Creativityist » ponderings

Book Review: Making Ideas Happen

John — Tue, 25 May 2010 15:09:31 +0000

With a title like Making Ideas Happen, I expected Scott Belsky’s first book would be of great interest to me, and many other Creativityist regulars as well. Belsky is the founder of Behance and the 99%, a conference built around helping creative people execute their ideas.

In the opening chapter, Belsky sums up the content of the book this way:

Far from being some stroke of creative genius, this capacity to make ideas happen can be developed by anyone. You just need to modify your organizational habits, engage a broader community, and develop your leadership capability.

From a broad and general perspective, I enjoyed the book. It’s a book that is exactly as the title describes…a book about how to move ideas from concept to reality. I have enough conversations with others like me to know that most of us don’t have a shortage of ideas, but a shortage of resources to see those ideas through. Saying no to some ideas isn’t a bad thing, but all of us also have ideas that we don’t want to let go of.

I do have some conflicting personal responses to the book. On the one hand, I love that Belsky devoted two thirds of the book to shaping how ideas come about through collaboration and leadership. That’s something I don’t explore enough in my writings here, and in my own projects, so it was an important reminder.

On the other hand, I’m alway interested in the creative habits of others. What workflows are helpful for getting real work done, and which ones just get in the way. The first third of the book is devoted to this; perhaps I want to see things be too granular, but I would have liked to see more of this.

Overall, I don’t know that I would say this was a groundbreaking book. Much of what I read I intuitively understood through experience or common sense, even if it was helpful to have it laid out for me in the words of another. But, it was a good reality check, helping expose areas of my own creative process that need more development.

how a $.99 iphone app led me to an important realization

John — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:33:35 +0000

A new addition to my iPhone is an app called Daily Deeds (iTunes link). It’s very simple. You make a list of actions you want to accomplish (almost) every day. As you complete them, you check them off in a satisfyingly large check box, er, circle. Trailing out to the left, you can see which ones you’ve done over the past week.

My first impression of it, and maybe yours, was that it’s another to-do list app.

But it’s not. Not really.

I bring into each morning a list of activities I want to do every day. Not instinctive activities like eating, sleeping. I’m talking about intentional activities that I choose to do. I don’t like to include them in my task management app, because they feel like clutter there. These are activities I’m aware every day that I want to accomplish, and don’t need a reminder.

But sometimes I need the motivation. Daily Deeds, at least in the few days I’ve used it, offers the satisfaction of a check box and review of how I’ve done.

But Here’s the Real Point

What all this has really helped me see is the (very healthy) distinction between projects vs. rhythms. Projects are the kinds of things I maintain in my task list. As GTD’ers understand them, they are collections of tasks that can be checked off, and be done with.

Rhythms, on the other hand, are practices. They are actions to be repeated, over and over. Ideally, they lead to a healthier me, and make me better at creative work. Not to meantion a better husband, better dad, better friend.

But where it gets ugly for me, and maybe for you, is the seeming mandate of the projects and their tasks. Too often I set aside today’s rhythms as I convince myself that the urgency of the projects demands priority. The rhythms will be there tomorrow, after all. But when I do this, I notice the difference, and my projects suffer too.

Projects are all about doing.
Rhythms are all about being.

Projects need to be managed.
Rhythms need to be sustained.

Projects (hopefully) feed my stomach.
Rhythms feed my soul.

So while I’ve only used Daily Deeds for a few days, I think it’s found a permanent home on my iPhone, right next to OmniFocus. You can see a few of the rhythms I’ve added on there. What activities are important for your daily rhythms?

my nagging feeling about the ipad

John — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 15:17:20 +0000

I dutifully followed the Apple announcement yesterday, even showing enough restraint to wait for the 60 second auto-refresh like a good web citizen. I’ve visited the Apple site a few times since, scanning the info and gawking at the iPad. I’m impressed with it, and think it will be better in person, so I’ll go see it shortly after it arrives in the Apple store.

As the refreshing and gawking settled, there was an impression forming that I couldn’t name, but it troubled me. I think I’ve finally identified it. But first, a little sentimentality…

My first extensive experience with a Mac was through work — a G4 PowerBook running Panther that was purchased for editing videos. It wasn’t long after that I had my own — a G5 iMac that was soon paired with a used 12″ iBook. I still used a Dell laptop for my job, but I used the Macs whenever I could.

