Does “getting more done” ever leave you feeling less alive… and with things left undone? In this episode we look into why the real engine of creative success is presence, not productivity—and I share my simple monthly planning program to keep the creative engine humming.
You'll learn five measures of creative success and how creative presence is the lever that lifts them all. And changes to the Go Creative! Planning program, including intention setting, review periods, and dual-slot live workshops.
Hit play, grab the free planner sheets, and—if you want guided support—join the community at Patreon.com/OrnaRoss.
Accountability Program Update
Big changes are coming to the Go Creative accountability program—and they’re all about deepening your creative presence. After listening to your feedback and reflecting on what truly supports sustainable creative growth, we’re shifting our focus from ticking off endless to-do lists to cultivating meaningful, mindful progress.
The new program is designed to help you show up with intention, reflect on your journey, and celebrate every step—no matter how small. With monthly review sessions, guided intention-setting, and live workshops that foster real-time connection, you’ll find more support than ever for building a creative practice that feels both productive and deeply fulfilling.
Whether you’re a longtime member or just curious about what’s next, now is the perfect time to join a community that values presence as much as progress. Let’s create, reflect, and grow—together.
Listen Here:
Links
- OrnaRoss.com – Free planning tools, creative inspiration, and community.
- GoCreative! Patreon – Membership options and exclusive resources.
- Full episode show notes.
Transcript:
Orna: Hello creatives and creativists and welcome back. Last week, I asked the question what would happen if we measured our success in terms of presence rather than productivity. This week I'd like to get a lot more granular around that to look at what happens if we actually plan for creative presence as well as what we're making and trying to achieve.
I want to unpack that and talk about the consequence changes that I'll be making to the Go Creative planning program for, patrons and followers and the difference it will make to this podcast.
Teasing out, the difference between conventional planning and creative planning. That's really the core of what we'll be talking about today and the changes arising thereof. And of course, we will finish, with a poem.
So firstly, I'd like to thank all of you who actually did the poll, sent an email, gave me feedback on the changes that you are looking for from the Go Creative Program.
That was really helpful to me because there were so many different directions, I would've been happy to go in. It's great to be guided by you, and it was such a clear outcome. Because what, almost everybody, with just a few exceptions, really what almost everybody wanted was more support for actually doing the go create work and more support for, you know, being present and creative planning in a creative way, producing in a creative way rather than.
Task-based. Hurry, hurry. Busy, busy, never ending to-do list. All of you. Like me want to get away from that sort of harassing and haranguing way of creating that. Yeah, sometimes gets things done, but at a price it's really not worth it. And that sort of goes against the creative grain, as you know, there are lots of tools in the Go Creative program to help you to do that, and the core of it all is the planning program.
So that's what I'm going to be leaning into as we go forward– the quality of attention we bring to our activities, our work, our rest, and our play, and the way we divide the different things we have to do as creatives, as creatives. We are makers, we are managers, and we are magnifiers and go creative planning program is set up around those.
Three requirements. I'll also look at some of the science around why this sort of reflective based planning, reviewing what we're doing as we go before we put in our new plans for the next week or the next month, why that is so effective.
So, let's begin by talking about conventional productivity planning versus go creative planning, which has a presence element to it. Any kind of planning is good. It's really good as a creative to step outside. What we're actually see as our things to do for today or this week this month or this year.
Step outside that and plan. How's it going? Are we actually doing what we think we're doing? Are we doing a lot of busy work that isn't getting us very far? Are we a bit stuck? Do we need more support? Do we need, to get out more, to move more? Whatever it might be.
We have all the answers: that is the central premise of the Go Creative method. All the answers are within. We just need to stop, become present. That might be through our free writing, taking notes in our notebook, or just settling into where we are and noticing what's actually going on. Conventional productivity counts tasks and is always in a hurry. It's all about speed. It's about getting it done as quickly as you can, whereas creative planning looks at the depth of our attention as well, and also flow output. What's actually being produced as opposed to how many tasks we got through. There is a subtle difference there that's all important.
Conventional productivity uses lists generally, and lists are great. I don't knock them at the daily level. Lists are good checklists, but, creative planning will be operating within a cyclical maker, manager, magnifier loop, where one feeds into the other and it's more like a spiral. So, it's not just a question of ticking off ticks. It's a question of making sure that what we are doing is the best possible thing we could be doing right in this moment.
