#107 - Planning Doesn’t Kill Creativity — It Protects It

- How I separate ideas from tasks, plan by energy, and keep marketing simple - 

Planning doesn’t have to kill creativity. In this episode, I share how I plan with a neurodivergent, creative brain—lightly. Using examples from some of my clients, I separate ideas from tasks, choose one daily priority, and use soft time blocks guided by energy instead of the clock. I talk about how Bullet Journaling® supports me (without needing pretty pages), how I turned my phone into a tool, and why monthly/weekly/daily funnels keep my daily list truly doable. If you’ve tried rigid systems and rebelled, this is for you. Planning can protect your freedom, help you make more, and keep your marketing consistent—without heroic last-minute sprints.

FULL SHOWNOTES WITH LINKS: https://www.ja-wol.com/blogs/podcast/107

 You know me as a guide, mentor and teacher, but I've also set off on a new adventure, coaching. Coaching gets a bad rep sometimes, but when it's done right, it can be really transformational. As part of my coaching education, I'll soon need to do real coaching sessions. And it could be a really great opportunity for you to experience it at no or low cost. If you've ever been curious about working with me in this way, now's the time. Just send me an email: info@ja-wol.com

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Studio Peek
• 1:26 Today’s Focus: Planning That Works
• 2:02 Phone As Tool And A Near Miss
• 3:21 Scaffolding For An ADHD Brain
• 6:04 Bullet Journal Basics Demystified
• 7:30 Systems, Phones, And Daily Cues
• 10:18 Punk Against Shoulds: Gentle Structure
• 13:22 Flexible Methods For Real Lives
• 15:10 Planning With A Community Lens
• 17:26 False Beliefs About Planning
• 19:22 Simplify So The Necessary Speaks
• 21:22 Separate Ideas From Today’s List
• 23:06 Four-Step Daily Planning Exercise
• 26:04 Energy, Sleep, And Timing Work
• 28:10 Time Blocks Held Lightly
• 30:10 Theme Days And Planning Mondays
• 32:02 Make Space For Making
• 34:06 Try, Adapt, And Try Again
• 36:10 Recap, Invite, And YouTube Vlog

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Hey and welcome to Patent Shift. I'm Saskia, creative life and business coach for fiber-loving makers, teachers, designers, shop owners, and all-around creative. I help you wayfind your next step, organize your business to fit your life, and launch ideas with joyful action. Together we'll untangle the tricky bits like branding, marketing and sales, and build something sustainable, skillful, and truly you. Hello and welcome back. This is the third time I'm actually recording the podcast also on video. So if you're more that type of person, if you hang out on YouTube more, perhaps that is something that you want to check out and see what my office slash studio slash what is it? I do everything. This is just my my room. And I have my writing desk to the back of me. I'm sitting at my computer slash sewing desk. I've got a day bed here for whatever I have a guest or we have a guest. So that this is kind of also a guest room. But I really think it's quite full and it's hardly ever used as a guest room. And perhaps I should rethink all of this sometime. But not today. Today we're talking about a thing that is such a big part of I think almost everybody's life. And especially if you run a small business, and especially if you need help getting the things in your head, out of your head, organized, and remembering the things you want to and also need to do. We're talking about planning, and it's been everywhere for me this last few days, I want to say. Last weekend, it's Monday when I'm recording this, and last weekend, writer Carol of the Bullet Journal Method put out a video on YouTube about turning his phone into more of a tool rather than like the time suck that it is for a lot of us. And so I have in full ADHD mode, I was into it. I was like, I'm doing this, and so he made this PDF that was kind of helpful in the step-by-step process, but also it took me way longer than I anticipated, and so kind of mid-redecorating of my phone, rebuilding my phone. I was walking Skip the dog, and some little burst of energy or whatever, a birdie inside my head said, Hmm, check your phone. And I did, and I had a coaching session planned in five minutes, and that's great. I can really I'm really good at dropping into my body and just sitting in front of my computer and being in the moment and completely locking into the coaching experience. No problem. The only problem was it was in five minutes and I was 10 minutes away from my house. So this would have normally never, or not never, but it would have normally not happened to me because I know this is this brain works in that way. So I need to have a lot of scaffolding. I need to have a lot of things in place that support the way my brain works and support me in an environment that isn't all that flexible with these kinds of things, with people forgetting about things. I've lost friendship over this, over forgetting an appointment, and then that completely blew up, and I was like, what? But