Routine is not a requirement for creative work of any kind.

A lot of creative people I know go through cycles and do just fine.

I’m on the extreme end of that due to being bipolar. I have days of extreme productivity and days of none. Likewise with creative ability. They don’t always line up all the time. I can be creative and depressed, or hypomanic but unfocused.

Even with medication, routine does not (and never will) exist for me. Learning to accept chaos and work with it instead of against it was the best thing I ever did for myself.

If I can be creative, I ride it until I need to pull back and let things settle. If I’m not, I work on more boring things like refactoring, testing, and documentation. If I can’t focus at all, I take time off to reduce stress until I recover.