creative process, the better! Yep, I know that routine and creativity don’t really sound like the perfect combination, but getting to work in a similar way every single day helps. If you don’t believe me, just try! 😉 Sit down every day and try to create. Just write/compose/make. Whatever comes to mind.
   • If you feel that it isn’t going to be a productive session, you could dedicate your planned working hours to non-so-creative tasks, like working on a character’s traits or researching historical backgrounds if you’re a writer, or choosing the best pictures if you’re a photographer, adapting the image sizes to different social media platforms if you’re a blogger… I can’t give you an example for each and every creative professionals out there, but I’m sure that every profession has tasks that are more creative and others that are more technical/automatic.
   • Admin tasks are also fantastic for those days that seem fruitless: writing invoices, researching for customers, networking events, updating your profile on professional platforms, etc. You have to do them anyway, so why not use unproductive days to get them off your desk. Who knows… Sometimes, knowing that you have to do some admin stuff is what’s blocking you from creating!
   • Be careful not to use admin tasks as an excuse to procrastinate for too long. Being busy doesn’t necessarily mean being productive 😉
4. Make sure that you aren’t overwhelmed with work. Sometimes, what you need can just be going outdoors, doing some sport, or taking a day off!

How can I organize my work process if I hate words like routine and planning?

There are two things that I’d like to share with you about creating routines:

1. Having a routine doesn’t necessarily mean having a boring life. On the contrary, it can help you have much more time to spare than you think! You can get up every day without a set time, drive to the beach, and lay in the sun until “the muse” arrives – if she arrives. Or you can have somewhat set times to work on your projects, and then take the rest of the day off and lay in the sun without any remorse.

   This is especially important if you work as a freelancer and you have a deadline to meet. Believe me, you will rather have a well-organized process that lets you work without the pressure of an angry customer!

2. You’re a creative mind, so why not thinking of a “creative” turnaround of what routine means? What works best for me is time-batching. Why? Because working in batches lets me get so focused on one single task that I get much more done than if I were trying to accomplish different things. I call it working with horse blinders. 🤪 The only way for me to create content is taking a couple of days or weeks just to get in the flow. If you think that this could be a solution for you, too, check out this post about batching for freelancers

Recap: How to turn your creativity into a productive business

Let me recap in a couple of sentences: You have to know yourself. That’s all. You have to know when, where and how you work best. Take your time to figure it out and adapt your work routine to yourself. That’s the key.

If you aren’t freelancing yet and aren’t sure how to turn your hobby into a business, feel free to download the free Roadmap to Self-Employment. I hope it helps! If you have any questions, feel free to write them in the comments section below 😉

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