Working on the Mac gave me the feeling that I could make something…that I could create anything. The simple, but powerful interface felt like the Mac got out of my way and let me make something. And I still feel that way about my current 13″ MacBook Pro. I am equipped and enabled to create in any digital medium I choose to.

It is this urge to create that has driven the Mac community for years. It’s long been the desired product for all sorts of creative work: design, film editing, audio recording, etc. And it’s not a coincidence that Mac market share’s rise coincides with what Richard Florida calls The Rise of the Creative Class.

And so the realization that troubles me today is this — the primary function of the iPad is not to create, but to consume. I won’t go so far as to say consumption is a bad thing — many of my ideas are born out of the words, images, or harmonies of others. But I do know that what most often keeps me from creating is the immediate availability of so much to consume.

So I end with two pleas:

To Apple: Your appealing and simple designs draw something out of us. They make us want to create. The iPad is fine, I might own one someday, but please don’t forget about what has drawn so many of us to your products. It seems that your core strategy has shifted toward content delivery, but please don’t neglect the tools for content creation.
To developers: What the iPad is capable of is in your hands. Already, you are dreaming up ideas. You probably couldn’t sleep last night. I hope that your creativity will lead to tools that inspire and enable the rest of us to be creative too.
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tableticipation

John — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 16:18:15 +0000

You only need to have mild interest in technology to have heard about the alleged Apple tablet that may or may not be introduced on Wednesday. Not wanting to be left out of the party, I have to squeeze in a few thoughts of my own.

I’ve seen all sorts of speculation on what the features of this tablet may be. Will it run on an expanded iPhone OS, or a streamlined variation of Snow Leopard? What kind of input will be available? Is it meant to be a laptop replacement, or something else? Will it be the end all device for media content? Will it be the best ebook reader made? Will it write ebooks for me? Can it reverse global warming?

I’m sure of this…it will look really slick. If there is anything I’m confident about it is that. And it will probably have a wow factor that we haven’t anticipated, some kind of feature that will immediately make sense when Steve Jobs utters “and it’s really cool” while demoing it. I also know this…I’ll have a browser window with three different tabs auto-refreshing during the event, so that I don’t miss anything that will be repeated in blogs for days to come.

But here’s what I’m not sure of…why I would want it. I’m far from a luddite. Techonology is a good friend of mine and I find new reasons to use it weekly. But I’ve yet to hear speculation about what this tablet would do that would make me feel the need to rush out and buy one.

I can see the interest for some. If you like to sketch or handwrite notes, maybe it will be appealing — though it most of my sketching and handwriting friends romanticize the simplicity and ease of a good pen and notebook. Some might be excited about the possibility it would offer as an ebook reader. I am content with the crisp e-ink and long battery life of my Kindle. Perhaps it can add levels of interaction to newspapers and magazines that we’ve not yet seen fully realized. But that wouldn’t be enough to have me lining up to buy one.

That said, I’m eager to see it, just for innovation sake. And I’ll go try one out when they hit the stores. But as one who tends toward early adoption of technologies, this one will have do something far beyond what I’m expecting before I will start figuring out how to afford it.

creating requires doing [the war of art]

John — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:15:41 +0000

This post is the first in what will probably maybe hopefully be a series of reflections on The War of Art by Steven Pressfield.

The War of Art is subtitled Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles. That is something that author Steven Pressfield apparently knows a little about. He was writing for 17 years before he earned his first paycheck from writing.

It is a fantastic little book that looks simple to read, but stirs you up a great deal. Often, I hardly knew when to quit underlining. As a result, I have collected a number of great quotes and gathered them around common themes. Most of the post in this series will be a few thoughts around some of these quotes.

Yesterday, I needed to knock out a 2000 word manuscript, so I turned off everything until I was finished. Afterward, I reflected on twitter…maybe you can relate:

This is a prominent theme in The War of Art: to create something you have to actually do it. And the first do is the hardest do. It’s easy to plan and dream and organize in order to avoid doing. But nothing gets created until you get to work and do it. The best way to get past a block is to create something…even if it’s horrible.

Some of Pressfield’s words on the topic:

“There’s a secret that real writers know that wannabe writers don’t, and the secret is this: It’s not the writing part that’s hard. What’s hard is sitting down to write.”

“Do you understand? I hadn’t written anything good. It might be years before I would, if I ever did at all. That didn’t matter. What counted was that I had, after years of running from it, actually sat down and done my work.”