that's for that's a whole different story. But just to say that if you know about yourself that you need stuff in place to help you organize your life, remember things, then what you naturally do is try out different things and see what sticks. And so I don't necessarily have things that work for me, but I'm also always curious to learn more and to see what works better or differently or matches this chapter of my life better or whatever. And so luckily my client was very understanding and flexible. Thank you so much. Again, you know who you are, and that was fine because most people are very nice and flexible and they understand. And I managed to build a group of people and friends around me that really understand that this is sometimes how it works for me. I also have to, well, not have to. What I started doing is ask my friends if they can send me a text before we have a date or before we are doing something together. The night before, or just like an hour before, and none of them have an issue doing that. They just, I mean, it helps them as well because I'll show up, and that is just one of the scaffolding things that I have in place. I I'm accepting who I am, I'm accepting that I'm definitely not perfect, and this is a struggle for me, it's a challenge, and so I may ask people to help me. They may tell me that they don't want to, and that is okay too, as well. It's very layered. Then, of course, I have the Bula journal method, which is the most well, there's so much to it, and I don't want to say there's so much to it because I'm so afraid that if I I want everybody to try it, really seriously. It's very simple. When you start out in the beginning, it's very simple and it gets layered over time and it will bring you more and more and more, but you learn along the way. So, in the beginning, it's super super simple. So don't be afraid to try. Okay, I'm gonna leave that there. So bullet journaling works amazingly for me. Then a digital calendar with reminders, sometimes I need extra reminders, also works well. But during the day, I have moments and behaviors that are aligned with getting all those bits and pieces of information in front of me. Of course, your phone is something that you look at regularly, but if you don't have your calendar front and center, then you'll not notice what's in it. And so the way you set up your phone is definitely very important. Where your bullet journal is, whether you use a big one that's always in your bag or always on your desk, or a small one that you bring with you wherever you go, all those things you will only know what works if you try it, if you have an open mind, if you're curious. So, what else was happening with the planning? Let me let me go back. So, yeah, the ironic thing was that I was changing my phone in order to make it less time-sucking for me, so that's connected to planning in a way. And then what happens is that during this whole makeover, I didn't get those messages that I usually in place. Then I was intrigued by the topic. I it's always something that's been very interesting for me. Even when I was in high school, I had no idea that I had ADHD. I was just a little different from my friends when it came to making my homework and having things uh delivered in time and things like that. Even then, I was fascinated by it. I was always fascinated by notebooks and pens and calendars and schedules and always loved it because there's a part of me that really it's almost like a yearning, yearns to have this figured out. Especially when there's like pretty notebooks and pens and things, but there's also the part of me that is full-on punk, punk rocker, whatever, that says F you, I'm not doing that. And if you are in my H and music type group, if I say F you, I won't do what you tell me. I was at Pink Bop a festival where that was performed, and I definitely was yelling along with that lyric a lot. And I'm still a little bit that way. If you tell me to do something because I have to, then I'll just go, yeah, whatever, not happening. And the funny thing is also if I tell myself, it doesn't really matter. If I tell myself I have to do something, I will rebel against myself. So over the years I have learned that this you kind of hold it like a bird, right? Uh you could you have to hold a bird in in such a way that it doesn't fly away, but you cannot crush it because it's really, I mean, sorry for those visual learners and the people that have images with that. You have to hold it lightly. So being flexible with structure that works. But what does that look like? I cannot tell you what that looks like for you because it is different for everybody. I can, however, tell you and talk to you about different things to try, and that the bullet journal is that in itself. It is a flexible method that can work for everybody if you give it a try. It's not what a lot of people think, isn't it doesn't have to be pretty, you don't have to have a beautiful handwriting, you do have to be able to read your handwriting. I think being able to read your handwriting is like the yeah, that's the low, that's where you