A lot of creative people tell me they get roadblocked by procrastination. There are always so many other things to do. Creative projects slip to the back burner, and a voice in their heads keeps telling them they should be doing something else instead of developing their art.

So, how do you stay on track and make the things you’ve dreamed about?

Here’s what works for me.

The fact is if I really want to do something, I find the time.

I always find time to eat French fries. I never forget to watch Netflix. Jeni's ice cream fits neatly into my schedule. The challenge is making myself want to do what I think I should do.

The first step is to stop framing it as an enormous, life-defining goal. “Should” is rarely fun.

So I boil it down into something I can do as easily as watching a YouTube video. When we say, “I should learn to draw. I should write a novel. I should run a marathon,” no wonder we procrastinate.

Lao-tzu said, “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” In other words, don’t map out the entire journey. Just take the first step. Any step will start you moving, even ones in the wrong direction, because overcoming inertia is the hardest part. Making something, anything, can often start your engine turning. That first drawing, first sentence, first note doesn’t have to be right. It just has to exist.

Once you begin, the next steps come easier. Momentum takes over.

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Here’s how I trick myself into starting:

I limit the scope. I can imagine doing a small drawing—not filling a sketchbook. I can write a paragraph—not a whole book.

So I think about what I could do while walking the dog, watching the Tour de France, or waiting for my latte. Maybe I jot down a sentence on a scrap of paper or text myself an idea. Maybe I draw the Home Depot. Quick. Casual. Under a minute.

When I do it once, a few minutes later, I think of another bit to add to it —a line, a thought, a doodle. These scraps keep the embers glowing, so by the time I get home, I’m raring to go.

I have all my art supplies set up so nothing gets in the way of getting to it. I don’t need much. A pen or two, some watercolors, a sketchbook.

I promise myself I’ll just redraw what I made on my walk. Nothing big. No pressure. But then I find myself refining, reaching for more colors, getting pulled in.

Or I open a blank Google Doc, hide all the other windows, and write down that thought from my walk. Not a polished draft—just a rough idea. That idea pulls in another, then another, until the page fills up.

And suddenly, I’m not procrastinating. I’m creating. Time evaporates. My goal isn’t to reach the mountain. It’s to be walking, be moving, be making, writing, drawing…. And in this state, I am no longer procrastinating. I’m having fun, and I’m turning that “should do “ into a “wanna do.”

I’ve written a dozen books this way, one paragraph at a time, fitting in the time to create between meetings and obligations and family time and haircuts. I’ve filled a hundred sketchbooks, one page at a time, never planning to draw that much, but finding that I was.

Not because I should, but because I loved doing it.

It’s how I wrote this—when I really should be brushing my teeth and getting to work.

I’m having fun. Flossing can wait.

Your pal,

Danny