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What Bad Habits are Killing Your Creativity?

Bad Habits

It takes practice and patience to develop your creativity, and there are bad habits people learn which crush their creativity. But like all bad habits, we can break these if we are willing to work at it!

What Are Habits?

Habits are things you do automatically, without thinking. Bad habits can form in a few days, but it can take months or years to form good ones. Breaking bad habits and creating good ones can be challenging, but it’s worth it in the long run. You need to be aware of your bad habits and then find a new routine that rewards you by creating a good habit to replace them.

Eight Daily Bad Habits That Are Killing Your Creativity

Here are eight of the very worst bad habits that could hold you back creatively every day:

  1. Not allowing yourself time to relax and daydream: Daily downtime is crucial to keeping those creative juices flowing.
  2. Procrastination: Putting off creative tasks is terrible for your mental health and career. To avoid it, establish deadlines and accountability measures.
  3. Perfectionism: Many great ideas never see the light of day because people become perfectionists. It’s crucial to permit yourself to make mistakes and see the beauty in flawed things.
  4. Over researching before starting a project: Some projects require extensive research, others do not. Too much background reading can hinder creativity.
  5. Listening only to critics: Criticism can be a valuable learning tool, but it should never hold you back from pursuing your dreams. Surround yourself with creative peoplethat inspire you.
  6. Trying to do everything yourself: This can halter your productivity and block success. Collaboration can unlock new ideasand successes.
  7. Judging your work too harshly: It’s natural to be critical of your work, but it’s essential to avoid self-doubt. When overly critical of our work, we become more guarded with our thoughts, killing creativity.
  8. Giving up too quickly: You’ll never accomplish anything significant by giving up too easily on the hard problems and tasks. Nothing worthwhile comes easy, but the hard work will pay off.

To know more about bad habits that kill creativity, listen to this week’s show: What Bad Habits are Killing Your Creativity?

Author

  • Phil McKinney headshot

    Phil McKinney is an innovator, thinker, creator, author, and speaker. He is the former CTO of HP who has built teams that have innovated award-winning technologies and products currently used by half-billion people worldwide. Fast Company and Businessweek named these teams as being among the “50 Most Innovative”. As host of the award-winning podcast, Killer Innovations, he shares his insights on creativity and innovation to help listeners develop their ideas into actionable plans for success. Launched in 2005, the podcast is the longest continuously produced podcast in history. In 2011, Phil authored Beyond The Obvious – a book on innovation and creativity. The book is available in hardcover, digital, and audio. Media recognition includes Vanity Fair as “The Innovation Guru”, MSNBC and Fox Business as “The Gadget Guy” and San Jose Mercury News as the “Chief Seer”.

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