There is a fantastic, yet really simple, course available from Productivity501. It is a ten day course, via email, that helps you overcome procrastination. highly recommended if, like me, you end up with more things left undone than done.
Batch processing, productivity and ProBlogger
June 13, 2008 By Leave a Comment
Darren Rowse at ProBlogger has a really interesting post about keeping ‘like’ tasks together. I am sure you’ll find something of interest in the post even though it doesn’t deal directly with being creative. However, if you are like most creatives then a little organisation could go along way.
Achieving your goal
May 29, 2008 By Leave a Comment
It is the 29th May today and fifty-five years ago Edmund Hilary and Tenzing Norgay reached the summit of Mount Everest. They were first inspired to climb the mountain and through preparation and perspiration they achieved their goal.
You too can achieve your creative goals through those three steps and if you keep those steps in mind you’ll be amazed at what you can create:
- Preparation – prepare everything you may need, both during your creative journey and before you even start, e.g. resources, templates, time.
- Inspiration – the enigmatic spark that is fanned into the creative flame. Seek out inspirational tinder for you fire, e.g. images, sounds, space.
- Perspiration – nothing is free (well almost) and creativity will take effort on your part, so be aware that you’ll need to sweat a little to create.
Now what creative mountain are you going to climb today?
Is anything impossible for the creative mind?
March 7, 2008 By Leave a Comment
“I am always doing that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to do it.”
Pablo Picasso
How good a creative parent are you?
February 7, 2008 By Leave a Comment
“A poem is never finished, only abandoned.”
Paul Valery
Five tips for effective creativity
December 12, 2007 By Leave a Comment
How do you measure your creativity? How do you make sure you are being as effective as you can be in expressing your inner creative? If you are anything like me you’ll have projects and ideas all over the place, most of them interweaving and overlapping each other. You may be quite good at juggling your writing, art and music and by the end of the day have something you can share with the world, but have you been effective in your creativity?If you want to improve your effectiveness, these simple tips may help you:
1. Make the most of your uncreative time
You should have time for yourself , to collect your thoughts, make goals, and let your creativity shine through and help you find solutions to problems. Sometimes the only way to find time for yourself is to actually schedule it in. Why not put 15 minutes of uninterupted time into the diary, telling friends, family or co-workers that you are not available. And use it – no phone, no email, no nothing.
2. Be results-oriented
If you want to achieve anything you should really set some goals. This applies to your creative projects as well as other areas of your life. Setting goals costs you nothing apart from time and thought, but without them failure and regret lie around the corner.
3. Use your strengths
Do things that allows you to make use of your talents and interests and you will find that you are happier, healthier and more effective. If, for example, your talents and interests lie in music and singing, don’t spend your time sitting in front of a canvas. (But remember diversity can also be an outlet)
4. Focus on one or two projects at a time
Feeling overwhelmed is one the easiest ways to drain creativity away from us. As I said above I often have plenty of ideas and thoughtsd running around, but if I want to get anything done I need to focus on just one or two of them. Devote your creative time to them and then, and only then, when they are complete move on.
5. Make the decision
We often grind to a halt when there is a decision to be made. It is another sap on our creative force. When you must make a decision, get the information, ask others for input and suggestions, consider the alternatives and then make the decision.
You can create so much more than you thought possible by becoming more effective in your creativity.
Dealing with disappointment
November 20, 2007 By Leave a Comment
Being a dedicated creative isn’t all fun, frivolity and artistic fecundity – yeah sure. Sometimes you have to deal with disappointment. This can come in a variety of ways, the piece you have spent hours on is actually quite crap, or you pitched for a commission and someone else got the job or you’ve gone for a promotion within the creative department you work and you didn’t get it. How we deal with disappointment can be the difference between later success and continued failure. Here are are a few thoughts to help you overcome and come back fighting.
- Why did you fail?Whether in something you created, or something you have strived for, you need to ask this question.
- What can I do to avoid this in the future? Once the first question is answered you can then list things to do to avoid following the same route.
- Be direct in who you ask. To find out exactly why you didn’t win the pitch or get the job, don’t be afraid to ask direct questions to those who made the decision. Quite simply you need to now why you didn’t succeed and what would you need to do to succeed at the next opportunity.
- Don’t give up.It is all too easy to see yourself as a failure and give up, we can do this in a big camp way or we can wallow in despair. There is nothing wrong with being upset, but we shouldn’t let it control our destiny. Keep going, find out what went wrong and work toward succeeding next time.
So dry your eyes, and go create.
Another apology but creativety abounds in the zone
November 6, 2007 By Leave a Comment
As you may have noticed by the lack of posts I have been a little busy of late and I don’t see any let up in that in the foreseebale future. However, I will be pressing on with things here.
One thing that often happens with creative poeple is that they get engrossed in what they are doing. The focus is total on the creative task at hand. Whilst this is great for that task, the more routine and mundane tasks that life often demands get left to one side. [Please note that I am not suggesting for one moment that !maginality is a mundane task.] It is no wonder that creative poeople can be hard to live with as they focus on what they are doing rather than the relationships they have.
The danger with such a strict focus is burnout. Creatives will seek the to stay in the zone and the more they cling on the more it can damage. It is all too easy to then look for external stimuli to stay in the zone, excess caffeine and even something a little stronger.
What any creative needs to do is make sure they take downtime, this doesn’t mean they can’t be playing with ideas, taking notes and doodleing, but they should take a break. The batteries need recharging. There is more than one masterpiece in us all.
NaNoWriMo 2007
October 31, 2007 By Leave a Comment
Just a quick note to wish everyone who has entered NaNoWriMo 2007 the best of luck. I too will be attempting to write at least 1,600+ words each day to complete a 50,000 word novel by the end of November.
And for those who don’t know what it is, you can find out by following the link.
The real reason for writer’s block
October 2, 2007 By Leave a Comment
The real reason for writer’s block can be found at the very amusing Savage Chickens’ site. All you have to do is follow this link and all will be revealled.