Category: Creative Mondays
A year long exploration of creativity.
Creative Mondays #046 – Mundane tasks
When do you get most of your creative ideas?
I’m sure that for you, as like for me, creativity can strike at any moment. Anywhere, anytime. However, for me, I often find that I get a lot of my creative ideas when I’m doing simple, boring, mundane, completely uncreative tasks. Tasks that are so easy that I don’t have to put much brain power towards. Tasks I can do with my left brain tied behind my back. This can include, laundry, cleaning dishes, vacuuming and exercising.
For me, exercising is a big one. I’ll be running, headphones in, listening to music or podcast and then suddenly realize that I haven’t heard the last three songs or last 5 minutes of the podcast because my mind has been working over some new idea. Most times, I’ll have to stop running and quickly start entering the ideas into my iPhone in order to make sure I don’t lose any of them.
The thing about looking for these moments where you can put your ‘thinking’ brain to rest and just use your creative brain is that it can actually make these ‘mundane’ tasks fun. I can, truthfully, look forward to washing the dishes if I know that while I do it I can let my mind wander on some creative thought or another that I’ve been thinking of. You’re working on your art and getting housework done at the same time! Bonus!
Of course there are times where you’ll want to be one hundred percent focused on your art, that’s great. But don’t let these little moment slip away! Often times you’ll come up with some of your best stuff when you mind is wandering.
I want to point out that, yes, I also come up with a lot of ideas while driving. Mostly on long car trips when the road is stretched out before me. BE CAREFUL! Keep your eyes on the road! You can’t create if you’ve been cracked up in a car wreck!
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When do you find you come up with most of your creative ideas? Let me know in the comments below.
Creative Mondays #045 – The Process
The other day I was in my office doing some work when I noticed some gear I still had out from the last video shoot I did. The tripod, boom mic, surge box, videos splitter, etc. I thought to myself, “I should really put this stuff away.”
My brain instantly said, “Yes, but you are shooting another video in just a few days. You want to drag all this stuff back out again?”
I countered my brain saying, “It’s not about cleaning it up and dragging it all out again. It’s about the process.”
Now, I’ll freely admit right here and right now, I don’t know what I meant by that. I assume I meant, getting into the habit of putting stuff away in order to have a clean creative environment. But that phrase, “It’s about the process.” started rattling around in my head and I started applying that thought towards creativity. I simplified the thought and came up with, “Sometimes it is not about the end result, it’s about the process.”
It’s this thought that struck a note with me because of a creative corner I find myself in right now. I have an idea for a creative project that I want to work on, but I find myself without the taler to fully realize it. Basically, I need a puppet built for it and I have the idea of how I want the puppet to look and even have made some sketches of it, but I am not a puppet builder. Sure, I dabbled in it years ago, but I don’t have the skill to pull off the puppet in the manner and quality I need it to be for this project. My friends who are puppet builders are currently working on other projects, so I’m out of luck in that respect. I’ve toyed with going to buy supplies for it and attempting it myself but I talk myself out of it by saying my time would be spent better pursuing other creative ventures.
“Sometimes it’s not about the end result, it’s about the process.” It’s sort of like that saying, “It’s not about the destination, it’s about the journey.”
Thinking about it, I think there are creative projects we as artists should attempt to tackle and simply not care about how the final result will turn out. We should be open to ‘the process’ of getting it done and the things we can learn simply by doing. Yes, the end result of me attempting to make this puppet may be something I never want to show anyone, But I’m more than sure I will learn a few things along the way about the process that I can use in future projects.
I’m sure there are some who would say that ALL creative projects should be looked at this way and I can see their point. Throw out all care for the end result. Trust in your skills and just create. Start a project, no matter how big or small, and work on it with no care about the end result. If it stinks, you can hide it away. If it turns out amazing, show the world. The important thing is seeing what you can learn about your creative process while you are creating it.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go clean up this equipment and then consider working on this puppet idea I have.
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Do you take the ‘it’s not about the end result, it’s about the process’ approach to your art? I’d love to hear how this has (or hasn’t) worked for you in the comments below. Let me know and have a great week!
Creative Mondays #044 – A Schedule
I believe I mentioned on here before my philosophy of “If you want to make (insert creative pursuit here) your job, you have to make it your job.” This is something that came to me when I decided to quit substitute teaching and focus, full time, on The Radio Adventures of Dr. Floyd.
