There is a lovely and inspiring post from Sarah Prout about the importance of creativity. This is just what you need on a Monday morning to bring things into perspective and begin to plan the week ahead.

Make sure that you don’t get bogged down with the ‘doing’ creativity. Creativity is also about ‘being’. Be inspired, be creative and be yourself. Don’t get lost in the busyness of each day.

Stop. Breath. Be inspired. Be.

The Importance of Creactivity

There is a great post about getting into the creative flow over at Zen habits (link below). Having recently been in and out of the creative flow with a writing project I was doing it was good to see the three things that often block the creative flow listed:

• you aren’t allowing yourself to be challenged
• you’re completely overwhelmed
• someone else is holding you back

So if you want some tips to overcome the above take a look at the post.

The Hidden Art of Achieving Creative Flow | Zen Habits

A new report on Scientific American has confirmed what many of us naturally realised, you can be more creative if you ‘distance’ yourself from the situation. Read the article for the science and some practical ideas.

An Easy Way to Increase Creativity: Scientific American

• The launch of a Windows killer operating system
• A revolutionary networking tool
• The latest and greatest version of Photoshop

What do all these three have in common? Well, apart from CS10 they are all imminently on the way and will change the way we work, allegedly.

The web is creaking under the weight of tweets, blog posts and conversations about Google’s Chrome operating system and it’s Wave concept. And this post is another one of them.

But what does it all mean for us?

Actually it could mean quite a lot. A move from workstation to netstation, which the Chrome OS would encourage, has been creeping into our lives little by little. There are web apps for almost everything these days, for writing, drawing or music creation.

As for Wave, the growth of twitter has shown how a new networking tool can take off.

However, what we must not do is sit around and wait for these new innovations to come our way.

Tool Procrastination

One danger in our creative journey is tool procrastination. I have sat at home many times and said, ‘if only I had the latest version of [insert any desirable piece of software] I could be much more creative!’

And that, my friends, is a lie. That latest piece of shiny software won’t change a thing. If we are thinking like that then we are procrastinating. We are using the lack of software as a reason not to be creative.

Creativity is from you not the software or hardware

Ideas and creativity come from us, from within. Leonardo didn’t leave his idea for a flying machine as an idea because he didn’t have a CAD program to make it look great. Mozart didn’t keep the tunes in his head because his sequencer couldn’t handle the complicated rhythms.

And you don’t have to sit and wish that you had the latest shiny piece of software or hardware to share your creations with the world.

Use what you have, your mind and anything to hand: create!

You have deadlines. You have pressure at home. The world is on the brink of disaster. Everything is piling the pressure on you. You need to perform, but your creative urge just won’t rise to the occasion.

I’ve been feeling a little like this recently, with all of the above coming into play at some point. But to be honest they are always part of our life. There aren’t any days when these and other distractions aren’t fighting for a bit of our creative thought.

Some days however, they seem closer than others and we need to know how to deal with them. If we don’t, we’ll end up missing those deadlines, neglecting the home and becoming paranoid at everything beyond the front door. And that is before we realise that the blog hasn’t been updated for a while.

Overwhelmed
The biggest danger is that we become overwhelmed. Everything gangs up on us and we collapse under the pressure. What moments before was a pile of things to do and think about, is now a mountain that is beyond our climbing skills. There are three ways to deal with this:

1. Throw everything in the bin. For some people this is the best option. Anything that is on your mind, simply ditch it, emails, tweets, RSS feeds, lists, and so on. If anything that you had on your mind was important it will surface again. Important deadlines, emails that need responding to, will all resurface. Then when they do, you can put them into your system and deal with them.
2. Throw everything on a list. For those who aren’t as brave (or as those who prefer this solution would say, reckless), there is the list. Instead of picking up everything and throwing it away, you can throw it on a list. Out of your head, and away from distracting your creativity, is what you want to achieve. Adding everything to a list does exactly that, and you won’t have to worry about losing anything. Once everything is on the list, you can go through it at your own pace.
3. Throw yourself away. Instead of getting rid of all the stuff, why not get rid of yourself. Or more accurately, remove yourself for a while to recharge. The things will still be there when you get back, but if you can give yourself permission to take a break, you’ll be in a better state to deal with them.

Control
All of the above can deal with the feeling of being overwhelmed. They all take different approaches but they all work for the same reason. When we feel overwhelmed we feel powerless and helpless. These feelings leave us unable to do anything. The above all give us back our power. They are ways of us taking control of the situation and dealing with it, and that is what is needed.

So the next time you feel overwhelmed and it begins to affect your creative output, decide what is going to be thrown.

