Creativity (Ivities part 3)

This post is part 3 of a 3 part series with me rambling about how I cleaned up my life and found more time and more energy to get on with my personal projects outside of work. Without burning out.
Previously: Part 1, Ivities
Then: Part 2, Productivity

Previously on Ivities, I was talking about Productivity, and how I've gotten productive.

So at this point, I have:

1. ubiquitous capture working for me, with:
   1. 3x5 cards in my wallet
   2. A moleskin notebook for lyrics
   3. Dropbox¹⁾ for text files
   4. Google Wave for collaborative projects and notes
2. Electronic reminders (Google Calendar synced to my phone) to take the agony out of having to remember when to do something.
3. If it needs to get paid, I schedule it around my monthly pay date.
4. If it needs to get filed, there's a folder for that (and what I wouldn't give for a filing cabinet and office in a chest).

Which is great, but it didn't happen over night. Some of it happened organically while some of it (building a wallet, for example) was much more purposeful. Where there was explicit purpose - a problem to solve, if you will - a solution had to be designed and enacted. That's where Creativity comes in.

If Productivity is just getting shit out the way, then Creativity is probably your raison d'etre. Creativity is not Activity (playing sports, watching TV, gaming, etc), which is usually laid on for you, but they will both compete for your spare time. Some people are more Activity-based than others, and Creativity may still be involved at some points of whatever Activity that's being pursued.

For me, Creativity is the act of creation²⁾. All those things that I design and build, and that I haven't designed or built before. If I've done it once, it usually becomes Productivity, i.e: how can I do it faster the next time, so I can move on to doing something new? This means I find Creativity everywhere, including at work. I know some people work-to-live, and may not realise that “work”³⁾ doesn't have to be boring.

My best creations for Work come from discovering repetitive tasks that I (or others) have to do that can be scripted or otherwise automated. It can take a little bit of extra time at the outset to set something up, but it will pay for itself when it gets used a few times. To say nothing of the huge confidence boost every time you go back and Shit Just Works™. At the moment I'm doing a lot of infrastructure work, so putting a lot of time into organising information for retrieval and processing, with a view to allowing others access and eventually input. I'd bet that a lot of companies have processes and probably forms that could do with some improvement, and I'd bet that the best people to improve them is the employees. Work is what you make of it, really, so I hope anyone who's currently in a rut with their Work can get themselves free by finding some piece of happiness through creativity.

Strangely enough, Creativity is exactly what was suggested as a pick-me-up during my melancholy in 2008.

My mother suggested doing a little something each day that you really enjoy; something to brighten up your day and make it all worth while.

I lived on pure Productivity for a while, but I wasn't happy. It wasn't living, it was just surviving. Add in creativity and actually accomplish something; produce something; create something and shazzam: a smile.

So it turns out that mother really does know best.

Back at home I have numerous hobbies and interests, most of which demand some level of creativity (although I suspect video gaming isn't one of them) and all of which compete for my attention. Charlie Gilkey writes about blocking out time for your really creative work to knuckle down and do it, and Twyla Tharp is keen to impress how habits can speed up the creation process when you've got nothing, or have otherwise mentally stalled. Both of whom are dead right, but they and nearly everyone else I've read concentrate on one core tenet: if you hate you Work, go freelance and create your own processes that pay the same but don't work you in such a grind.

But what about those people who work 9-5 and love their job, but still have extra projects? 40 hours a week quickly eats up your time, especially if you need big blocks of time to create.

For those personal projects, it's exactly the same as being self-employed. Consider the implications of applying these Work-type habits and ethics and mindsets to your personal life and hobbies - you get just as much benefit (if not more) from being organised and rigourous with what spare time you have outside of Work as you would from being the CEO of your own company.

If you've already got time to do what you want to do, but you're just not doing it then you don't have a productivity problem, you have a Creativity problem. Quite simply, you're not going back and acting on all those cool ideas you've had (and ubiquitously captured …).

Wait, slow down, when did we start discussing acting on ideas? Actually that's the essence of the Ivities. Use Productivity to keep life flowing and be prepared for the spark of inspiration to hit - whether you're thinking about song lyrics, a paint scheme for miniatures, some programming problem or even how best to organise your life, if you're able to jot down the idea when you have it, you can look back through your ideas and pick them up again when you're able to block out a little time to dedicate to them.

Once you've got a book or pad or app full of Ideas⁴⁾, be prepared to comb through them, prune the list and actually pick some of them up. It's senseless giving instructions on “how to be creative”, so I'm going to stop here and say that if you've got a system to capture ideas, and the motivation to go back and consider them (often in the harsh light of day) then you're good to go.

Creativity is easy if you've got a box o' ideas prepared, but there are a few processes that help me really get stuck in.

In general, my process of creation goes something like this: Reading and research → Definition of done (desired outcome) → Planning and refining → Creation.

But before I can get stuck in to the creation part, I need to get something to create.

1. Reading and research. I do a lot of reading around, to help out with the problem at hand. Either finding the right tool for the job, or a technique that will have a positive impact on what I'm doing. The research part of this is more like quick trials, to see if the technique is viable, or if there's something I've missed during the reading. Usually I read and research many related Ideas at once (leaping between them like an epileptic gazelle), to solidify and refine that nugget into something more tangible. Don't be afraid to discard ideas that turn out to be worthless at this point, and make sure to capture any new ideas you have while doing this!
2. Definition of done. Get a pretty specific desired outcome sorted so you know when you're finished, and you can move on to something else. I like to write it down (Wave is good for this kind of thing) so I can see what I originally intended. The exact specification might change as you go along, but with a solid Idea and an aim, you've got yourself a Project to work on.
3. Planning and refining. This is a totally iterative process of taking the ideas you've got and the outcome you want and finding the path between the two. You may get this far and realise there was some previously unknown roadblock that your trials and research didn't really uncover, but don't worry, you can always go back to the drawing board and look at some of the other ideas you had and discarded.
4. Creation. Sooner or later planning and refining will take a step into making and doing, and before you know it, you're finished. Job done. Check your definition of done and enjoy your success. Closing the open loop that was a Project means you've nurtured an thought from Idea and seen it through, it's a huge confidence booster that you can do something even more amazing next time.

What if you can't get that far? Don't be afraid to give up on a project and shelve it. Not everything you think of has to be done now, some things can wait for later and some things maybe become obsolete by the time you come back to them.

Irrespective of your precise path, you need to be aware of a few things if you're going to accomplish anything:

1. Set aside some time to look at a project, and spend some time with it. Some people need time to let things percolate and need to mull things over, others need to knuckle down and just do something. Regardless of what you do, do something to make forward progress.
2. Start small. Each success will give you more confidence to let you go on to bigger things.
3. If you've got a big project on your hands, it can help to set aside regular slots to push through it. Creativity is definitely habitual - so if you know you're going to do something, after a few weeks, you'll be automatically gearing up for it and ready to create something awesome when that slot comes around.
4. Most importantly, be happy. If you don't feel like doing a DIY project, don't. If the thought of having to sit in front of a PC coding on a sunny day just makes you die inside, do it another day. Unlike entrepreneurs and freelancers, you're (probably) not being paid for this and unless it's part of a bigger scheme of self-improvement, if it makes you unhappy or anxious: it's not worth doing.

Ultimately, what I hope to do is be able to look back at my life and not see a lot of wasted opportunities and time spent bumbling along when I could've been doing something amazing. However, living on pure Creativity with no Productivity backing it up and sorting out the trivialities is just as dangerous as living on pure Productivity.

Living with no Creativity, however, is sanity suicide.