Keeping Your Creative Momentum

Don't Prevent Yourself from Starting

Author

Music Makers Handbook
October 30, 2023

There have been three key books I have read this year that has shaped how I am approaching both my creative output and my daily productivity. One of those books is Building a Second Brain by Tiago Forte.

Tiago Forte

Tiago is a writer, creator, and professional organizer… yes I said PROFESSIONAL Organizer. He structured a concept called “Building A Second Brain”, the specifics of which we will dive into on another week, but alongside that he gives actionable tips to be more productive with your creativity. One such tip was something he learned from Ernest Hemingway called the “Hemingway Bridge”, here is an excerpt from his book “Building A Second Brain” talking about the strategy:

Ernest Hemingway was one of the most recognized and influential novelists of the twentieth century. He wrote in an economical, understated style that profoundly influenced a generation of writers and led to his winning the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954.

Besides his prolific works, Hemingway was known for a particular writing strategy, which I call the "Hemingway Bridge." He would always end a writing session only when he knew what came next in the story. Instead of exhausting every last idea and bit of energy, he would stop when the next plot point became clear. This meant that the next time he sat down to work on his story, he knew exactly where to start. He built himself a bridge to the next day, using today's energy and momentum to fuel tomorrow's writing.*

You can think of a Hemingway Bridge as a bridge between the islands in your Archipelago of Ideas. You may have the islands, but that is just the first step. The much more challenging work is linking them together into something that makes sense, whether it is a piece of writing, the design of an event, or a business pitch. The Hemingway Bridge is a way of making each creative leap from one island to the next less dramatic and risky: you keep some energy and imagination in reserve and use it as a launchpad for the next step in your progress.

*excerpt from “Building A Second Brain” pg 186

I think one of the biggest things that prevents us from getting started on our creative projects is literally that… GETTING STARTED. This is also made more frustrating by the fact that most people only have an hour or two per day (or per week) to actually work on their creative projects. You are already stressed about the minimal amount of time you have to work diligently, but by ending your work in a place that’s easy to pick up it becomes easier to create the moments where you find yourself in the flow state. If getting started is the hardest part then finding a way to make it more accessible will help you optimize the minimal amount of time you have to spend being creative.

If this is something that peaks your interest I would highly recommend Tiago Forte’s book “Building A Second Brain” and his Youtube Channel where he talks about digital organization and productivity for the creative mind. I’m also excited to talk about how that book helped me fix a lot of my organization problems more in the future of the newsletter!

Until then,
Keep on Creating
- drû

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