step in, that's where you start. That's it. It doesn't have to be pretty at all. It's a tool. I think in time, you can, if you like, if it becomes a muscle that you have flexed, it be can become pretty if you want to, but it doesn't have to be. It's a tool. Okay, enough about bullet journal for now. I want to talk more about the general thing around planning. So I have, I'm gonna show you a little bit more of how I work and who I am. In my business circle membership, we have small businesses from the creative industry, fiber craft industry, and a therapist as well. So every everyone's welcome. It's not just for fiber-related business owners. So we work together every month. We have a wins and woes session, and actually we have a wins and woe session every week, but I join in every month and I usually bring a topic that we talk about a little bit more in depth. And this time I was like, oh, let's talk about planning. And the funny thing is that I'm supposed to put the little bit of an exercise or a thought challenge into the community about a week ahead, and it's in my calendar, and sometimes I forget because it looks the same. I think I'm just realizing that I'm thinking, why? Why do I see it? And then sometimes my life doesn't fold around the things I need to do, and sometimes I'm so used to seeing it in my calendar because it the wins and woes session shows up every week for me, every Monday, but I'm not there every week, so it doesn't jump out at me, and I'm realizing in this moment that it would be really good for me to take out all of the other wins and woes on the on the Mondays that I'm not there because I don't need to be there. They're working with the with a group with without me. And then that way, the the one that is once a month when I'm there, then that way I will see it and it will be more clear to me. Alright, so that was just a little bit of a side side journey there. So I was a little late with the exercise, so that was another layer to the planning. And of course, I I gave them something that was doable within the weekend. So I was at the beginning of the weekend, I made the exercise for them to think about and do a little thing so that in our Monday session we could work on it together. And then there is there's someone in a group that really needs to know things in advance because otherwise she won't think of it, she will not have the time. There's other people there that will only notice it sometimes like the evening before we get together, and then quickly start doing the exercise as well. So there's lots of different people and different ways of dealing with that kind of thing in our group. And it was really fun because I decided to make this topic about planning and just checking in how everybody is doing with planning. Of course, they all took the course that I made, the business circle course. And there's a lot about planning in there. Doesn't necessarily mean that people are doing all of the things that I come up with. It's up to them. And if it fits you, it fits, and if it doesn't, it doesn't. And of course, I talk about bullet journaling and how great it is and how it's wonderful for everyone, but doesn't mean that their curiosity that they even want to try. They have to try that, they have to decide that for themselves. I cannot do that for them. So we have a group of people that are very much similar, but also very different in the way they plan. And it was a really great session. It was just this morning, and we're at lunchtime now, so it's not even that long ago. And I just decided to talk about it a little bit more here on the podcast as well, because I think there's a lot of thoughts around planning and business specifically that might not have to be true necessarily. So I think there's a couple of false beliefs around planning, and one of them is planning kills the creativity, or I need to be flexible with it, I'll do my best work last minutes, and if I have too many systems, I will be boxed in and it won't work for me. So what I've learned over working with planning, just not using planning for work, but also working with planning. Oh, I just I just whacked my water bottle in my enthusiastic Italian way of talking with my hands. I there's nothing Italian in me. I did one of those tests and I'm like fully, fully Belgian Netherlands, Southern Netherlands. There's nothing. Well, I think there's a little bit English in me somewhere, but it's very, very organized. I have ancestry going back to 1700, whatever, all in one place on one side of the family. They just they were there, they thought this is good, we're not moving, we're sticking here, and they're still there. And now my watch is talking to me, interestingly. So, where was I? Yeah, so so people have some some beliefs around planning that I think it's important to talk about because what I've learned is that a simple planning rhythm that fits you actually creates a lot of freedom, and you can protect your creative time so you actually have time to still create things and make things because that's what happens a lot. Like we focus on all these