The focus of my life currently is this:

PRODUCE MORE. CONSUME LESS.

It’s a bold statement. With so much great stuff on the internet, and with it being so easy to be sucked into Pinterest, Instagram, blogs, and galleries, I’m needing to step back all the more. We consume so many things every day that actively trying to produce more than that is a big feat. There are two ways of doing it: either producing more than a hundred things per day, or drastically reducing how much you consume and making more than that number. I don’t want what I make to be influenced by someone else’s. I don’t want to be comparing how much I make. I don’t want to be making less because I’m too busy staring in awe at someone else’s stuff. I want my Ideas book to be a to do list and I want to get. shit. done.

There are a million reasons why I want to consume less and the number one reason is to produce more. I want to make a lot of stuff. I want to make up for lost time. I want to record all my memories before I lose them. I want to make a whole bunch of rubbish stuff so that I can get to making the good stuff.

And so I made an action plan. Here are the ways that I’m shifting my default to producing instead of consuming.

Podcast Show Notes

IN THIS EPISODE, WE DISCUSS 70 WAYS TO PRODUCE MORE THAN YOU CONSUME

• Make things.
• Throw away fears of making embarrassing things.
• Work towards becoming a master.
• Set specific times for creating.
• Get away from technology.
• Change your environment.
• Clean up your desk.
• Reorganise your work space.
• Leave your cellphone in another room.
• Use distraction-free writing.
• Start with the products.
• Start with the photos.
• Schedule an amount of time to make something.
• Finish unfinished projects.
• Keep an unfinished projects box.
• If you no longer love a project, release the guilt and throw it away.
• Make something that doesn’t require preparation.
• Make an action plan.
• Turn creating into a habit.
• Wake up earlier.
• Stop making excuses.
• You don’t not have time.
• You don’t not have supplies.
• You don’t not have talent.
• You don’t not have motivation. You don’t not have ideas.
• Work with one tab open.
• Give yourself time to just think.
• Give yourself time to be bored.
• Work within boundaries.
• Find a community.
• Find an accountability partner.
• Join a challenge.
• Start your own challenge.
• Use your ideas notebook as a to do list.
• Use someone else’s project as inspiration.
• Try something completely new.
• Go for a walk.
• Unsubscribe from as many mailing lists as you can.
• Unfollow as many blogs as you can.
• Unfollow people on Instagram.
• Turn off automatic notifications on your phone.
• Delete as many apps off your phone as possible.
• Move the tempting apps.
• Take away internet bookmarks.
• Make it difficult for yourself to consume.
• Actually finish an online course that you’ve bought.
• Share your work.
• Do something creative repeatedly.
• Use a new tool or creative method.
• Learn a new skill.
• Sketch.
• Go on a photo walk.
• Give yourself a requirement when reading a blog.
• Set aside time for consuming.
• Have a social media fast.
• Know yourself and how you are feeling on a specific day.
• Take a creative break.
• Keep a running to do list so that your mind is not cluttered.
• Record your creative time and hone it.
• Reduce distractions.
• Use non-distracting sounds.
• Make use of the Pomodoro technique.
• Use distracting music.
• Have a “creating encouragement song”.
• Make a list of things that you have already created.
• Practise meditation.
• Maintain inbox zero and have an uncluttered computer.
• Make a plan and plan it to the letter before creating.
• Be spontaneous and just make.
• Remind yourself of this: Everyone, if they’re consistent, will eventually achieve something massive.