I like the concept of a "creativity brief" that Josh Linkner introduces in his book, "Disciplined Dreaming." At first look, it may not seem congruent with the spontaneity of creativity, but I think it can complement the other aspects of the creative process.
To write a creativity brief you define, in detail, the major components of your project. My version of the topics you could cover include:
* Your desired outcome (as concisely as possible) - I suggest you express this in terms of what you will be able to see and hear that will be different from what you see and hear today.
* An assessment of where you are now, relative to the desired outcome
* A description of what has to happen to span that gulf
* What obstacles you anticipate and your strategy for overcoming them (including, if you've gone for this outcome before and failed, exactly what you'll do differently this time)
* Who is doing something successfully in another field (that part is important) and how can you adapt their methods to yours. (If you copy what people are doing in your field, you'll just come across as a copycat).
* Who can help you and how you'll get their support and what they will get in return
* How you will market the resulting product or service (if applicable)
* What resources you'll need (including budget, time, etc.) and where you'll get them.
* A timeline for all the steps you plan to take.
Of course a plan will be out of date almost immediately because many things will happen, both positive and negative, that you didn't foresee. Therefore you'll be changing the plan constantly to take advantage of what is the case, not trying to steer by what you wish were the case.
(Get lot of tips and a strategy for achieving your goal in my book, "Focus: Use the power of targeted thinking to get more done" published by Pearson and available from Amazon and other booksellers.)
