Creative Development: Tips for Personal Projects

Written by Daisie Team

Published on 18 July 2023 6 min read

Embracing personal projects can be an extraordinary way to fuel creative development in your spare time. Whether you're a seasoned pro or just starting out, personal projects can provide a playground for your creativity and a platform to expand your skills. This blog will serve as a guide, offering practical tips for planning, executing, and evaluating your personal projects. So, let's dive into it!

Identify Personal Project Goals

Before you begin your journey of embracing personal projects, it's important to identify your project goals. These can serve as your roadmap, guiding you towards your desired outcomes, and ensuring your time and effort align with your creative development aspirations.

Set Clear Objectives

First things first: you need to set clear objectives for your project. These objectives should be as specific as possible, giving you a definitive aim to strive for. For example, if you're interested in photography, your objective could be to capture the beauty of your city's architecture. This specificity not only provides direction but also allows you to measure your progress effectively.

Choose Relevant Goals

Choosing relevant goals is another key step in embracing personal projects. Ensure your goals align with your interests, skills, and overall creative development journey. If you're a graphic designer looking to expand your portfolio, a relevant goal could be designing a series of posters for a local music festival. This way, you're not just working on a project, but you're also honing your skills and building a body of work that resonates with your career path.

Prioritize Goals

Last but not least, prioritize your goals. This involves identifying which goals are most important or urgent and focusing your attention accordingly. Say you're a budding filmmaker with several project ideas. You might prioritize a short film for an upcoming festival over a web series idea that can wait. By prioritizing, you ensure that you're making the most of your time, propelling your creative development forward in a focused way.

Formulate Project Plan

Once you've identified and prioritized your project goals, it's time to formulate a project plan. This involves outlining your tasks, scheduling a timeline, and allocating resources. This might sound a little formal for a personal project, but trust me, a solid plan can be a game-changer for your creative development journey.

Outline Project Tasks

Outlining your project tasks is like creating your project's blueprint. This involves breaking down your project into smaller, manageable tasks. For instance, if you're planning to write a novel, your tasks might include character development, plot outlining, and the actual writing. By having a clear task list, you'll be able to focus your efforts, reducing the overwhelm that often comes with big projects.

Schedule Timeline

Next, schedule a timeline for your project. This doesn't mean you have to stick to a rigid schedule, but having a rough timeline can help keep your project on track. It also allows you to fit your project tasks into your day-to-day life, making it easier to embrace personal projects even when you're juggling other responsibilities. Just remember, Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither will your masterpiece. So, take it one day at a time, and celebrate your progress along the way.

Allocate Resources

Finally, allocate resources for your project. This can include anything from setting aside time in your schedule to investing in necessary materials or software. It's important to consider your resources at the planning stage to prevent any roadblocks later. If you're embracing a personal project like learning to play the guitar, resources might include the guitar itself, tutorial books, or online lessons. By allocating resources early, you ensure smooth sailing on your creative development voyage.

Execute Project Tasks

Once you've crafted a solid project plan, it's time to roll up your sleeves and get to work. This stage is where the rubber meets the road, where your ideas start to take shape. Let's look at how you can effectively execute your project tasks.

Begin with Easy Tasks

Starting with easy tasks might seem counterintuitive, but it's a strategy that can fuel your momentum. Think about it - it's much easier to get on board with a task that feels achievable, right? Plus, completing these tasks gives you a sense of accomplishment and motivates you to tackle the bigger tasks. If you're painting a mural, you might start by gathering your paints and brushes, or sketching a small part of your design. This approach makes embracing personal projects less daunting, especially when you're carving out creative development time in your busy schedule.

Monitor Progress

Keeping track of your progress is an important part of project execution. It not only helps you stay on course but also gives you a sense of achievement. Remember that novel you're writing? Celebrate every chapter you complete. Applaud every new technique you master on that guitar. Each step forward, no matter how small, is fuel for your creative development.

Adjust Plan as Needed

Finally, don't be afraid to adjust your plan as needed. Personal projects are not set in stone. They're a space for you to explore, experiment, and learn. If a particular task is proving more challenging than expected or if a new, exciting idea pops into your head, feel free to tweak your plan. Remember, the goal is to keep your creative juices flowing, not to stick to a rigid plan. Embracing personal projects is all about enjoying the journey as much as the destination.

Evaluate Project Success

After all the hard work you've put into your personal project, it's time to step back and assess how things went. This is an opportunity to learn, grow, and plan your next steps. Let's dive into the process of evaluating your project's success.

Review Goal Achievement

Firstly, take a look at the goals you set for your project. Did you achieve what you set out to do? If your personal project was to write a short story, did you manage to complete it? If you were learning to bake, did you master that tricky sourdough recipe? It's important to recognize and celebrate these wins. Remember, embracing personal projects and fueling creative development in your spare time is as much about the journey as it is about the destination.

Reflect on Challenges

Next, reflect on the challenges you faced. Maybe you struggled with character development in your story or had difficulty getting your sourdough to rise. That's OK! These challenges are not failures, but learning opportunities. Reflecting on these can help you understand what you need to focus on in your next personal project.

Plan Next Steps

Lastly, plan your next steps. Perhaps you'd like to take a deeper dive into character development or experiment with different sourdough recipes. Or maybe you're ready to tackle a new project altogether! The key is to keep your creative energy flowing and to continue embracing personal projects in your spare time. Who knows where your creative journey will take you next?

Apply Learning to Future Projects

Now that you've taken the time to evaluate your project, you've likely gathered a wealth of insights. But, what next? How can you use these learnings to fuel your future creative development? Let's explore this together.

Identify Improvements

Start by identifying areas for improvement. Maybe you've discovered that your writing flourishes in the quiet of the early morning, or that your dough rises best in a particular corner of the kitchen. By pinpointing these areas, you can make tweaks to your process, enhancing your productivity and the quality of your work.

Implement Changes

Once you've identified these improvements, it's time to implement them. This might mean setting your alarm earlier to catch those quiet writing hours, or moving your baking station to that dough-friendly corner. Embracing personal projects is all about learning and growing, and these changes are a crucial part of that process.

Continue to Evaluate Success

Lastly, make it a habit to continue evaluating your success. This isn't a one-time process, but a cycle that keeps your creative development moving forward. With each personal project, you'll learn more about yourself, your craft, and how to make the most of your spare time. And remember, the goal here isn't perfection—it's growth. So, keep embracing those personal projects and fueling your creative development. Your future self will thank you!

If you want to dive deeper into creative development and personal projects, don't miss the workshop 'How To Deal: Cultivating Inspiration & Creativity' by Grace Miceli. This workshop will provide you with valuable tips and techniques to keep your inspiration flowing and enhance your creativity for personal projects.