8 Habits That Are Killing Your Creativity
By Jessica Stillman | October 5, 2010
www.bnet.com
If you’re looking to be more creative at work, there are plenty of tips available. BNET bloggers have suggested everything from moving to another country to boost creativity to seven habits to be more innovative. But the blog Copyblogger recently took the opposite tack, suggesting eight habits to avoid, lest you stifle out-of-the-box thinking. They’re pitched primarily at copywriters (as the blog title suggests) but can help anyone who wants to generate more fresh ideas. Here’s what to steer clear of:
* Creating and evaluating at the same time. You can’t drive a car in first gear and reverse at the same time. Likewise, you shouldn’t try to use different types of thinking simultaneously. You’ll strip your mental gears. Most people evaluate too soon and too often, and therefore create less. In order to create more and better ideas, you must separate creation from evaluation, coming up with lots of ideas first, then judging their worth later.
* The Expert Syndrome. This is a big problem in any field where there are lots of gurus who tell you their secrets of success. It’s wise to listen, but unwise to follow without question. Some of the most successful people in the world did what others told them would never work.
* Fear of failure. No one wants to make mistakes or fail. But if you try too hard to avoid failure, you’ll also avoid success. To increase your success rate, you should aim to make more mistakes.
* Fear of ambiguity. Most people like things to make sense. Unfortunately, life is not neat and tidy; great creative ideas emerge from a swirl of chaos. You must develop a part of yourself that is comfortable with mess and confusion. You should become comfortable with things that work even when you don’t understand why.
* Lack of confidence. A certain level of uncertainty accompanies every creative act. A small measure of self-doubt is healthy. However, you must have confidence in your abilities in order to create and carry out effective solutions to problems. Much of this comes from experience, but confidence also comes from familiarity with how creativity works. When you understand that ideas often seem crazy at first, that failure is just a learning experience, and that nothing is impossible, you are on your way to becoming more confident and more creative.
* Discouragement from other people. Even if you have a wide-open mind and the ability to see what’s possible, most people around you will not. They will tell you in various and often subtle ways to conform, be sensible, and not rock the boat. Ignore them.
* Being overwhelmed by information. It’s called “analysis paralysis,” the condition of spending so much time thinking about a problem and cramming your brain with so much information that you lose the ability to act. It’s been said that information is to the brain what food is to the body. True enough. But just as you can overeat, you can also overthink.
* Being trapped by false limits. Ask a writer for a great idea, and you’ll get a solution that involves words. Ask a designer for a great idea, and you’ll get a solution that involves visuals. We’re all a product of our experience. But the limitations we have are self-imposed. Only when you force yourself to look past what you know and feel comfortable with, can you come up with the breakthrough ideas you’re looking for.
MY THOUGHTS
Even when you're into something you love doing, there are times when creativity seems to have flown out the window. How much more difficult could it be when you're doing something you do not like doing?
Showing posts with label creativity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label creativity. Show all posts
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Monday, March 28, 2011
OVERCOME CREATIVE BLOCKS
How to Overcome Creative Blocks and Distractions
By Herb Schaffner | March 7, 2011
www.bnet.com
You’re on your second cup of coffee, but you can’t get past the first sentence of your pitch to your boss. Or, perhaps you’re struggling to meet deadlines because you’re so preoccupied with your son’s problems at school.
In a new book called Spark: How Creativity Works, author Julie Burstein-who is a producer of the radio show 360– reworks the radio show’s interviews with leading artists to shed light on how to make creative leaps and accomplishments happen. In a fascinating interview with BNET blogger Laura Vanderkam, Burstein elaborated on how artists get their ideas. In addition to the book’s insights about creative inspiration-Spark is also laced with useful tips on how to overcome blocks and distractions, even if you are not a so-called “creative.”
Some tips include:
* Have a warm-up ritual. The hardest part for many can be just getting started. Rather than diving headlong into work, cellist Yo-Yo Ma takes a few minutes each morning to play long, slow notes on his cello he’s nicknamed Petunia. Writer Isabel Allende starts a new book every year on the same exact date even if the previous work is unfinished. That routine is her way of ensuring she always starts a new project.