In recent years Dr Who and Battlestar Galactica have been successfully reinvented and given a much needed creative boost. The original ideas had run their course and had been relegated to nostalgic archives to all but the faithful. The same is just about to happen with Star Trek as the new movie is released around the world.

• How have these franchises managed to reinvent themselves?
• What can I learn in my own creative journey?

Dr Who successfully returned to the small screen in 2005 after an almost twenty year absence. But it also had an unsuccessful return in 1996. Why was the 2005 version a success?

Effective series

The original Dr Who was characterised by its poor special effects and cliffhanger endings. When it returned advances, and reduction of cost, in computer graphics allowed it to step into the same league as films like Star Wars. It also changed the format from half-hour cliffhanger episodes into the popular hour long length. It replaced the cliffhanger with the story arc. So along with good characters and writing it was set.

Unbelievable shocks

Battlestar Galactica returned to our screens after a similar break in time. This series hadn’t had any abortive attempts to revive it beyond the extension of the original series with a few TV specials. When it did return it came back with a radical reworking of the original. Gone was the glitzy, safe, middle of the road TV series. In its place was a hard hitting and edgy series that pulled no punches and surprised its watchers week in, week out.

Fit Trek

And finally we have Star Trek. Its success is pretty much guaranteed. JJ Abrams has taken control after several other successes, he’s on a roll. But he is also about to tweak the untweakable and mess with a story that has been filled in by the fanatical fans of this Sci-fi franchise. But that is why it will work. Star Trek has faded from popularity with the masses because it became tired. The new film will pull away the fat from the original kernel, and breath life once more into Roddenberry’s child.

So what can we take away into our creative journey?

• Use new tools as they become available – open source is great for cheap or free software
• Change format, learn from what else is popular
• Be prepared to go against what everyone is used to
• Don’t be afraid to change things from what people expect
• Get back to your basics, why are you creating. Live your dream

I totally believe that we are creative beings. We don’t need anything apart from ourselves to be creative. However, there are tools that can make the creative process easier.

• A Moleskine – this could be any notepad, but I’m currently addicted to Moleskines. They are my notepad of choice. The need for a quick and easy capture device is essential and so far I haven’t found anything better than a notepad.
• A Laptop – This is currently an Acer, but I also use a Toshiba for work and so with the next item on the list it doesn’t really matter.  It could be anything, but the ability to open it anywhere and type is becoming indispensable.
• USB drive – I am running portable apps on this and it has been great. When my own laptop isn’t available I am able to create and save plenty of stuff here.
• Evernote – A pen and notepad isn’t helpful in the digital world, step in Evernote. A hybrid desktop and online notepad. It can capture words, sentences and complete web pages, and has become a welcome addition to my must have’s.
• Toodledo – Everyone needs a to do list, well I do (even if I never get around to doing any of them) and toodledo is the best online version I’ve found. It has so many features at the basic level and it’s integration with Firefox is wonderful.
• Google Reader – An RSS reader has been a wonderful way to keep track with all the other creative peeps out in the internet. Find their sites, click on subscribe and I’m never short of inspiration and ideas.
• StumbleUpon – But how to find the creative people? Well Stumbleupon is still coughing up gem after gem when it comes to great stuff. The ability to view images at the click of a button means I’m never more than a click away from some stunning visual inspiration.
• Firefox – With its add ons and integration with Evernote and Toodledo above I won’t leave home without this. My browser of choice for ages and still going strong.

I have plenty more sites and software that I use but whether or not they have become essential to me I am undecided. Photoshop would be the almost addition to the list, but if I didn’t have a copy as part of my day job I may well use Gimp instead.  WiFi is probably knocking to get on the list as well but as yet, I’ve not got into the habit of getting out and about enough.

I’d love to hear what you have in your Essential Creative Toolkit

In my current job incarnation, I need to be creative. I need to be creative at certain times, to meet certain deadlines. Planning my time with these deadlines in mind helps. A creative space, days or weeks before a deadline, eases the pressure and allows free creativity. But what happens when I, or you, need to be creative and create something within a couple of hours. How can we be creative on demand?

Deadlines can be persuasive. It is easy to see deadlines as the enemy when they loom in front of us, but they are a source of encouragement. The added stress that a deadline brings will get adrenalin and the creative juices flowing. We all need an amount of stress to provide motivation. So, being given a short time to be creative in, can actually be exactly what we need.

Open the cupboard of hints and tips. If you are getting nowhere, give yourself a helping hand with the simple creativity exercises we love to hate. All of the following, and many other, tips can help trigger the creative process, so don’t be afraid to get back to basics.

