Keep Going: 10 Ways to Stay Creative in Good Times and Bad

by Austin Kleon

When you don’t have much time, a routine helps you make the little time you have count. When you have all the time in the world, a routine helps you make sure you don’t waste it.

I like to look back at the end of each year and see where I’ve been, so I’ll make a “Top 100” list of favorite trips, life events, books, records, movies, etc.

The great artists are able to retain this sense of playfulness throughout their careers. Art and the artist both suffer most when the artist gets too heavy, too focused on results.

When you start making a living from your work, resist the urge to monetize every single bit of your creative practice. Be sure there’s at least a tiny part of you that’s off-limits to the marketplace. Some little piece that you keep for yourself.

You never know when a gift made for a single person will turn into a gift for the whole world. Consider how many bestselling stories began their life as bedtime stories for specific children. A. A. Milne made up Winnie-the-Pooh for his son, Christopher Robin Milne.

“I would often catch myself spending more time with the wall label in a museum than with the painting I was supposed to be looking at!”

Because drawing is really an exercise in seeing, you can suck at drawing and still get a ton out of it.

When you have a system for going back through your work, you can better see the bigger picture of what you’ve been up to, and what you should do next.

Keep your tools organized and your materials messy.

Neuroscientists have explained that cerebrospinal fluid in your brain starts flowing more rapidly when you sleep, clearing out the toxins and bad proteins that build up in your brain cells.

“I walked myself into my best thoughts.” —Søren Kierkegaard

Worry less about getting things done. Worry more about things worth doing.

Worry less about making a mark. Worry more about leaving things better than you found them.