* Look for ideas in ordinary places. Stuck in a cubicle? There may be something on your desk, or down the hall, that could inspire your next great idea-if you look beyond the surface. Many artists find that even banal materials can be a potent source of inspiration. Sound designer Ben Burtt combined the hum of a projector at his night job with the feedback buzz of a broken microphone in his house to create the sound of the light sabers in the Star Wars films. Artist Richard Serra’s steel and rubber sculptures often begin with industrial materials he finds on his travels.
* Discover the power of two. Partnering can make for big results. The key is to allow yourself to be challenged by your collaborator. Burstein notes that bluegrass icon Alison Krauss and ex-Led Zeppelin star Robert Plant made collaborative gold in their Grammy-winning partnership forRaising Sand. How? They allowed themselves to be challenged by their partners, rather than defending their egos. Plant brought no pride of authorship: “I wanted to work with people who were going to push me, and…challenge my whole capacity to be a really proper singer.” Filmmaker Ang Lee and his partner James Schamus reveal a similar ambition to push boundaries- Schamus fearlessly immersed himself in Chinese culture to “create compelling stories” for many Lee films and both filmmakers had the guts to rewrite each other’s work while keeping their eyes on the prize at the end-a great film.
* Use the negativity blocking your creativity. Many people have difficult family relationships-creative artists use painful memories or experiences to propel their work. Actress Patti LuPone, for instance, let go of some unhappiness with her mother through her Broadway performance as Gypsy Rose Lee. Screenwriter and director David Milch dealt with hard memories of his brilliant but violent and abusive father through dark portrayals of characters such as Sipowicz in NYPD Blue and Swearengen in Deadwood — flawed, foul-mouthed heroes with anger management issues. Are you fretting over your elderly mother or learning disabled child? Perhaps these situations can yield metaphors for a speech-or more compassion for a colleague.
Do you think you could use any of these tips to improve your work? Why, or why not?
MY THOUGHTS
Love this article! There are times I feel my brain's dead. Especially on Mondays. Or after coming back from a long vacation. Or after finishing a long-term project and I can't seem to make a switch. What works best for me- when my creativity seems to have flown out of the window- is to stop. Take a break. Do something else.
By Herb Schaffner | March 7, 2011
www.bnet.com
You’re on your second cup of coffee, but you can’t get past the first sentence of your pitch to your boss. Or, perhaps you’re struggling to meet deadlines because you’re so preoccupied with your son’s problems at school.
In a new book called Spark: How Creativity Works, author Julie Burstein-who is a producer of the radio show 360– reworks the radio show’s interviews with leading artists to shed light on how to make creative leaps and accomplishments happen. In a fascinating interview with BNET blogger Laura Vanderkam, Burstein elaborated on how artists get their ideas. In addition to the book’s insights about creative inspiration-Spark is also laced with useful tips on how to overcome blocks and distractions, even if you are not a so-called “creative.”
Some tips include:
* Have a warm-up ritual. The hardest part for many can be just getting started. Rather than diving headlong into work, cellist Yo-Yo Ma takes a few minutes each morning to play long, slow notes on his cello he’s nicknamed Petunia. Writer Isabel Allende starts a new book every year on the same exact date even if the previous work is unfinished. That routine is her way of ensuring she always starts a new project.
* Look for ideas in ordinary places. Stuck in a cubicle? There may be something on your desk, or down the hall, that could inspire your next great idea-if you look beyond the surface. Many artists find that even banal materials can be a potent source of inspiration. Sound designer Ben Burtt combined the hum of a projector at his night job with the feedback buzz of a broken microphone in his house to create the sound of the light sabers in the Star Wars films. Artist Richard Serra’s steel and rubber sculptures often begin with industrial materials he finds on his travels.
