Ambiguity is Killing Your Creativity—So I Killed Ambiguity For You
A Simple Weekly Workflow Grab Projects by the Nostrils and Actually Finish Stuff
If you're a creative person like me (well I like to think I am!)—then you know all too well how challenging things like ambiguity can be. We thrive on ideas (and have about a million a day), seemingly random bursts of inspiration, and the constant and pervasive urge to start something new (shiny thing syndrome). When it comes to sticking to a plan, this ambiguity puts us into a bit of a sticky spot—it traps us.
That's exactly where I found myself the past few weeks—face-to-face with ambiguity (and a bunch of other stuff). Like a persistent fog, looming, mocking (okay that might be a bit much). I've been wanting to publish consistently so badly—but you know what urge was stronger? Yeah, shiny stuff. Building a Substack Notes analyser, a password strength comparator, a resolution slider, a password cracking tool, a tool that helps me automate tasks in Logseq, the personal knowledge management system (PKMS) I use. These are just a FEW of the mini projects I've been working on over the past few weeks.
While these are all great ideas and fun (mostly—okay that’s a lie, a lot of the time they've been a pain in the butt), they have been distracting me from my goal of sharing what I learn and building a community of like-minded people, and to help you become more creative and more accountable. Not only did I let myself down but I also let you down. You may not have realised it becauseI haven't been posting what I meant to, and for that I’m sorry. As much as I've wanted to publish I've also been fighting a lot of indecision and a mass of analysis paralysis. I was over-analysing—building tools to figure out the exact best times to publish, combing through my Substack Notes, staring at numbers, tweaking the engagement "algorithm" I thought up, and delaying the work. What was I not doing? Writing. Publishing.
This has been my life for weeks. I kept refining systems I was building, getting distracted by more and more ideas, and trying to "optimise" my way out of the problem. Then someone on Substack shared a powerful insight with me—the exact time you post? Doesn't matter, statistically insignificant. Here’s the post for anyone interested, I highly recommend it (thanks for the Finn’sight, Finn Tropy!:
This revelation really opened my eyes. It wasn't quite enough to completely extract me from my stupor, but I realised I had been caught up in trying to perfect the process when all I really was to show up consistently. I kept hearing the same advice from much more successful writers / creators—"just do it, get it done, publish consistently.". I'm sure you've seen your fair share of them on Notes.
I still wasn't quite there, believe it or not—but after a lot of jotting things down, talking to myself (recording myself thinking through everything) it clicked! I didn’t need the perfect time. I needed a schedule—a simple, clear routine to reduce ambiguity and focus my energy on what matters—creating and publishing.
The Clear Problem (Not the Ambiguous One)
The problem isn't a lack of ideas or ambition (we know we have TONNES of both when the conditions are right)—it's the ambiguity that slowly snakes its way into our daily work. When you don't have a clear plan, or worse NO plan, it's too easy to get stuck, in a rut, in a slump, on your rump.
You start your overthinking dance (probably more of a jig).
"When should I publish this? When's the best time?"
"What should I focus on today?"
"Maybe I should make one little tweak here with my process..."
NO! Bad kitty!
It's so, so easy to fall into the kitty litter tray, I mean trap. The trap of searching for the "perfect" tool—whether it's a PKMS, or some note-taking or productivity app. The cold hard fact is—tools is tools—in the end that's all they are, tools. What matters more than any silly tool—yes they help a lot, but what matters most is finding a system that works for you.
This is also why you gotta start simple. A clear, adaptable workflow gives you a starting point—a nice hook, a bit of an anchor (fer sea shanty's sake get on with it!) to reduce ambiguity, build your momentum, and figure out what fits your unique needs.
Doesn't matter if you're a writer, a professional expert in professing, a student—or just a random person trying to get some control over your time, this workflow isn't rigid. it's a framework that you can adjust and refine as you learn what works best for you (something we should all actively be doing).
The Solution—A simple Weekly Workflow
When I was in the thick of ambiguity and overthinking I realised I had to do something. Over the past couple of years I've been gradually reducing many complexities to make less important things more simple and easier to manage. I want to focus on what matters. With my workflow I came to the glaring conclusion that I needed something simple and clear (you don't wanna see what it looked like before). I needed a routine that told me exactly what to focus on each day. I needed a weekly workflow that could adapt to my needs (ever feel like you're the one adapting yourself to the tool and not the other way around?) and minimise / reduce decision fatigue. Sometimes we have way too many options.
As I said before, this isn't meant to be rigid, it's just a place for you to start. A framework you can tweak till your heart's content (just don't overdo it!). Refine it to suit your unique life, situation, work, and goals.
The Spark Lab Weekly Workflow
MONDAY—planning
Start the week off with clarity. Brainstorm ideas, outline your big tasks and plan out any visuals or supporting material. Whyfor? Because it allows you to start the week with a nice roadmap—a skeleton of the week ahead. We know what’s coming and it makes the week go smoother overall.