“I’m keenly aware of the Principle of Priority which states (a) you must know the difference between what is urgent and what is important, and (b) you must do what’s important first.”

I will leave you with my favorite. The day after he finished writing his first book, he went to tell the one person who had been encouraging him in his writing:

Next morning I went over to Paul’s for coffee and told him I had finished. “Good for you,” he said without looking up. “Start the next one today.”

deadlines can be lifelines [the creative habit]

John — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 17:18:43 +0000

This post is part of an ongoing series of reflections on my reading of The Creative Habit, by Twyla Tharp.

It was February 24 of this year that I began this series of reflections on The Creative Habit. Fresh off of reading the book, I had quite a few ideas I was looking forward to sharing and I said so: “In the weeks to come, I will offer some of my own reflections from the book.”

That was 24 weeks ago. Technically, I think that still qualifies as “in the weeks to come”, don’t you? But no, I didn’t anticipate that this series would still be going on in August. It’s not that I’ve lost interest in the series…many of Tharp’s words still stick with me. The truth is that I’ve not felt any sense of urgency to continue the series. I always knew I return to it…later.

There are no shortage of quips and quotes about time and the limits the it places on us. I’ll spare you those, but will offer a helpful perspective from Tharp:

Time, for example, is our most limited resource, but it is not the enemy of creativity that we think it is. The ticking clock is our friend if it gets us moving with urgency and passion. Give me a writer who thinks he has all the time in the world, and I’ll show you a writer who never delivers. (pg 126)

There are a few of you out there that this does apply to. Deadlines don’t really come into play for you, because you never wait until the last minute to do anything. You are freaks. No offense (well, maybe some). The rest of you are more like me…I like to think we are normal. It is often the deadlines that give us that final push of motivation to make, create, or do what we want or need to accomplish.

So the question I am left with is this…what kind of motivation do I need (and do you need) to get to those someday projects? I think you know what I mean. That story you want to write, that piece of art you want to bring to life, that software you want to code. Nobody else is putting a deadline on you…heck, nobody else probably even knows about it.

It’s a funny thing, time is. You can’t add any time later, but you can make more now.

be good to your soul [the creative habit]

John — Tue, 12 May 2009 19:22:35 +0000

This post is part of an ongoing series of reflections on my reading of The Creative Habit, by Twyla Tharp.

There has been a slight gap between posts in The Creative Habit series. By slight, I mean 42 days, 4 hours and 48 minutes. Approximately. I didn’t intend it that way. But I suppose the gap helps illustrate the point Twyla Tharp makes here:

“There’s a paradox in the notion that creativity should be a habit. We think of creativity as a way of keeping everything fresh and new, while habit implies routine and repitition.”

My life has been out of rhythm for the last few weeks. (Okay, okay…about six weeks.) When rhythm lacks, so does creativity. There is less gumption to make things. And so I’m looking to restore lost habits.

But the point is not to create patterns and routines for the sake of habit. A routine of eating two slices of lightly toasted white bread with orange marmalade every morning is not going to make one creative. But maybe if you add a side of bacon…

Creativity is born out of a cultivated soul. It requires you to take time, to make time, for reflection and re-creation. Creativity happens when we are aware of what is happening within ourselves and alert to what is going on around us. As Tharp describes it, creativity is a matter of ongoing preparation:

This, to me, is the most interesting paradox of creativity: In order to be habitually creative, you have to know how to prepare to be creative, but good planning alone won’t make your efforts successful; it’s only after you let go of your plans that you can breathe life into your efforts.

So today, I’m asking myself what does it mean to be good to my soul…to cultivate it as a place ideas are born eager to be expressed. It means making time for reflection, doing daily pages (as opposed to bi-weekly pages!), hacking out thoughts on an idea just to see where they go, or even stopping to smell the roses. Or the bacon.

grooves, giving, and generosity [the creative habit]

John — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 17:53:27 +0000

This post is part of an ongoing series of reflections on my reading of The Creative Habit, by Twyla Tharp.

Much of my energy about the creative process of late has pointed toward one thought — how to get into “creative mode”. For me, and probably for you, it doesn’t just happen. It requires an intentional level of engagement. Much of my writing here is about making space in my brain and calendar to be creative. I know this creation of space is important, but the act of making something, of course, requires much more.

