The Daily Rituals Of The World’s Most Creative People

"It’s the repetition that leads you to getting into a creative state. It’s not the rituals themselves--they don’t have any particular special power--that lead you into this zone. It’s more that these artists tried to stick with the same pattern every day."

This paragraph boils down to "work every day at the same time, even if it's only for a short period of time." I've found that this helps stimulate creativity, but the biggest benefit from this consistency is productivity.

Creative flow states are not useful unless the ideas and inspiration they generate are applied to some tangible output. Establishing a routine for creative work helps ease the transition from 'creative idea' to 'creative solution' because the mind is primed to be productive for a finite amount of time and it expects to get things done.

As an aside, I find it interesting that many successful creative people have substance abuse problems. Frances Bacon is cited in the article, but creative types from Ernest Hemingway to Charles Dickens to The Beatles have regularly abused substances throughout major stretches of their careers. All of these individuals would work at their craft daily at set times, which apparently was enough to overcome the damage they were doing to their bodies.