This idea has been coming back to me a lot recently because, even though I get creative work sporadically, it has been a little slow and there’s no major work on the horizon. I have personal projects I want to work on but my days are spent lazing in the depression that my talents aren’t good enough. They aren’t valued. They are needed anywhere. Why work on things when there’s no point in doing so? Thanks negative brain. Thanks a lot.
Anyway, I’ve been thinking about refocusing on that mantra of ‘making creativity my job’ and started thinking more about creating a schedule for my creativity. When you work any job, you have a schedule. Why would a creative job be any different?
Right now it’s all in the early planning stages but I’m in the process of setting up a daily 9 to 5ish type schedule for myself. There are certain creative goals I want to accomplish and I think treating them like a ‘job’ even if I don’t get paid for it, will help get them done.
The setup I’m looking at is the schedule will work Monday through Friday. I would have to put in 6 to 8 hours a day into it, with short breaks in between.
The day would be broken up into different times to work on different projects. For example: 2 hours a day working on new songs for Throwing Toasters. 2 hours working on Uncle Interloper projects. 2 hours editing audio or video. At the start these would be rigidly timed with a timer set to go off at the end. Though, if I’m really working on something when the timer goes off, I’ll keep plowing through it.
The more I think about this set up, the more I like it. I also see how it’ll be tough to stick to but I think after a week or so, I should be able to kick it into a habit.
I’ll really treat is as job. Maybe I’ll even buy a time clock and make it official. I think this would also help get other goals in focus as well. My friend Joshua Zehner and I had a long discussion once about how having a ‘day job’ made us get a lot of creative work done because you could only do it in your free time. I’m hoping this creative day job I’m making for myself will help in that regard. For example, I’ve only read one book this year and I have a ton I want to get through. I’m hoping this schedule will free up more time to get things like that done. And I’m really looking at taking Saturday and Sundays off at the start.
The problem with setting a schedule, I think, is that you can’t schedule when inspiration will strike and you need to be flexible and open to that happening. But I’ve read a lot of articles that say if you schedule your creative time, inspiration will meet you there. I’m eager to find out. Also, this day job has to allow time off if ‘real’ work rears its head. Can’t turn that down.
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Do you create on a schedule? If so, what is your schedule and how do you organize it? Let us know in the comments below! Have a great week!
Creative Mondays #043 – A bedside notebook.
This one is going to be one for the ‘duh’ column but it’s an important reminder for creative tyoes and our scattered right brians.
Keep a notebook and pen or pencil next to your bed so that when you have a inspirational thought (or dream) in the middle of the night, you can jot it down.
No matter how much you think to yourself that you’ll remember the idea in the morning, YOU WILL NOT. Okay, maybe you will every now and then, but do you really want to risk the possibility of losing a REALLY, REALLY good idea? No. THen keep the notebook by your bed.
Every year around the start of fall, stores like Rite-Aid, CVS or Walgreens sell those 70 page spiral notebooks for under a dollar. Usually something crazy like 60 cents or so. I usually pick up a few. Then, on my nightstand I put one of those notebooks, opened to a blank page with a pen resting right on top of it.
If inspiration strikes in the middle of the night, I reach for the notebook and pen without even turning on the light. Then, I slowly start writing down the idea on the page. I don’t worry about writing on the lines, I just try to write as deliberately neatly as possible in the dark so that in the morning I can read what I’ve written.
I write in big letters, turning the page if I get to the bottom. Again, the main goal is to get the idea down, not write a report you’re turning in for a grade. The reason for doing it in this manner is so I don’t have to turn on the light. Personally, if I turn on the light, I’ll be awake. This method really works for me.
In the morning I read through what I wrote and then transfer it to my Creative Idea Journal for further action. Once it is safely transferred, I will tear out the pages from the nighttime notebook and then place it back on my nightstand, ready for the next late night inspiration.
This is my method but you may have some other way of doing it. I’d thought about jotting the things down on my iPhone, but if you think light wakes me up, the iPhone would have me up answering emails.
This bedside notebook does the trick.
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Do you have a method for recording those late night ideas or dreams? If so, let me know what it is in the comments below. Have a creative week!