Creativity thrives on constraints.

Most people think the opposite. They don’t want to add constraints because it “limits their options.” Wrong. Constraints actually force you to make decisions about what it is you’re creating, and move you towards finishing what you start.

If you’re wondering how to build more digital assets, the answer doesn’t lie in doing more. It’s really about doing less. It’s about adding constraints in three areas: time, form, and content.

Commit to a schedule.

One of the easiest ways to produce more digital assets is to give yourself a time constraint in the form of a deadline. I’ve been doing it on and off for five years with this newsletter.

My parameters are simple: I send one email per week on Tuesday mornings. Since I restarted this newsletter (with the new “Leveraged Creator” direction) late last year, I don’t think I’ve missed a weeks.

Now, I haven’t been perfect. There was a long sketch there (a year maybe?) where I was creatively burnt out and didn’t send anything. But for the most part, I’ve hit one email a week for years and have built an email list of 3,500+ with that simple formula.

Tara and I just did the same with our comedy sketches. We’ve committed to releasing two new sketches per week on Tara’s YouTube channel. We just crossed 50 hours of watch time and 16 subscribers, and it’s only been two week.

There is a hidden genius in committing to a schedule. Your mind will subconsciously work out how to manage your time to stick to it. Even if there’s no one looking over your shoulder to make sure you stick to it, I guarantee you’ll feel guilty if you miss it.

Trust me - commit to a schedule and watch your creative juices pump.

Commit to a form.

The other constraint that will make building digital assets easier is to commit to a form. My “Leveraged Creator” newsletter is always an article. I don’t make videos for it. I don’t (usually) create in-depth images. It’s words in an email. Simple.

For Tara’s sketches, we know it will (mostly) be one longer horizontal video for YouTube, then one vertical cutdown for YouTube shorts and TikTok, and

For any given digital asset, I want to make it as simple as possible for me to ship it. That means taking out as much guess work as I can. Deciding on form is one of the biggest.

How do you decide on form? One simple rule I have for beginners is to just pick the form you consume the most.

If you’re a huge reader, start writing. If you love watching videos on YouTube, start making videos on YouTube. If you listen to music, start making music.

Identify the kinds of content that inspire you. Then, emulate the form yourself.

Commit to content guidelines.

This newsletter isn’t about everything. The Leveraged Creator is very specifically about…

“how to unleash your creativity with the help of AI and start building valuable digital assets using media and code — together, as I build in public beside you.”

That one sentence gives me instant guardrails for what I can and can’t include in the newsletter. Every idea I write about must pass this simple filter.

Of course, that doesn’t mean I can’t change the filter. I did just that about six months ago, turning the old Wealest.com newsletter into this “Leveraged Creator” one.

But what’s important is that you DO have content guidelines. You have a mission statement that helps filter what you create.

Tara and I have a filter for our sketches as well. Every sketch we make must be relevant to millennial women, it’s got to be funny, and it can’t be mean or cynical. Same goes for the movies we write. They’re diverse, funny, with heart, and built for mass audiences.

So spend some time crafting a guiding sentence or two for the content of your digital assets. Pick a form (blog, podcast, video, visual, etc.). Finally, throw in a deadline to ensure you get it done.

It’s not about doing more. It’s about adding constraints to consistently ship assets and build your body of work. Start now.

Thanks for reading.

- Thomas

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