to-dos, these endless to-do lists, and we end up losing time to make and create. And I brought in a quote to the session that I want to share with you as well. As as these things go, funnily enough, it showed up on my Waking U app. It's the app I use for meditating. And this goes back to re reorganizing my phone. Since I've done that, I've actually meditated twice. And I started doing this three days ago, and so it's working so far because the idea is that you have a phone that helps you, supports you in what you want to and need to do, and not all the other things that grabs your attention. And so in this waking up app this morning, I saw this quote, and it's completely to the topic. It's by Hans Hoffmann, who's uh an artist, and it says the ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak. Now that was just perfect to bring that into our group session, because if you can simplify, if you can eliminate all of the blah and all of the clutter from your to-do list, then you can focus on what actually needs to happen actually in that moment. I mean, it it can also need to happen in another moment, but decluttering your to-do list and focusing on what's actually necessary is that's just where it starts. And so I want to talk about what I heard my clients talk about is that having these to-do lists that are just like never-ending and just adding things to it, and then in one day you're lucky if you can get one thing done, but it's focused on finishing the things on the to-do list, it's not focusing on whatever what gets on the to-do list in the first place, and and does that thing actually need to happen today, or at all for that matter? So what really jumps up at me in the conversation is that ideas end up in the to-do list, like all these things I want to do, want to try out, put them all on the to-do list. But your the list of things you need to do today is the list of things you need to do today. And so there's a difference between keeping a running list of creative ideas or marketing ideas for that matter, or things you want to try out with your business, or books you want to read, or whatever. Don't put them all in one list, have focus per month, per week, per day. But for the sake of simplicity, let's just talk about a day. Just make a list of what is feasibly doable. Is that double? Is that like playing the other one? What is doable actually today in terms of time, in terms of energy level, and in terms of sometimes even budget. There's lots of things I want to do that I cannot do. So, yeah, sit down at the beginning. If you want to try something, let's just try this, first of all. At the beginning of your day, think about what actually needs doing today. The second step is look at those things and think about how much time they will take, how much time you have in the day, and what you will actually be able to do. So a bunch of those things will have to go off the list. Don't worry about it. You can put them somewhere else on another list, but your day list is going to be smaller. And then look at perhaps you'll have three or four things left. Should it should be something like that? And then look at those things and decide which one thing will bring your business forward, will make you happier, healthier, the thing that matches the day. So if it's a weekend, if you're not working working, focus on yourself. If it's a working day, what's the one thing that'll bring your business forward today? One thing. Priority means one thing. It's not seven priorities, it's one priority. And then that one thing gets moved to the top, gets stars, I don't know, stickers, whatever. If you like to embellish it, do that. If you want to do it in another color, do that. But make sure that that thing really gets done. And if for you that means you have to, I never remember if it's eating the frog or biting the frog or licking the frog. You do something gross with a frog, do that thing first. But for some people, that just doesn't work. They freeze and they're like, can't, can't, won't. So then do something small, something else, a small thing first. Get your gears going and then do the other thing. That is something that is small and doable, and that you can try for yourself. And let's do it for a week. Every day do a to-do list that is actually doable. Then with all the things you want to do, step two, then you cross off the things that you cannot do. You focus on just the things that you can manage to do in terms of time, energy, and all the other things, budget. And then next step, third step, is decide the priority. So you're now three pages, you've used up three pages of something. It can be a notebook, it can also be like for all doesn't matter right now, it can be post-it notes, but practice this week to know what is actually doable and what is your priority, and then the next day, that's step four. The next day, go back and look at what you actually finished, what you actually did. If you have that kind of brain that I do, sometimes in no time, I almost write a whole book, depending on how locked in I am. And sometimes it takes me weeks to do a