I’ve been passionate about writing since I was four, when my mom gave me a notebook and taught me how to write, unleashing my creativity for life.
Since then, writing has continued to be one of my greatest joys throughout my life, and anyone who’s met me will tell you that I’m always carrying a notebook to write down ideas.
Working in tech in Silicon Valley, my copywriting skills quickly became high in demand. I personally wrote web copy, white papers, blog posts, and email campaigns for dozens of tech companies that made them hundreds of millions of dollars, if not more. I also used my copywriting skills to build SalesFolk, a profitable bootstrapped company that has employed dozens of people who got trained on the copywriting best practices I pioneered.
But then I got severe burnout, which led me to discover an unrealized passion for rap, and my alter ego, “Razzlekhan.”
Female rapper, Razzlekhan in an alley in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Since I started rapping a year ago, I began noticing many parallels between rap and business copywriting.
And then something surprising happened: the more I improved at rapping, the better I got at creative collaboration, management, and art in general.
So even if you have zero interest in rap or aren’t a writer, you can still use these insights to harness your creativity and be more productive with creative work.
1. Let it flow
While some people may argue that you should “eat that frog,” and knock out the hardest stuff that you want to do the least first, this is often counterproductive for creative work. Whether you’re writing an ebook on business best practices or working on a rap song, it’s best to go with the flow. Start with whatever you’re most comfortable with or excited about, and output will tend to flow more easily from there. If you feel stuck, take a break and do something else for a while. Oftentimes, a change of environment or activity will naturally spur creative thoughts you need to make progress on your project.
2. Keep a swipe file of ideas for when you get stuck
Sometimes ideas come so easily, but other times they don’t. Many writers know to keep “swipe files” or lists of their favorite headlines to quickly use as sources of inspiration, but the same can be done with any kind of creative ideas. I personally like to use Trello to store ideas for future articles, songs, and various other creative projects, but you could keep them in any type of document or text file. These are great because you can fall back on them when you’re feeling “stuck” and less creative to come up with new ideas.
3. Set deadlines
Yes, creativity is a process and it’s difficult to estimate how long complex projects will take, but deadlines tend to force you to make progress. Even if you don’t hit your deadlines every time, at least having them will help you keep your projects moving forward. Likewise, deadlines are critical for creative collaboration because they help keep everyone involved accountable. With business writing you need deadlines so that you can promote your content effectively through marketing efforts, which may involve multiple external partners as well as internal marketing resources. With rap, I have to think about my producer, the sound engineer, and anyone else we might be collaborating with to launch new music, such as a designer for an album cover, film crew to make a music video, etc.
4. Use a timer to fight perfection
All talented creatives battle with perfection. There’s a fine line between quality control and needless obsession that prevents you from finishing your projects on time and shipping them. This is why setting a timer is one of my secret weapons. Not only does it help me stay productive, it helps me fight writers’ block or any other creative equivalent. The exact amount of time you set is up to you, but it’s better to actually give yourself less time than too much because extra time tends to lead to over-analysis and procrastination. For example, I’ll set a 20 minute timer to write a detailed outline for an article; then I’ll take a break, and set another 40 minute timer to finish the article. Once again, I’ll take another break, and set a 15 minute timer to edit.
5. Write drunk; edit sober
When setting a timer, it’s important that I only focus on that specific activity during that time. So if I set a timer to write, I should just spend that time writing and not try to edit my work. Part of this is to fight the perfectionist urge to feel like your work is not good enough, since you don’t want to spend an hour rewriting the same sentence over and over. But it’s also because writing and editing are different skills that use different parts of the brain. Likewise, you actually need a break from writing before editing to get “fresh eyes” or your brain can trick you into missing words that aren’t there. One way to prevent this is to re-read your writing aloud when editing.
6. Keep striving for improvement
The key to success in any kind of creative work is ongoing learning and evolution. Creative projects are often complex, time consuming, and rewarding but will still exhaust you. It’s easy to get consumed by your work and just jump from one project to another, but if you don’t take time to reflect, you won’t grow or improve. After each project, make the time to think about what went well and what didn’t. Make notes of things you learned and can apply in the future, as well as different strategies or approaches you’d like to try next time.
7. Have confidence in yourself and your work
Talented creative people are often incredibly self-critical. Unlike with accounting or more objective work, things are never black and white. Many artists fall into the trap of beating themselves up for all the things they didn’t do or all the ways they think their work could be better. But art—whether it’s writing, music, film, painting, or even event organizing—can be done beautifully a thousand different ways. Give yourself some credit and recognize your talent. The more you relax and believe in yourself, the better work you can do. And don’t forget to celebrate your work and accomplishments from time to time, as creativity is an endless journey.
