Taking A Nice Long Walk

A few years ago I returned to freelancing. I didn’t want to.

After I sold my agency and started my run of “client-side” jobs, I got fat on direct deposits and delicious health benefits. I bounced around a few places and found myself hunting for the next (biweekly) payday. I loved the stability even though there was something missing from each role.

I eventually connected with an agency that needed a creative director with “hockey” experience to pitch a big beer company. One and done.

We banged out a deck over a two week sprint and they loved it. I loved it. The free-range ideas, the hell-or-high water timeline, the complete absence of office politics. I was hooked. The world of freelancing had pulled me back in.

It’s Not For Everyone

After seeing both sides, my take on creative freelancing is that it’s a cruel joke.

You get to work on whatever you like, however you want. You are everyone at the agency - but that means you have to do all the admin jobs too. And the punchline? Most creative folks can't even write a to-do list properly.

This classic nut breeds a whole cottage industry of apps, tools and “productivity hacks.”

It also bred this newsletter.

If you’ve been reading over the past few weeks, hopefully you’ll have detected (hidden somewhere in the litany of things I hate) a pattern of me trying to help with authentic, actionable advice.

I hate “productivity hacks.” But sometimes I have to check if what I’m dismissing as quick-fix bullshit isn’t actually a workflow or process I can adapt and adopt.

So over the next five issues I will cover:

The Stupidest Hacks That Actually Work.

1. Go For a Walk

This week’s entry is the shortest, dumbest, most begrudgingly effective hack: Walk. Outside. Preferably every day.

Isn't that awful?

This advice took years and an overactive Labradoodle to get me to finally try it, and as much as I hate to say it, it's become the most critical part of my creative process.

On days where I know I have concepts to produce, I will usually read a brief, emails, maybe ask Perplexity to explain things to me, and before the ideas start to flow, I go out for a 30-minute walk.

There have been times when I have been absolutely brick-wall blocked on ideas and this fixed it.

There have been times when I was convinced I had an award-winning idea, but the walk made me come up with a second idea the client actually chose.

Google will tell you it's about oxygenating your brain and neural networks etc but just get out there and let your mind wander.

I promise after 30 minutes, whatever you’re trying to tackle will seem clearer.

My most common walking thought-exercises:

1. Talking myself through a new brief - usually asking "What does the customer actually want?" and "What are we really trying to say?"

2. Listing things that are bothering me or stressing me out - saying them out loud helps me realize which ones actually matter and which are just noise.

3. Battle-planning my short-term goals - like figuring out which clients I actually want to work with this year and what small steps will get me there.

Anyone who knows me knows my top activity is inactivity. So it takes a lot for me to admit the power of something so boring as walking - but I've become someone who does it every day, rain or shine.

The One-Question Interview

Working Creative: What are some of your best productivity tricks or hacks?

Cat Savard: When I get stuck, I get outside, exercise, take a shower.

My first move when I’m overwhelmed is to make a to-do list. I use Google Tasks. It’s simple, satisfying to check things off, and it integrates with email and calendar.

I know it’s time to take a break when I start “multislacking” - i.e. reading Reddit while watching YouTube videos.

To protect my time, I put my phone in another room and turn notifications off. I even moved my office to the farthest room in the basement so it’s harder for people and dogs to get to me. And I light a candle on my desk to signal to my brain it’s time for creative work - like a Pavlovian response for ideas.

I’m pretty sure most of these tips can be found in any mediocre LinkedIn article on productivity. But unfortunately, they work.

Bonus Question:

Working Creative: What do you imagine/picture/visualize when you hear the words “Working Creative”?

Cat Savard: These two GIFs:

More seriously though, my definition of "working creative" is evolving.

While technical craft (design execution, copywriting) has traditionally been central to commercial creative work, AI is coming in hot with increasingly decent alternatives. Future working creatives will be those who develop particular muscles in ideation, curation, and editorial judgment.

When everything is possible, who gets to choose? The one with the best taste.

Parting Thought

My time spent as a young freelance creative was defined by how much I thought I knew. When you’re starting out you get rewarded for the uniqueness of your approach to everything. You reject convention and constantly seek disruption.

As you get older you start to see that you’re nowhere near as unique as you thought you were. When it comes to the struggles to make a business work, no one’s unique.

These days, while it takes a concerted effort to open my know-it-all mind to the advice of the algorithm-juicers on Linkedin and elsewhere, sometimes, when no one’s looking, I can set my hating aside and learn something that will change the course of how I work forever.

But usually not. Linkedin sucks.