Conventional productivity, rewards, busyness. If you feel busy and you're ticking off your tasks, you get an adrenaline rush– neuroscience shows us quite similar to social media.
Dopamine and all sorts of lovely neurotransmitters get released as we, do another thing, and tick something else off our list. That's the reward we get in conventional productivity planning, but presence planning actually rewards something much more intangible. And not as easy to get at.
We do indeed get our lovely neurotransmitter, emotions. In fact, we could get quite blissed out when we are in the zone, in flow but what's being rewarded here is not tick, tick, tick, but embodied engagement. Presence in ourselves and what we are doing, what's going on, the pleasure in actually creating.
And finally, conventional productivity tends to look at output- only metrics. Just, what we got done. Did we do it? Did we not do it, yes or no? Whereas creative planning also looks at meaning. Presence pleasure and other metrics like that. We are measuring for that as well within our planning process.
And that's what I've been thinking about for the last week as I thought about this question of measuring our presence as well as our productivity, it isn't an either or because actually. The more we are present, engaged, and fully turned on to create a flow through us and our own creative presence, productivity, spontaneously happens.
Not just the amount of stuff we do increases, but also the quality of it, we can really surprise ourselves. With what emerges. So how do you measure that though? That was my challenge and that's what, the new planners and the new planning program is designed to address. So my own personal measures of success, which I've mentioned in creative self-publishing in other places as an author, as a writer, rather than as a creative, are though they are linked to the measures of creative and creativity, they're very similar, but I just thought it would be worth mentioning because everybody has different measures of success as a thumbprint, but there are also universal measures of success that we can all sign up for as we are developing in our own unique way.
And those five measures for me are productivity. So, turning my ideas as a writer into finished outputs, a story, a poem, a book, whatever it may be. Another measure is influence. I'm not a writer who just writes for the sake of it. I want my work to be read. I want to have reach, and I want it to have impact.
I want to change your mind. I want to get into your heart. I want to get into your brain and even into your soul and make a difference. Income is a measure for me. I live from the returns on my writing. So, a sustainable financial return that funds my next creation is an essential part of my success measures.
Pleasure, and this is where we get into the presence related stuff. The joy and fulfilment that I feel during, before, while I'm planning and after while I'm reviewing. The process itself. These are process based measures rather than productivity-based measures
presence quality we keep talking about at the moment in this particular episode. The quality of attention that you bring, that I bring to everything that I'm doing, I think of that as a success measure in itself, but it is also the lever that lifts the other four through presence. Pleasure. Income influence and productivity all happen in the right sort of way. In this planning program, the planners that I issue each month, I am going to be including this presence metric it is very much around the review. Which is already there, but I'm beefing that up a bit.
I took a look at some of the studies around this to guide me in terms of what I was going to put into the planners I came across some interesting research about how reflection enhances our creativity. By reflection, I mean stopping to reflect on what we're doing consciously.
So just taking a short time. It really doesn't have to be a long time at all. And I know, those of us who are productivity focused. Always get anxious whenever we talk about stopping for reflection review, they just want to keep barrelling on. But actually, all the science indicates, that building reflection in is really important and it what it does and it's very seeable neuroscientifically, it can be seen in the brain, that pausing to evaluate an idea even at the idea stage, but also an action. Instantly boosts idea generation. So, as you are doing the reflection, the ideas of how to do things better, how to solve a problem, how to get on top of the thing that you're raising.
You can see the ideas emerging that instantly, solve it. Whereas if you just keep going, sometimes you can go a very long way down the wrong path before you come to the actual lesson. That takes you back to the solving. So just that building in that reflection and review period is so important.
The other thing that emerged that I didn't expect to emerge as I went into the research was the importance of actually acknowledging, daydreaming, mind wandering. I'm going to do, a whole session on that next time. So, our podcast episode next time will look specifically at this, because the stuff that emerged was really interesting, how it activates the default- mode network and how introspection around what's happening and just letting the mind float, following your thoughts, can influence your future planning and is key for creativity and we're doing it unconsciously a lot of the time. If you're listening to this podcast, you were probably one of those kids that the teachers. Used to tell off for staring out the window.
