Potent Systems: The Intuitive Systems of Prolific Creators

What’s their secret? What allows them to be such prolific creators?

This week as part of our series on habits and systems for creators, we’re looking at some of our favorite artists and creators of yore, and what practices and rituals keep them sane and create space for them to do their best work.

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Systems should not be rigid. Systems ideally reflect the systems we see in nature. They are organic, they’re flexible, they’re intuitive, they’re regenerative. They have zero waste and zero redundancy. They’re kind of sexy.
— Michelle Pellizzon-Lipsitz
Creativity is a habit, and creation is a habit. And all the best you can do is just to show up.
— Michelle Pellizzon-Lipsitz
We don’t need to follow a certain routine that other people are following, just because.
— Willem and Elaine de Kooning
The ritual is not the stretching, it’s not the weight training. The ritual is the cap. The moment I tell the driver where to go, I have completed the ritual.
— Twyla Tharp
We give you a second brain template in systems files, but we also teach you how to make your own, which I think is more valuable. It’s more helpful to understand how something works.
— Michelle Pellizzon-Lipsitz
You need the right nourishment. You need sleep to feel good. You also, afterward, will be tired. It takes a lot of energy to have creative output, whatever your medium.
— Wallis Millar-Blanchaer
Most of us don’t have the whole day to just make art and curate our schedule, and it’s something that we aspire to. But that’s just something to note that all of these people are in a particular situation for various reasons that’s what they’re doing all day. So don’t feel dismayed.
— Wallis Millar-Blanchaer
The goal of System Spells is to help you figure out what does work for you so that you can do your sacred work and also have fun and rock out!
— Michelle Pellizzon-Lipsitz

Show Notes

  • Being creative, and the systems that come with creativity

  • Michelle’s unique definition of Systems

  • Two of Michelle’s favorite prolific creators: Kendrick Lamar and Joan Rivers

  • That ritual and magic that keep you going

  • The execution that separates good artists from great artists

  • System Spells - Notion for Magical Baddies’ overview

  • Toni Morrison, American novelist - how she starts her day

  • Following a specific routine versus doing what works best for you

  • The big mind versus the little mind

  • Deep work extended mind theory

  • The right kind of distracting versus the wrong kind of distracting

  • Agnes Martin - how important it is for her to be alone

  • Being around the right people to help you get into action and who inspire you

  • The ability to change routines

  • What made David Lynch, a transcendental meditator, not meet a therapist

  • Finding a way to make a dysfunction functional

  • Respect for ourselves and for other people

  • How Shonda Rhimes, an American television producer, store all of her notes

  • Chori Mera Kaam’s daily routine, including a 10-kilometer run and 1500-meter swim

  • How to make sure that the other person in your zoom meeting isn’t online shopping or doing something else?


Resources and People Mentioned