How can you create when there's an overwhelming list of things to do and too many competing priorities? How can you balance self-care with achieving your creative goals.

In this episode, I’ll share some tips from previous podcast guests to help you step back, reassess your priorities, and hopefully help you let go of at least some of the things on your list.

In the intro, Author branding [Self-Publishing Advice Podcast]; Example prompts if you want to explore your author brand; Google Gemini Advanced with Deep Research; How to Write Non-Fiction Second Edition; Tips for writing non-fiction, I'm on The Biz Book Broadcast with Liz Scully; Q&A on how to write non-fiction [Apex Author]; 7 Steps to Write Your Non-Fiction Book in 2025 — me on Reedsy Live, 15 Jan.

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This episode is sponsored by Publisher Rocket, which will help you get your book in front of more Amazon readers so you can spend less time marketing and more time writing. I use Publisher Rocket for researching book titles, categories, and keywords — for new books and for updating my backlist. Check it out at www.PublisherRocket.com

This show is also supported by my Patrons. Join my Community at Patreon.com/thecreativepenn 

Show Notes

• (1) Tackle overwhelm by focusing on your ‘circle of influence' — with Mark McGuinness





• (2) Be kinder to yourself — with Ellen Bard





• (3) Sort out your sleep — with Dr Anne D. Bartolucci





• (4) Protect your private creative practice — with Austin Kleon





• (5) Overcome Resistance and adopt the attitude of a professional — with Steve Pressfield





• (6) Make the most of the limited time you have — with Todd Henry

Creative Clarity: Focus, Self-Care, and Letting Go

(1) If you’re struggling, focus on your circle of influence

Life can be overwhelming with work and family commitments and health concerns, even as the waves of change grow ever higher — with political shifts, technological change with generative AI, financial changes and of course, all the things we have to do as authors, if we want to get our books finished and out into the world, and reaching readers. 

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed with everything, especially in difficult times. 

In April 2020, back in pandemic times, I talked to poet and creative coach Mark McGuinness about how to stay creative in difficult times. He reminded us of how to keep things in perspective, and why focusing on your circle of influence is the way forward.

“Here's another thing that I'm using a lot with clients and remembering to use myself is Stephen Covey's circles of influence and concern.

Imagine a big circle, right? And in this circle is everything that affects you and the people that you care about in your life. It includes the economy, the weather, the environment, it includes what other people are up to. It includes, I dunno, your sports team. And of course it includes all the stream of news and information that's coming at us.

Now we need to be aware of this because by definition, it's a circle of concern. It affects us. But now I want you to imagine inside of that, there's a smaller circle. It looks like a fried egg.

And Covey points out, this is in his book, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. He says, the circle of influence will always be the smaller circle.

In other words, there's always more stuff happening in your life that affects you than vice versa. But here's how we use it.

The more time and attention you give to that big circle, the more anxious and disempowered and frustrated and overwhelmed you will feel.

And also the smaller the inner circle gets, 'cause you're not taking action on it.

Now we need to be aware of it. But. I would say definitely ration that and ration social media because there, there's so much anxiety coming at you from that and beyond a certain point, you've got the information and you're just mainlining anxiety.

Covey encourages us to focus on the small circle, the circle of influence, and ask, okay, what is in my small circle right now?

What can I actually do that's going to make a positive difference?

So stuff to take care of yourself. The restorative practice stuff to take care of your family, , people you care about, , stuff that will take care of your work and your business.

And the idea is that the more time you spend in this circle of influence, the more empowered you feel. And in fact, the more empowered you are because you're doing stuff that makes a difference. So that small circle can get quite a bit bigger. You can have a fried egg with a really big yoke in it, relative to the other one.

Definitely keep that image in mind, sketch it on a post-it, and stick it up above your desk. And keep asking yourself when, particularly when you feel overwhelmed, say, well, what is in my small circle here? If there's nothing, it's just a news item you're worrying about, then distract yourself from it.

Go and do something else. But ideally you want to find something, ‘Okay, I can go and do that right now, and then I will feel that I'm making the difference that I can.”

The question for you here is — How are you getting derailed by things that are out of your control? What is in your circle of influence and how can you focus on that instead?

You can find Mark on his podcasts, The 21st Century Creative,  and poetry show, A Mouthful of Air. 

(2) Be kinder to yourself 

Back in 2016, I talked to author and consultant Ellen Bard about balancing self-care and productivity, something I struggle with and I know many of you do, too.
Too much self care feels lazy and too much productivity can burn you out. How do we balance it all? 

“I think that we can be very tough on ourselves as indies and, you don't have to look at the kind of popular books around, , write 5,000 words and which, you know, I own all those books and I love them because I love productivity stuff. , but sometimes I do step back and think, whoa, just, relax. It's all good.

For writers in particular, I think there's a few different aspects where we can definitely be kinder to ourselves. The first one and the most obvious one in many ways is the physical.

So often as writers, we see ourselves as a brain. Maybe a brain with a pair of hands.

If we're on a good day, but do we remember that actually that brain comes in a body and there's a whole load of other stuff around the brain that needs looking after?

And so the basic stuff around getting enough sleep, eating the right foods, not over caffeinating or over sugaring, in your day when you are got the cookies or the biscuits down in the kitchen.

Keeping an eye on them , and balancing them out, so caffeine alone isn't gonna get any of us to write more words. It should be an enjoyable thing that we enjoy and we love drinking rather than something that is a crutch to make