I know. I was. That's core to what we do, but we don't always harness it in the best possible way. So, I'm trying to build that into our planning method. Our monthly intention setting will look at that in a very, provided way. All you'll have to do is fill in the different sections of the planner and that will by definition do the implementation intention, mirroring things you need to do.
The when and the then of your planning will be built in for you. And all the indications are that it doubles your goal completion rate and, success. So really worthwhile and I'm delighted to be doing this.
So, to fill you in on, the new monthly rhythm. So, what you can expect going forward.
– On the last Wednesday of every month, we'll be building in that review that looking back at the month, that's just gone, looking forward to the month that is to come. You get, a three hat worksheet accomplishments log and a planner for the, the month ahead. And as I said, they will include now a presence check and a guided Mind wondering, and you will set your intentions for the following month, on the first day of each month. So, I will do a post and there will be the planner post, or sorry, the review post on the last Wednesday. On the first day of the new month, I will do the intention posting. I will tell you what I'm intending to do in the next month on wearing the three hats of maker, manager and magnifier, and also the creative rest and play that I am looking at in the month ahead whatever practices I have planned. Inviting you then to share your, intentions for the month as well.
-And on the last day of each month, we will come back and register our accomplishments. Under the three hats, what we did manage to do from the intentions that we set, what changed, improved, maybe didn't life intervened, whatever it might be, but making sure that we do record our accomplishments, however small.
Our mind is so inclined to notice what we haven't done, to give ourselves a hard time. The accomplishments post is all about recognizing progress and presence and all those things that did go well, making sure that we give that it's due attention. On the first Thursday of every month, I will have the live workshop and open studio, and a little bit of a change here as well. From now on, I am not going to be doing a replay, and there are a few reasons for this. I really feel that turning up live for the actual planning session, doing it together, having a coworking session. Discussing what's coming up for you, addressing any specific problems, all of that happening live is a completely different experience to you doing it alone with a replay afterwards.
And so, the encouragement will be to come. Be, live, get anchored. When we talk together as a group, we often shave down the intentions because the mind intends to do more than a month full, being in the presence of others, hearing yourself, say it out loud.
Hearing other people's responses can help us shape our intentions so they are actually achievable, which is so important. So, yeah, because I'm not doing a replay, what I am going to do is have two sessions on that first Thursday of every month. One Northern Hemisphere friendly and one Southern Hemisphere friendly. 8:00 AM UK time, which should work for our friends in Australia and New Zealand also for early rises in the UK. And, as usual, the 5:00 PM on the first Thursday, which I've been doing now for years. That will continue. So hopefully, coming live will make sense to you, and I will see as many of you as possible in the live sessions. So, yeah, that is it. A quick reminder on the Patreon front.
There are different levels at which you can join. If you're not ready for, workshopping yet, that's fine. There is, the follower member who gets, the member only sessions of the podcast. That's the base entry level, if you're not sure and you want to learn more about this whole go, create a method and what it means and just, immerse yourself in it a little before committing to becoming a planner.
And then we have the starter level. You begin as a beginning, go create a planner. You get your planners each month. And some of the intentions and accomplishments, posts and so on. So, tapping in at that level.
And then there is the workshop level, and I do have a level, especially for authors, who get extra as well as the monthly workshop and all the other stuff. Special author related resources, ones that I use myself for the production of my own books. So, with an extra bonus for authors there if you want to join at that level.
So, the emphasis in go creative, from my perspective, is that nobody gets left behind. We have a really vibrant community that helps each other achieve and, see our intentions come to fruition. And make our goals happen and in the creative way. And so, I'd love you to join, if it feels right for you.
And now just to finish, as we often do with a poem, I thought one, that would encourage us all to go lightly and understand what presence is, one aspect of creative presence would be relevant. This is a poem called Whatever,
Whatever you do my dear maker, don't go seeking yourself, or seeking to improve. You are not far from here and nothing in you needs to be fixed. You, my beauty are what you are, and whatever you are currently creating from that. You don't need to be political, emblematical or cerebral. Just bask. Lay down your need to repent whatever happened back when. The motion you seek is release. Relent. Then whatever you make from the undulant being you've been given, say it loud. Make it proud.
Until next time, don't forget to go creative. Bye-bye.