How to Effectively Use Creative Sprints to Help Supercharge Your Work
When is it ok to push forward at a quicker pace than usual?
Is it possible to make bursts of creative progress in our work while maintaining personal boundaries and balance?
I wanted to test the possibilities.
Simply put—life is a marathon.
Our goals become easier to navigate when we imagine our lives stretched out over years and decades instead of days and weeks. There's less pressure on us now if we incrementally progress towards our goals with consistency and patience. Slow and steady wins the race.
But that said, many creative people become trapped by the repetition and steady flow. Sometimes, we work on projects for long periods, and the work starts to feel stale. Or we begin a new project and have so many ideas of where the potential outcomes may lead us, that we prevent ourselves from taking the first steps.
Now and again, we need to change up our thinking. We need to challenge our processes. In small, controlled doses, a good sprint can help energize our work and keep us moving.
Last month, I sprinted.
The Great NaNoWriMo
I've been researching and writing a book for about a year and a half now. It's centered on the idea of creative burnout. Prior to November 2021, I had written approximately forty-five thousand words. My project target is about seventy to eighty thousand words based on the type of non-fiction book I'm writing.
For better or worse, I got distracted by some mid-year opportunities and put the book-writing down for a few months. I had also accidentally written two books (sigh...) in the early stages of my process—one on burnout, one on life design—and I needed to clarify my thoughts on the content. Finally, I needed a vehicle to reconnect with the research and re-frame the book's intent moving forward.
I needed a way to refocus my efforts. Such a path revealed itself.
Last month was NaNoWriMo (aka "National Novel Writers Month"). Traditionally, this has been the month many writers have used as a challenge to accelerate their writing progress. The rules? Write a fifty-thousand-word novel in one month. Yikes. If you think that sounds difficult, that's because it very much is.
True, I'm not writing a novel. But I wanted to participate in an adapted version of my own NaNoWriMo nonetheless. So the first thing I needed to do was set some ground rules and some goals for the sprint.
The Rules:
Write every day of the challenge until I reach my goal
Track my progress publicly every day
Limit all other creative endeavors to make room for NaNoWriMo
The Goals:
Complete a total word count of twenty-five thousand words¹
Target approximately 1,000 words per day
Reconnect with the writing and clarify my thoughts
The Sprinting Process
After I set my rules and goals, I just put one foot in front of the other and got started.
Fortunately, I've already built up a regular writing habit. So that wasn't the hard part. The hard part was continuing to say "No" to all of the other distractions. I needed to focus.
I made sure to write early in the morning, typically starting at 5 am and writing for about an hour. I've found that I can mentally check off that box by attacking my creative process early, getting the quick win, and going about my day without distractions. It reduces the creative anxiety for me because I know I've accomplished forward progress for that day, and anything else after that is a bonus.
Wake up. Write. Work. Evening. Sleep. Repeat.
I wrote consistently for twenty-three days.
I tracked my progress daily on Instagram Stories.
I said "No" to all new opportunities that would remove focus.
The Results
In the end, I wrote twenty-five thousand, one-hundred and twenty-three words towards the book for NaNoWriMo.
Some days were easier than others, but I could complete a large portion of the book, re-frame my concept for the writing overall, and dive deeper into more of the research.
The sprint was successfully over.
As a bonus, I found out that I had miscalculated my previous word count at forty-five thousand when it was actually fifty-six!
Grand total word count: over eighty-one thousand.
Lessons from Creative Sprinting
Regardless of the type of creative project you're working on, the lessons from creative sprinting should still apply.
Set Appropriate Rules and Goals — When you're sprinting, you need to focus on the sprint at hand. Your goals should align with the sprint such that it is possible to achieve during the sprint. I purposely set my goal for half of the standard word count for NaNoWriMo because I knew it was something I could accomplish. I also knew that it would still be a challenge to do so. The rules I gave myself helped guide me towards that goal more effectively.
Create Accountability — For me, the easiest way to show up every day during the sprint was knowing that I had to report to others about my progress. By planting a flag on social media and saying, "I will do this thing," I gave myself a layer of accountability to see the process through. For you, it may be as simple as texting a friend or family member. The method of checking in will keep you honest with yourself and set clear expectations for the sprint.
Set a Clear Time Limit — A sprint isn't supposed to last forever. That's the point of a sprint. Make the duration of your creative sprint something that matches appropriately with the amount of effort you're putting in. More effort = shorter duration.
It Won't Always Be Perfect, and That's ok — You don't always have to meet the short-term goals. For example, there were a few days when I missed my word count target. By recording what I had done and checking in each day, I could set better expectations for the day after. But, I was still on the path to completing the overall goal.
Take Time Off After You've Completed the Sprint — Sprints are intentionally aggressive. They take energy and focus. When the sprint is made and the work has been realized, give yourself a chance to breathe.
The Pros and Cons of Creative Sprinting
When it comes to sprinting, it's not all sunshine and rainbows. There are benefits and negatives to sprinting. It may not always be appropriate to sprint, but a few pros and cons should help you decipher whether it's suitable for your project.
Pros:
Accomplish a lot of work in a short amount of time
The work you make will be heavily focused
You will make great strides forward creatively
You will discover problem areas and new ideas faster
You will connect deeply with your own creative process
Cons:
Sprinting requires focus, space, and evident dedication for its entire duration.
Other work and projects will need to be placed on hold
Other tasks may require preparation or pre-planning ahead of the sprint to get them off of your schedule
You will need to account for the duration of the sprint and the time after to recharge
Sprinting can lead to burnout if not planned properly
Supercharge Your Creative Work with Creative Sprinting
Creative sprinting won't be for everyone or every project. It takes planning ahead of time to make the most of the sprint. But sprinting can be one of the easiest ways to make a lot of forward progress in your creative work.
Whether you're starting a new project from scratch, trying to reconnect with a project mid-process, or pushing to put the final touches on a project to be shipped, creative sprinting could help you find the progress you're looking for.
As long as you carefully plan out the process ahead of time, creative sprinting will supercharge your work and get you one step closer to sharing it with the world.
SideNotes:
1. This is in addition to my previous completed forty-five thousand words.
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