* Discover the power of two. Partnering can make for big results. The key is to allow yourself to be challenged by your collaborator. Burstein notes that bluegrass icon Alison Krauss and ex-Led Zeppelin star Robert Plant made collaborative gold in their Grammy-winning partnership forRaising Sand. How? They allowed themselves to be challenged by their partners, rather than defending their egos. Plant brought no pride of authorship: “I wanted to work with people who were going to push me, and…challenge my whole capacity to be a really proper singer.” Filmmaker Ang Lee and his partner James Schamus reveal a similar ambition to push boundaries- Schamus fearlessly immersed himself in Chinese culture to “create compelling stories” for many Lee films and both filmmakers had the guts to rewrite each other’s work while keeping their eyes on the prize at the end-a great film.
* Use the negativity blocking your creativity. Many people have difficult family relationships-creative artists use painful memories or experiences to propel their work. Actress Patti LuPone, for instance, let go of some unhappiness with her mother through her Broadway performance as Gypsy Rose Lee. Screenwriter and director David Milch dealt with hard memories of his brilliant but violent and abusive father through dark portrayals of characters such as Sipowicz in NYPD Blue and Swearengen in Deadwood — flawed, foul-mouthed heroes with anger management issues. Are you fretting over your elderly mother or learning disabled child? Perhaps these situations can yield metaphors for a speech-or more compassion for a colleague.
Do you think you could use any of these tips to improve your work? Why, or why not?
MY THOUGHTS
Love this article! There are times I feel my brain's dead. Especially on Mondays. Or after coming back from a long vacation. Or after finishing a long-term project and I can't seem to make a switch. What works best for me- when my creativity seems to have flown out of the window- is to stop. Take a break. Do something else.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
BREAK FREE
How to Break Free
By Daniel H. Pink
O, The Oprah Magazine | From the January 2010 issue of O, The Oprah Magazine
Getting unstuck requires serious innovation. Here's a snazzy little trick from Oprah's favorite right-brain creativity expert, Daniel H. Pink, to get your creativity flowing.
There are lots of methods to spark creativity , but I like one used by the founders of an Australian software company: They set aside a day for their engineers to work on any problem they want, so long as it's not part of their regular job. These are called FedEx Days, because the participants have to "deliver" something overnight, and they've resulted in an array of software fixes that might otherwise never have emerged. Why shouldn't this idea be picked up by someone who's looking to switch careers or even just redecorate the living room? People underestimate how much a wildly varied group can accomplish in a short time. So enlist your own team with these ground rules: They can work on anything they want, but at the end of 24 hours everyone must deliver something—whether it's a list of fields where your skills might translate or a sketch of how the room could look. Don't worry about making it perfect. Worry about making it, period. And have fun. If you're not laughing during your FedEx Day, you're doing it wrong.
This story is part of O 's Live Your Best Year Toolkit
MY THOUGHTS
that is one spectacular idea. gotta have my own fedex day
By Daniel H. Pink
O, The Oprah Magazine | From the January 2010 issue of O, The Oprah Magazine
Getting unstuck requires serious innovation. Here's a snazzy little trick from Oprah's favorite right-brain creativity expert, Daniel H. Pink, to get your creativity flowing.
There are lots of methods to spark creativity , but I like one used by the founders of an Australian software company: They set aside a day for their engineers to work on any problem they want, so long as it's not part of their regular job. These are called FedEx Days, because the participants have to "deliver" something overnight, and they've resulted in an array of software fixes that might otherwise never have emerged. Why shouldn't this idea be picked up by someone who's looking to switch careers or even just redecorate the living room? People underestimate how much a wildly varied group can accomplish in a short time. So enlist your own team with these ground rules: They can work on anything they want, but at the end of 24 hours everyone must deliver something—whether it's a list of fields where your skills might translate or a sketch of how the room could look. Don't worry about making it perfect. Worry about making it, period. And have fun. If you're not laughing during your FedEx Day, you're doing it wrong.
This story is part of O 's Live Your Best Year Toolkit
MY THOUGHTS
that is one spectacular idea. gotta have my own fedex day
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