simple task. But with the way of doing it like this and teaching yourself what is real and what is doable is really helpful in building a muscle that after a while you don't even have to really think about it. You already know that I can do this today, or that is just wishful thinking or dreaming. And dreaming is good, wishful thinking is great, but do it on another list. So I hope that is a good exercise that you can do, practice, getting a little bit more into what is real and realistic. So going back to that idea that planning kills flexibility and creativity, I need to do things last minute, systems box me in. I think that if you build a simple practice that is something to hold on to, an anchor, that it will be super, super helpful to guide you along to do the things that you need to do. You have to be kind to yourself and you have to know about yourself how much energy you have, what times of day are the best times for you to do work. So you can put some time in thinking about that. Perhaps you already know. I I actually did a lot of reading about sleep rhythms and everything to do with sleep, the book that Matthew Walker wrote. I think it's just called Sleep. I don't know. Let me look that up. It's called Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker. I read that book and I learned so much about how I sleep, why I need to work on my sleep hygiene, as they call it, and where my energy levels are highest in the day, all that kind of thing. And with this example, you see that it's not just about following some sort of uh planning method, it is so layered, it is connected to how you sleep, it's actually even connected to how you eat, how you do anything in life, what days look like, what your family looks like. It's connected to all the things. I'm realizing that with a dog and a house that has three levels, let me count one, two, three, four levels, including the lowest one. Four levels, the house is not ideal to have a dog. So it's it's something that you kind of have to plan around. So I have an itchy nose, I don't know why. So even that needs planning around. I am sitting here recording on the second level with the puppy sleeping downstairs. She's in a pen, and I have a ring camera so that I can, if she starts borking, I can see what's going on and can decide whether or not I need to go downstairs or stay here, and I don't have to walk down two stairs and wake and like have to stay there anyway, because now I'm there and now she wants me there. And so what I'm saying is that planning is connected to so many parts of your life. So learn about your energy levels, learn about your brain, how is it wired? What does it need? What do you need? And keep an open mind. Perhaps you need visual planning, need a big calendar on your door or wall. Or we talked about a pie chart for the week, just to have like colored in how much time you spend on things this week and make it colorful. I don't know, be creative. If you want to be creative, find a creative way. Then there's of course time blocks in the neurodivergent world, they say don't work for us. That's not necessarily true. They work perfectly for me as long as I hold them lightly like a bird. So the morning time for me is about me and the dog, and about creativity and moving my body. So I do exercise and walk the dog. The long walk is in the morning or at lunchtime, kind of. And then the rest of the day is more focused towards work. That also has to do with the way that my energy flows throughout the day. And I'm rebuilding that whole structure that I had perfectly in place before we got the puppy, but I'm rebuilding it to match a life with a puppy, with a house that has levels, with my energy level, with I'm working on it. So I've got the morning until lunch kind of covered, and then one or two hour work hours I have after lunch. So up until then, I have we have a routine, kind of. And it takes time to do the rest of it. So what else can I talk about? Different ways of planning. So yeah, the the time blocking. So if you hold it lightly, if you have I just have big blocks. My blocks are about self-care, work, nighttime, social time. That works for me. And then you can have themed days. I used to work with themed days for years. Like, so what would I do? Administration was one day, paperwork, creating was a day. I did it also with a shop. I think organizing the shop. Like I themed my days, which gave me something to hold on to so that I knew what to do when. And now what's left of my theme days is that I have Mondays are always for planning, interestingly enough. So Monday morning is when I plan my day, week, or month. Oh, actually, my day and week always, and month every every three, every other three Mondays or four. And then like at the beginning of the month, I have a Monday where the month, the week, and the day gets planned. And the other Mondays are the start of the week and the Monday as a day. And then every morning is planning of the day. I have themed days or themed mornings and blocks that kind of so I my time blocks are, I just explained about my time blocks. The morning