This article is brought to you as part of the ASCAP Member Wellness Program.

As a creator, surely you have no shortage of people to remind you that you’re living your dream  by being able to focus on your passion.

 

Of course, there is some truth to that. But working as a music creator also requires a great deal of habitual self-discipline. To not only be productive and consistently produce high-quality work, but also to take care of yourself physically and mentally. If you spend a significant amount of time working alone, it can be especially easy to slip into bad habits.

 

That’s why it’s especially important to have an awareness of the activities and behaviors to which you routinely give your time and attention – and furthermore, the tools at your disposal to adjust them as needed.

 

Here are seven researched-backed, expert-approved strategies and approaches to help you successfully build and break habits.

 

 

1. Change your environment

 

Nowadays, many creators have the freedom to work and create in a location of their choosing. That could mean home, in a studio, or pretty much anywhere else. But convenience can be a double-edged sword, and it often comes with a host of unwanted distractions that can foster less-than-productive habits.

 

“At the end of the day, most bad habits are a product of one’s environment,” says Justin Gasparovic, founder of The Enemy Of Average, a personal development resource that focuses on self-improvement advice from a psychology standpoint. “Breaking bad habits comes down to environment design.”

 

Research confirms that many habits are tied to the environments in which we experience them. Even specific elements of the environments in which you spend your time can be sneaky contributors to bad habits and lost productivity.

 

Assess your environments, change up the scenery as needed and you can set yourself free.

 

+How Your Surroundings Affect Your Mood, Creativity and More

 

2. Prioritize consistency over perfection

 

Matt Glowiak, Ph.D, LCPC, a licensed professional counselor and addiction specialist who works with musicians and creatives, says research consistently shows that perfectionism is among the biggest perpetrators of procrastination. “Rather than try to strive for something seemingly ideal and likely unattainable, remove the thought of perfection,” he suggests.

 

In specific terms, that means preparing for failure. Yes, failure. Setting new habits and letting go of old ones is hard and rarely a one-and-done process. It takes work, time and persistence. Critically, it requires you to get back on track when you go off your path. The better you become at correcting course, the less you’ll have to.

 

“Consistency is the key. When you’re consistent, the body automatically adjusts,” Glowiak says. “Remember that success takes time. Pace yourself, and be real with yourself.”

 

3. Start with a lower target

 

Encouraging yourself to set a low bar may seem like selling yourself short. But when it comes to building good habits, the easiest way to help them stick is to tone down your ambition, at least while you get started, Gasparovic says.

 

“Human beings have an innate tendency to overestimate our willpower and motivation when the time comes to take action towards our goals,” he explains. “So if you set yourself a goal that you’re going to start practicing a new instrument or writing lyrics for two hours per day, try shrinking that timeframe down to 15 or 20 minutes instead. The initial resistance you feel will be significantly lower because you haven’t set yourself a massive target that’s overwhelming.”

 

Once you get started at a manageable level, Gasparovic says, you’ll likely find that it’s harder to stop than it is to keep going. It will set you on the path to building up from there.

 

+This Composer Shares Her Most Powerful Productivity Hacks

 

 

4. Take steps to prevent yourself from hitting the snooze button

 

Playing tag with your alarm clock each morning might seem harmless, but those extra bits of decidedly unsatisfying sleep could come with consequences over time.

 

Delaying getting out of bed not only cuts into your work day, but it’s also not a good look if you are consistently showing up or logging on late.

 

If that’s not motivating enough, research has long shown that snoozing through alarms is likely to negatively impact your health as it interferes with getting quality, restorative sleep. Psychologically, it primes you to break commitments you’ve made with yourself.

 

Granted, this one is easier on paper than it is in practice. But with a little preemptive action, you can regain control.

 

“Place your phone or alarm clock on the other side of the room, so that you actually have to get up and out of bed and turn the alarm off,” Gasparovic says. “Once you’re up, it becomes much easier to stay up and simply progress through your morning routine.”

 

+The Benefits of Quality Sleep for Creators (And How to Get More of It)

 

5. Use a “commitment device”

 

No, we’re not talking about something that shocks you when you behave badly – or even a physical device of any kind. A commitment device is a system or strategy for encouraging commitment to sticking to a positive habit or separating from a negative one.

 

The Spar app is a great example of a social commitment device that you can share with friends. Regardless of whether your goal is to create a habit of doing vocal exercises in the morning, running every day or avoiding sugar, the app will have everyone in the group complete daily check-ins. Whenever someone misses a check-in, it’ll deduct a previously agreed upon amount (say, a dollar) from their bank account! The amount gets held in a pot through the end of the predetermined challenge duration and the person with the least skipped check-ins takes all.

 

That said, as the authors of this Harvard University paper point out, “leveraging existing social networks may be a potential low-cost means of achieving and sustaining healthier behaviors through commitment devices.” In other words, a commitment device could be as simple as telling close friends and family about your plan to alter a specific habit and asking them to occasionally check in to hold you accountable.

 

“Commitment devices can turn a bad habit you usually engage in into something that brings about unpleasant emotions,” Gasparovic says. “These negative emotions make you more likely to avoid that particular behavior in the future.

 

 

6. Schedule your breaks, in addition to your work

 

When it comes to self-discipline, making a habit of scheduling out the hours in which you’ll be working may seem like an obvious behavior to implement. But giving in to hustle culture and working straight through the day without giving your mind and body a break can be a recipe for burnout.

 

In fact, research has shown that integrating breaks into your creative time not only gives you an opportunity to mentally and emotionally regroup, but it can actually further foster creativity and increase the volume of creative work or ideas you’re able to generate.

 

If your goal is to make a habit of getting a certain amount of work done each day, keep in mind that the time you spend away from your desk is just as important as the time you spend at it.

 

 

7. Prioritize self-care

 

It becomes a lot easier to make a new behavior stick when there is already an existing framework around it. For example, you’ll find it easier to remember to floss every morning if you’re already brushing your teeth. It’s a well-established concept, called “habit stacking.”

 

This is one of the reasons why Melissa Hunter, LPC, a therapist specializing in the treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder, anxiety and anxiety spectrum disorders, encourages her clients to engage in daily self-care practices. (For a few examples, The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration recommends maintaining a regular sleeping routine, eating healthily, spending time in nature, engaging with a hobby you enjoy, and expressing gratitude.)

 

By setting up a self-care routine, you’ll not only be building a solid foundation on which to stack new good habits, but also making yourself healthier and happier in the process.

 

“Self-care can look different for everyone,” Hunter says. “Start with one self-care activity and make time for it each day. Healthy habits are developed over time with consistency.”