I have created a monster in my head, and although it is a mild-mannered monster, it is constantly pestering me with things to do. This is my own Frankenstein. I created it from the many parts of my different creative desires that I have going on upstairs.

The problem I am having is how to manage the beast now that I have electrified life into the very veins of its being. It is getting out of control, and although it is seeking that affection, it has a vast curiosity, a lust to learn new things. If I am not careful, it will be the end of me.

You see, I have a hundred ideas going on inside my head. Some of the ideas are for the next YouTube video or the video after that. Some ideas are for the blog that I want to write tonight, tomorrow or the next day. Some ideas are for making a podcast, writing an online self-help book, a series of Instagram updates, or a simple update on the family Facebook page. It’s all going on inside my head. Stitched together by the simple desire to achieve something that will lead to my creative fulfilment for the day

The problem with all of this is that it is badly knitted together. The ideas and the energy to complete them are spread all over the place. There is no organisation in my head, and the desire to get something done can lead me to jump around the various projects. I am sure that this approach is not the best for maximising productivity.

The energy involved in task switching between projects alone is hugely draining, never mind managing down my mood so as not to be constantly in the creative mode.

Oh, what to do?

The answer apparently is to batch create. This is according to the online productivity gurus. You know, the guys you see on YouTube preaching how to do things quicker, better, more efficiently when you ask Youtube the question about increasing your personal productivity. Each of them to a person talks a lot of sense, and many central themes are running through the core of what they teach.

Batching your workload is one of the core ideas. Schedule into your calendar days to do specific tasks and stick to that schedule, they say. If you write blogs, write them all on a Monday. If You make YouTube videos, then shoot all the content on one day, edit on one of the other days and publish it to your channel on another day. Schedule a creative week off-grid every quarter (not possible for me) and make the week off the grid, a week that you are engaged with nature (I like the nature idea)and schedule in the business side of the creativity… (the what?)

The weekly batching sounds simple, and although I have to schedule around the day job, I think I could adopt some practices gained from the principles of batching. I need to work out what parts of my monster to batch and what is good enough to remain flexible with and stitch that it together that way.

The good news is that there is an order to all of this, and apparently, you should always strive to keep it in place. The order is based on the one rule of thumb provided by the productivity guys.

This golden rule is that you should CREATE BEFORE YOU MANAGE.

That I can get, count me in for doing the creating first. That is the only way to go.

However, do I have to do the ‘manage’ part because that part is the monster that I find the hardest to control?

That part is the wolf in sheep’s clothing of productivity. That’s the part that keeps me up at night. That is the Edward Hyde to my Henry Jekyll.

That’s the part that will kill my creativity.

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