RSS Feed (xml)
Are you as productive and creative as you could be?
A few years ago I travelled up the north coast of New South Wales, Australia, and
visited a client whose wife was a potter. She showed me around her large, well-lit
studio.
I was envious.
Not because of the high-ceilinged work area. And not because of the location right
in the middle of eucalypt-scented old growth forest, with wallabies and wombats on
the doorstep.
I was envious because of the pottery mugs, cups, vases, plates, bowls, platters,
serving trays, and planters piled on long tables, stacked in deep shelves on the
walls, and rising in columns on the timber floor.
Pottery in stippled blue, pottery with a white and yellow glaze. Brown shiny pottery.
Pottery lushly painted with bush animals and parrots. Unglazed and unfired pottery.
Pottery everywhere.
This was one productive lady.
At the time I thought I was productive because I was turning out a thousand words a
day. I thought I was writing a lot. But the pottery lady made me realize that I was not
as productive as I could be.
I asked her how much she worked. "I don't think about it. I'm here whenever I have
time. I suppose I work a couple of hours in the morning, and another couple in the
afternoon. And if I have something I want to finish, I'll work at night as well."
I've been thinking about the potter on and off since I met her. Because her pottery
wasn't art. Don't get me wrong, all her products were good. Serviceable. But only
around ten per cent of her products were wonderful.
Ten per cent... Which got me thinking. I had then, and still have, a real problem
expecting perfection in my work.
The pottery lady was happy to make her pottery. And a percentage of it was
wonderful. If she'd held back, and thought: "I can't make coffee set with yellow
glaze. It might not be good enough." How much would she have produced? How
much excellent work?
So that's what the pottery lady taught me: Produce.
Just write (make pots, take photos, design, paint...). Like Nike, Just Do It. Get over
your mental blocks to creativity: perfectionism, negative beliefs, and expectations.
She also taught me about production-line creativity, because you can't make a pot
in one day. You need time. Time to create it on the wheel, dry it, glaze it, fire it.
=> Creative Productivity Secrets
==> Multiple projects
You need lots of projects. Got an idea? Great! Start it.
The only thing is --- keep a master list. I tend to be disorganized, and have
notebooks I don't remember writing in and directories on my hard drives I don't
remember creating. Keep a list.
==> A mix of short and long projects
You never know enough to write a book. But you can write a page. Tomorrow you
write another page. Maybe next week you're hot and you write five pages in a
morning.
No matter. If you're working on a long project do what you can when you can. It's
lovely if inspiration strikes, and hard work when it doesn't, but keep at it anyway.
Do plenty of short projects too. You get a charge from completing a short piece that
inspires you to work on your current long project.
==> Create anywhere
Take a notebook, or a tape recorder and camera. Snatch five minutes (even if it's in
a restroom somewhere) and write, or sketch.
==> Collaborate
You need a creative buddy. Team up with someone else and collaborate on a
project. Having a creative buddy teaches you things you didn't know about yourself
and your work. And it's fun.
But make sure that it's a working relationship. Get the work done, and then you can
socialize.
==> Take time out
When you work all the time you need breaks to recharge and refill the well. You'll
have slow periods.
I have days where I only want to read, and I might read five books in three days. I let
myself do it, because I know I need it --- I need to have someone else's thoughts
and images in my head for a while.
There you have it: production-line creativity. Happy creating!
ไม่มีความคิดเห็น:
แสดงความคิดเห็น