Stop letting randomness dictate when you create. Many people say, “I’ll do it when I feel like it, when I have inspiration.”

But professionals approach creativity differently. They don’t wait for inspiration to strike—they schedule it.

As the saying goes, “I only write when I get inspiration. But inspiration comes every morning at 4 AM.”

Here are five actionable steps to help you take control of inspiration:

1. Set a Schedule:

   Planning your day gives you a clear purpose—no ambiguity, only action. Without a plan, you rely on your mood or random circumstances to push you into action, which often leads to inconsistency.

   When you schedule specific times for creative work, you replace chaos with order, ensuring steady progress.

2. Use Progress Bars:

   Many people depend on the dopamine rush from achieving outcomes. But this wait is often long and agonizing, causing many to give up before reaching their goals.

   Here’s the secret: focus on the dopamine from the process, not just the outcome.

   Break your big goals into measurable, daily tasks. Example: Writing 100,000 words for a book becomes 700 words per day. Example: Designing 50 screens for a UI project becomes 1 screen per day. Tracking and celebrating daily progress keeps you motivated and productive while making the journey enjoyable.

3. Become an Idea Sponge: Always collect and store ideas regularly. When it’s time to create, you’ll have a rich stack of concepts to expand on.

   For example, Eminem keeps a catalog of lyrics and random bars to draw from.

   Writers do the same with thoughts, snippets, and observations. I’m using snippets from my own idea stack right now.

   Here’s a tip: schedule moments of boredom, like a walk or a break from consuming new information. The shower isn’t magical—it simply frees your mind to connect existing ideas and form new ones.

4. Adjust Your Environment: The popular saying goes, “You can take a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.” However, if you change the conditions—like withholding food, adding salt, or creating heat—the horse will drink.

   Your environment can either nourish your creativity or drain it. Make adjustments that foster your creative habits.

   What changes can you make to your surroundings to inspire focus and action? Only you can answer this question, but observe your space and start experimenting.

5. Toggle Pleasure and Pain: Discipline thrives when the pain of not achieving your goals outweighs the pleasure of distractions.

   Use this principle to your advantage:

   Increase pleasure: Reward yourself after hitting milestones. For example, enjoy a favorite treat after completing 500 words or a SaaS project milestone. Increase pain: Set penalties for missed goals. If you don’t wake up on time, pay a friend $20. If you skip a creative session, automate an embarrassing tweet. These small shifts rewire your brain to associate positive emotions with discipline and negative emotions with procrastination.

   Bonus: Stick with It Consistency builds trust, speeds up your process, and makes creativity second nature.

   Think of an untidy room: cleaning after one day is easy, but waiting weeks or months makes it exponentially harder. The same applies to creativity—more entropy equals more effort to create order.

   By showing up consistently, you eliminate chaos and build momentum. With practice, creativity becomes a natural, enjoyable habit.

Liked this post? Share it to help others escape the entropy trap.

Enjoy the rest of your day.