TUESDAY—creation
Use the whole day for writing or creating the most important thing for the week. Whatever it is, this workflow isn’t just for writers—project report, Kanban ticket refinement, presentation, clown routine. Whatever it is you have to do in this realm, use today to get it done!
TIP: Screw perfection, just get it done, get it down on paper (metaphor-oracle-y, or literaturary), make sure you’re doing today, not thinking—leave that to the philosophers, come to think of it even they wrote stuff down.
WEDNESDAY—designing (or visualising)
Need to create some supporting material for your clown routine? Maybe a meta-picture of a clown getting sprayed in the face by one of those trick flowers? Create it today! Today’s your day, so get on your way—paint, draw, snap some pics of a horse eating hay! Graphs, diagrams, whatever you may—just do it, visualise it, that’s for today. I read too much Dr. Seuss—go and get your kids ‘Wacky Wednesday’, they’ll love it.
But whyyy? Creating visuals after you’ve done a bunch of writing the day before can help solidify the ideas in your brain. Because you’ve done the writing your mind will be full of the data to drive your creativeness for the visuals.
THURSDAY—sharing is caring (and helping you stick to your routine)
Create Write some short-form content. Make a Substack Thread, a short note, update everyone on the goings ons in your fresh routine. If you’re not a writer by trade, you can still share stuff—share what you’ve been working on with your colleagues and get their opinion and input on it. Reply to some comments, get your engagement miles in.
This also helps with your visibility and makes sure you don’t fade into oblivion.
FRIDAY—it’s the final verrrsion (and scheduling)
Go over everything you did this past week. Sob for a little bit but not too long, you still have work to do. Edit stuff, finalise it all and schedule your article/s for next week. For people who aren’t writers, this time can be used to finalise that presentation on why you probably shouldn’t use laughing emojis in your company-wide redundancy communications.
Stop stressing! It’s probably not perfect, but it’s done! Relax, no one cares about those two words on line 5 in paragraph 3 being joined at the hip—they’re happy, okay? I’m sure your skimmed over it anyway (I bet you scroll up and check now).
SATURDAY—promotion
If you work a 9-to-5 you can skip this one. Your top priority for today (and probably tomorrow) should be spending time with your kids, loved ones, your dog or your horse, if you’re one of those people. Though try and put aside a little bit of time to draft and schedule social media posts, follow-up emails, etc. You can even schedule some posts to share what you’re working on, have created. Keep it nice and light, and focused.
SUNDAY—reflection
Take a look back on the whole week.
What worked?
What didn’t?
Make adjustments accordingly for the week ahead.
Review feedback you might have gotten, learn, readjust your priorities.
Reflecting on your really helps improve your process (and ultimately yourself) over time. Without reflecting, you risk staying in the same ruts, the same bad routines and habits.
Make sure you’re jotting stuff down—I’m still getting around to writing about the PKMS (personal knowledge management system, in case you forgot—took me few tried to remember it) tool I use and how I use it effectively (it started out crap but it’s really coming together).
One Final Tip to Recognise When You’re Overthinking
Overthinking sneaks up on you—I’m slowly becoming more conscious of it but it’s sometimes tricky to nail down when it’s happening in the moment. Try this as an “anchor” to catch yourself”—ask yourself this question the next time you get a feeling you might be overthinking:
Am I spending more time thinking about this task than actually doing it?
Maybe it sounds silly, but sometimes just consciously recognising something is very powerful—it’s like our brain is forced to confront it, rather than let it slide or float away into our subconscious.
If the answer is yes, take a quick break and ‘reset’.
When you come back, start breaking the task up into itty bitty pieces—the smallest possible pieces you can conceive and then focus on taking action.
If you’re staring at a blank page, jot down a single bullet point.
If you’re “analysing” the perfect time to post, just pick a random time or simply decide on a default time and then move on—otherwise you’re just procrastinating.
Wiki-wiki Wrapping it up
Coming up with this workflow has really helped me. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still struggling like a m*********** but I’m confident I’m on the right track. And it’s a daily grind, just like anything. I’ve written and re-written this ‘foundational’ post at least 3 or 4 times—I mean fully re-written. The first version I wrote was back in September I think. And it was nothing like this, completely different direction, content. I don’t wanna dwell on the past and you shouldn’t either, we should move forward together and help keep each other accountable in achieving the things we want to do!
If you want me to put together a PDF or some other template, let me know.
To sum up—Start simple. Start now.
Try this workflow for the next week and lemme know how it goes for you!
Adapt it.
Mix it.
Match it.
Do it.
Future posts on SparkLab will continue along this relative path—where ideas meet action and accountability.
I’ll be creating weekly threads for a whole bunch of stuff to help keep you on track and to get those idea juices flowing. So subscribe and share and tell people (because this is my second newsletter it’s a bit hidden in the weeds) and we’ll start building a community of unstoppable idea machines!
That’s it for now.
As always,
Good luck,
Stay safe, and
Be well.
See ya!