is also for planning. And the Monday specifically is for planning the week or the month, depending on what time of in the month it is. And so Monday is definitely very much planning focused, which is also a really good thing to realize that planning takes time. You have to set time to plan before it can give time back to you. So going back to the beginning of what we were saying, if you are able to declutter all the things you think you need to do in the moment, you can, if you learn how to work with that, you can actually get back more time and learn to focus on what's important so that you also have time to actually do crafts, which I do in the morning. And a lot of my clients, whether they are coaching clients or in the business circle, they struggle with finding time to create. And you really have to plan time for it and allow yourself time for it. And it doesn't mean that it has to be an alarm on your phone. If that helps, that helps. But perhaps it's just I get to craft every evening. And whatever that looks like, that's good. Or I get to watch a movie every I did Monday morning movies for a whole time, a whole while when I was not feeling super energetic, not feeling all that well, all that strong mentally, I think at the time. And I just needed to allow myself to not really do anything, but I also felt like I needed a little bit of constraint because otherwise I would kind of watch TV all day. So I would allow myself Monday morning movie to just really let go of all the have-tos and just enjoy that movie. And once it was done, the rest of the day could start. So whichever way you love to plan your work, your days, your life, what I want you to take away from this is that hold it lightly like a bird, be curious, learn about yourself, who you are, how you work as a person, as an entity, a machine, and try out new things. They might be wonderful, they might be something that you haven't thought of before that just clicks. And sometimes you have to try it seven times before it clicks. I mean, have you ever do you remember when you started to learn how to knit socks on double-pointed needles? If you know what I'm talking about, the beginning was oh my god, so frustrating. And then somebody said, No, you should do that on circulars and then do magic loop. And you're like, I don't know, man, what is this? I cannot, I don't follow. Or it went the other way around. Doesn't matter. There's different ways to do the same thing. Some of these things are right away, they click, they're your thing, you're like, This is me. And some of them you have to practice and you get better at it over time. They might not be like this magical solution, and you get everything done whenever you want them done. I mean, I started with all these examples from my life. I work with people around planning and I I mess up all the time. But I have something to go back to and to reconnect to and start again. And I have managed to avoid lots of drama by learning from history. I'm not saying my mistakes, of course I make mistakes, but I'm also just like a person who is who I am. And I've learned and I adapt and then I try something else. So remember the exercise that I was talking about, like somewhere halfway through this podcast. Try to let me see if I can quickly go back to it. So make a to-do list of all the step one, make a to-do list of all the things you think you're gonna do today. Step two, look at it again, be realistic. What can you actually do today? Step three, find out which one of those things is your priority, your one priority, and put that on top with underlining, do that first if you can. And then step four, the next day, go back to that list and see what you actually managed to do. And learning from that, do that every day of the coming week. And please let me know how that went. I am sitting here waiting for your emails, waiting for your voice notes if you want to leave a voice note. I actually stopped putting them on my website because I had a little button of voice note, but hardly ever anyone use it. So email me, you know, old-fashioned email. If you have a pigeon, send over your pigeon. I want to hear about it. I want to hear how you're doing. I want to hear what your thoughts are around planning. And if you're curious about the bullet journal method, you start really, really easy and then it turns into this whole thing that is so wonderfully supportive. I wish just everybody would give it an honest try. Let me know. So get in touch and good luck with all of this. And what else can I say? Oh, I made a vlog. Did I tell you? I made a vlog, an actual vlog of the spinning day. I guess it's national spinning day, but it sounds like it's a holiday. It's not, it's like organized by this group. Anyway, I made a vlog about it. If you want to have a look, it's on my YouTube channel. Uh, make sure to like and subscribe, because that's the whole point. That other people will see it and that other people will come find me, and that's why I do all of this. It's uh part of what I do as a business. I this I planned to do this in my bullet journal. Yeah. Okay, bye.