• Think of five related words around the main subject of your project and see where they lead.
• Think of the opposite to what your subject is, again seeing where that takes you.
• Think of your subject in a situation where it is not normally found, what ideas does that spark?

Avoid a blank sheet or screen. The pressure is on, the deadline is imminent and all you have in front of you is a blank sheet of paper or an empty electronic document… run! No, seriously, get away from it. As the pressure and stress levels rise, the last thing you need is an empty space. This blank nothingness will grow and grow engulfing any hope you have of creative lift-off. A quick walk around, a little tidy-up or a ‘phone-a-friend’ moment can break the ‘blank’ spell. Taking your mind off a problem can often allow your mind to solve it, and be creative. Be sure to keep a capture device relatively close by though… that deadline isn’t far off.

One of the dangers of living in a highly productive, creative environment is that we can easily neglect one of the most important parts. If you suffer from burn out, or times of creative drought, one of the possible causes is that you have neglected your dreamtime.

Finding time to dream is important. We’re not talking about sleep here either. This is primarily the time to down creative tools and let your mind wander. And this isn’t about sitting down with a blank piece of paper, planning the next stage of your creative master plan. Dreamtime is about space and connection, perhaps even a little spiritual. But it needs to be taken seriously and this is where many of us fail. We don’t see it as important, we squeeze it from our schedule (if it was ever there) and then wonder why we are becoming less effective creatives.

So what exactly is dreamtime? Well first and foremost it needs to be an integral part of a creative lifestyle, we’re not talking huge amounts of time, we’re not even talking every day. But it should be seen as something regular. Dreamtime isn’t wasting or dead time, it is essential for your creative life.

Dreamtime isn’t the same for everybody either, what works for one may not work for the other. Here are a few ideas and thoughts that may be of use to you. They are not structured and I’m sure you can find variations on the theme. This is all about scheduling the time and then finding what works for you:

• walk barefoot in the damp grass while breathing in the air
• watch a film in a foreign language, without the subtitles on
• read a religious book, from another belief system to your own
• listen to music from a musical genre that is not your preferred
• go for a walk or journey without your capture device
• cook a meal with no predefined recipe

These are only vague ideas, but you should be getting some thoughts of your own by now. For now, it is time to dream…

Habit forming can be a positive influence on your creativity. Once formed the habits will have a long-lasting effect on you. Just as ‘bad habits’ eat away at us and have negative effects, ‘good habits’ are the opposite. Take one habit at a time, keep at it for up to 28 days, and then you’ll find that the habit is formed. It will become part of you; a creative habit to fuel your ideas.

1. Meditate – Take five minutes each day to clear your mind of everything, or as much as you can. Keep it simple, a basic breathing exercise… in through the nose out through the mouth. Perhaps with a simple image in your mind, the sea, a mountain, a cloud. This will help build up your sense of self. And when you know your ‘self’, you’ll be closer to the creative genius that you are.
2. Read - This does not mean books only, but that is as good a place as any to start. The habit is to set aside time and space each day to read. To see the input of other ideas as important as your own. In the busyness of trying to be creative it is easy to forget about feeding ourselves.
3. Create waste – This is all about not being afraid to have a go. It is about giving yourself permission to create rubbish, to make a mess, to do something that may well be thrown away. If you have an idea, just a glimmer, pull out a piece of paper, or any other medium you use, and get on with it. It doesn’t need to be perfect, in fact it shouldn’t. This will get you into the habit of capturing ideas and letting them develop in a quick and easy way. Then you can either choose to create the final piece or, throw it away.
4. Journal - This can be done in a variety of ways from simple notepads to online scrapbooks. The habit is similar to meditation, in that you are focusing on self. However, as opposed to clearing your mind by thinking of nothing, here you clear your mind by writing, drawing or sticking all the thoughts and ideas, fears and worries, hopes and dreams into your journal. It has the added benefit of being a constant source of inspiration as you reread what you have added.
5. Doodle - Have you any idea how much ‘dead’ time you have… stuck in meetings, on hold whilst making a call or crashed out watching that very interesting documentary on inner city gangs? Utilise that time by doodling. Keep a small, cheap blank pad and pencil handy when your having these ‘down times’ and simply doodle away. The shapes you doodle may make connections, they may spark creativity and then… off you go. Of course you should always have a capture device nearby but I’m talking here about non-premeditated ideas, doodling is doodling not drawing.

There are a lot more creative habits that you could take on, if you have any ideas to add, do leave a comment. In the meantime, pick a habit and begin.