5 New Year’s resolutions for creatives 🎉
Betwixt menu ideas (date: misc.), unfinished poetry, and random social media captions, lie aims and aspirations I’ve caught in fleeting moments.
If you’re anything like me, your phone’s probably clogged with assorted notes and ephemera you’ve no particular place to put. Unfiled and unrealised, they await your fractured attention, adding to the mental load.
Consider this, then, an ideas archive and accountability tool, keeping us both in check (for now)!
5 resolutions you can (probably?) keep this year
Create more than you consume.
This is a big one for all the TikTok/news doomers out there.
If you have creative ideas that need to be realised, you’ll quickly notice an imbalance if you take in too much information.
Make this the year you commit to making something to match — or better, beat — the amount of stuff you pile into your brain. It doesn’t have to be amazing: it can be a doodle on a notepad. Starting a long-delayed craft project. Or getting a bit jazzy with your Christmas wrapping. Even things out a bit, by matching your creative output to your screen time in 2026.
Write a list of projects you want to do - no matter the timeline.
But first, list.
Make it real by writing it down. Manifest that sh*t. If it doesn’t exist outside your head, how can it ever exist at all?!
I’m as guilty as the next person of thinking of a thing I really want to do as a future endeavour, with no clear due date. I’ll do it when the time is right/when I’m older/at some point at which a series of predetermined steps I’m unclear about have already taken place.
If you do nothing else, write the thing down. Put it somewhere you’ll see it. Add a checkbox alongside it, if you’re feeling fancy. Write a sub-list of those mysterious “steps” to work out what they are. Then reorder, and get started!
Stop one thing that’s sapping your creative energy.
See (1). No, really.
Social media is a huge time suck. But you already know this. Arguably more sinister are unfinished or uncared for projects. These might be:
Hobbies you bought a heap of materials for, that are now taking up space in your wardrobe. Hello, solo granny square. Maybe all you need is a minor shelf reshuffle. Or maybe it’s time to donate those yarn balls to the nearest cat/charity/willing knitter.
Side hustles that aren’t hustling. You had the energy for it once, but you’re not making anything fresh. You feel boxed in by the format, or buried in admin. Yeah, nah. Find a way to breathe new life into it this year, or let it go and make room for something new.
People who don’t even try to hide their cringe at your latest creative endeavour. Keep your cheerpeople close (even if they’re a bit reluctant at first!). You’re going to need them when that January momentum inevitably wanes.
See (1). Again.
Be open to inspiration from mundane stuff.
Wouldn’t we all love to be in a perfectly lit, aesthetically pleasing room brimming with inspiration, at all times. For most of us, living in a beautifully merchandised home while somehow also rejecting the capitalist grind, just isn’t a reality.
Roll with it. Go full Duchamp and mount the loo. Draw a picture of your lone sock, the funny way your cat’s tail curls, the ant on your plate, or the back of someone’s head. Pay attention to small things. You might even find a bit of gratitude, too, when you really look around.
Embrace routine.
Some people are pretty into routine. These people do not generally identify as “creatives”. They are, however, onto something.
You might have heard how Barack Obama frequently wore the same suits to reduce decision fatigue. The idea is simple: when small choices are taken care of, your brain has more capacity for the decisions that actually matter. Repetition has a similar effect: doing the same thing regularly signals to your brain that this is familiar territory.
Routine helps prevent overwhelm, not by making life rigid, but by removing unnecessary friction. When you regularly do something — like going for a daily walk, or having that little self-care caffeine moment before you open your laptop — you’re actively creating space for exciting, new creative ideas just waiting to be realised. And if that isn’t the point of this whole article, I don’t know what is.
Oh, you should probably make these SMART, too. But what would I know? I’m just a creative with a bunch of disorganised iPhone notes and one article, attempting to capture — and share — a few fleeting thoughts.