The Creative Run: 3 Steps To Stay in Shape for Content Creators

And 5 podcast suggestions for your workout sessions.

Life is hard.

What a scoop!

But if you are a content creator trying to grind up to success and fame, maybe you haven’t realized it yet.

As content creators, we need to sit in front of a blank page for most of our lives. Whether you edit videos or articles, the creative process will always last shorter than the refining. And if you don’t have the money to hire an editor, you will spend most of your life sitting until you start having some success. (Which is not even a certainty.)

But if you spend most of your life sitting, it will be impossible to take care of your shape. You either take care of it in your free time or give it up. And we all tend to do the latter because if we are not productive, we feel the pressure of failure.

When it happened last time, I decided to study a method to keep my shape while still doing something for my content creation side hustle. And that’s when I came up with the idea of a creative run.

What is a creative run?

A creative run is a three-step process that allows content creators, or creatives, to maintain their physical shape even with such an immobile job. Therefore, it provides content creators with two advantages:

• First, it helps them partially keep their shape. Exclusive aerobic activity is not enough, but it is always better than nothing.
• And second, it gives them new ways to remain creative through the consumption of podcasts that activates their creativity.

But the best advantage is the simplicity of the method. You don’t need to pay a monthly fee as it is for gyms, and you need little to no equipment. You only need a smartphone (who doesn’t have that), a pair of comfortable earphones (same), and a little motivational push. And since you can learn how to regenerate your motivation fast enough, here is how to build a creative run habit in 3 steps.

How to set up a creative run in only 3 steps

If you want to set up a creative run, you need to follow 3 simple steps:

• First, define a strict running schedule.
• Then, make a list of fascinating podcasts to listen to while running.
• And lastly, transform the creative run into a habit.

So let’s take it one step at a time.

1 — Build a strict running schedule.

Doing something for our health is always tough in the beginning. Going to the gym, working out, and eating healthy are all behaviors that come with pain and difficulties.

You can’t always know if you can do it. If your strategy will work, or you will reach your goals. So defining a strict running schedule is the first step to creating a definitive healthy routine and getting yourself out of the house at least a few hours a week.

You can decide to go running twice a week, or every day. Each of us has different necessities and free time. So it doesn’t matter how many repetitions your running schedule includes. But once you define a one, pledge to keep it.

Here are a few suggestions to do it:

• Prepare in advance. If you scheduled a running session at 8 a.m., start preparing before. So your body enters the running mindset.
• Never delay indefinitely. Once the time comes, if you have to wait because of an unexpected event, like the rain, fix another defined running session right away.

2 — Make a list of great podcasts.

Once you build a strict schedule, you can take care of the creative part of the workout. And the best way to do that is to select a few podcasts based on your preferences and interests that can trigger your curiosity.

Podcasts have the great advantage that you can only listen to them. So they fit perfectly the purpose of working out while not feeling guilty because you are not taking care of your business.

Also, you don’t have to listen to podcasts that deal directly with your business. You may create content about personal finance and still listen to a podcast about nature or traveling, for example.

What matters is that you find the topics of the podcast interesting. This way, each episode has the potential to trigger your curiosity and therefore establish a connection with your creative part. And when that happens, you need to catch the thoughts flowing out.

So don’t forget to:

• Have a fast way to catch ideas before they fly away.
• Before writing down an idea, think twice. You don’t want to stop every two minutes and write things you will find useless the day after.
• Collect a few opinions before writing them down. Your ultimate goal is to work out, so don’t interrupt it too often.

3 — Transform the creative run into a habit.

According to Healthline, it takes 18 and 254 days to form a habit. On average, after 66 days, a behavior becomes automatic. And that means that you need to repeat the creative pattern for two months to transform it into a habit.

For some people, it can take less. For some people, more. But if you try to stick to the creative run for at least two months, you will be more likely to transform it into a habit.

And to keep yourself motivated, you can use it in two ways:

• Productivity enhancer: if you take a creative run in the morning, you can have more ideas to work with during the day. So your productivity will benefit from it.
• Cooldown activity: if you take a creative run in the evening, you can use it as a smooth way to relieve the accumulated stress and prepare for more relaxing activities.

5 podcasts for your creative run playlist

And since podcasts are the most suitable content you can consume during a creative run, here are a few suggestions I use daily.

• How to be a better human by TED and PRX → With a high diversity of topics, this podcast helped me discover many curiosities. It gave me many ideas for articles to write. Whichever your preference, you will find something interesting, from gratitude to resilience, humor, and even social relationships.
• TED Talks Daily by TED Talks → a classic podcast for any curious mind. There’s no better way to discover new things if not listening to TED talks, and this podcast gives you a new idea every day.
• One-Percenter Podcast by Sam Bakhtiar → If you are interested in topics like side hustling and self-improvement, this is one of the best podcasts you can follow. That is because sam deals with many subjects, from finance to success, entrepreneurship, and strong mindsets.
• The Smart Passive Income by Pen Flynn → Pen has been the first person that made me approach blogging and side hustles, and I will always appreciate him for that. But he is also a very knowledgeable person who knows how to describe the challenges he has been through so you can recognize them yourself and overcome them.
• Creative Pep Talk by Andy J. Pizza → This podcast started as a creative project. But it evolved and now contains many more topics than you could expect from it. Besides creativity, Andy discusses the creative process widely, from ideation to execution.

Final Thoughts

If you are a content creator struggling to remain in shape, this was my advice. A simple technique that helped me work out even when I was busy building my content creation business.

I could have chosen to go to the gym or practice any sport. But all these activities require much more preparation and displacement from home. And I couldn’t have worked on my business while I was gone.

But running instead is so much simple and faster. So it perfectly fits the life of a content creator.

Hence, if you want to try out the creative run, follow these 3 steps:

• First, define a strict running schedule to respect.
• Second, make a list of fascinating podcasts that may trigger your creativity.
• And third, keep the routine for as much as possible to transform it into a habit.

And don’t forget to keep a piece of paper or your smartphone with you when you are running. You can never know when the next great idea will come to you.

Photo by Jonathan Borba on Unsplash