In The Now Habit, Neil Fiore kickstarted some of my thoughts on this. He calls this creative mode The Flow State (see this post). In The Creative Habit, Twyla Tharp relates to this creative mode as a Groove. What strikes me about the groove is emotion she feels while she is in it:

Whenever I feel like I’m working in a groove it’s invariably because I feel I am being the benefactor in the stuation rather than the beneficiary.

Elsewhere, she writes:

Generosity is luck going in the opposite direction, away from you.

Of course, the act of creating is one that moves outward from us, but to name this as generosity helps me hold onto what an act of creation really is. To create is to give. Tharp’s words remind me of a previously posted quote in Bird by Bird from Anne Lamott that I think of often:

You are going to have to give and give and give and give, or there’s no reason for you to be writing. You have to give from the deepest part of yourself, and you are going to have to go on giving, and the giving is going to have to be its own reward. There is no cosmic importance to your getting something published, but there is in learning to be a giver.

The insights offered by these two reflect my own experiences. When I feel like I am in anything approaching a groove, it is because my thoughts are propelled outward by a desire to share them, no, to share my very self, with others.

But this need to give reveals a tension inherent to what I experience in my creative process. This tension exists between collecting and giving, between self-protection and self-disclosure. When I feel tapped out, I need to retreat. It becomes a time of reflection and reading — a time to replenish my thoughts, my soul. But it is always a temptation to maintain this stance — to collect thoughts and ideas and keep them to myself. When the burst of creation happens, it requires the risk to step out of protection and move into generosity. It comes from a need to give and share with others that which I have been holding on to.

To create is to give.

contexts: writing

John — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 21:21:17 +0000

“It’s not the writing part that’s hard. What’s hard is sitting down to write.” – Steven Pressfield in The War of Art

Sometimes ideas are pressing on my finger tips, demanding that I allow them to burst out into written words.

Usually not.

Most of the time, ideas form inside, where I guard them until I think they are ready…until I think they are good enough to share with others. Who, of course, wants to be represented by half-baked thoughts? But few, if any, of my thoughts seem to really be worked out until they are engaged. It is the process of writing them out that allows them to mature, to take shape.

For those times when the ideas aren’t bursting out, I’ve developed a workflow, and a context, for writing. Speaking of half-baked…that’s what this workflow is. It’s an image of how I want it to work. Sometimes it does. Often not. But here’s what it should look like:

The Incubator

Ideas begin in the incubator. These are little captures here and there that need to take a little more shape. Sometimes, they need to mix it up with another thought in the incubator and see some magic happen.

This used to be the main — well, the only — step in my process for developing ideas. The problem was, I didn’t review it enough. I didn’t give the ideas space to take shape. I ended up with an incubator full of moldy concepts. It was clear I needed a way to acknowledge those ideas that were a little more fully developed. So, I implemented…

The Context

I created a context in OmniFocus just for writing. Ideas that feel like they are ready to take shape are moved into this context — with a few notes, if needed. At first, I thought it would be redundant to have a place for material to take shape in Yojimbo and OmniFocus. But the writing context let’s me see which ideas have energy behind them to develop more.

It’s not perfect, and even my writing context sees some build up of ideas that once had momentum. But now they just seem like…bad ideas. To help make sure I get some of them written, it takes…

The Friction

Someone far more noble than I might have the gumption to just sit down and write. Good for them.

I need a kick in the pants most of the time. Sometimes I need to block out time that I commit to writing. (Merlin Mann’s new direction for 43Folders has been brilliant in helping me see this.) And when I’ve created the time, the writing context gives focus on how to use it.

Of course, it also helps to make promises about what I’m going to write. For me, it’s almost always been good to have external deadlines. But when a syllabus or editor isn’t demanding something, then it’s helpful to create the tension to get the writing done.

This is part of a series on Contexts where I explore some of the unique contexts I’ve been working with in my GTD system.

one year…and still pushing back the fog

John — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 16:33:28 +0000

This week, Creativityist is celebrating our first birthday. The thumbnail to the right is a peek back at the first site design and the introductory post: Creativityist…one who practices creativity.

I started the blog with a few ideas, and a dark fog lingering beyond them. Today, I have a few more ideas, and the dark fog is still hanging just over yonder. It has been a fun year with lots of positive feedback. I’m certain I have learned more than anyone, but I’m thankful for all who have subscribed and participated here with comments and guest posts.

Between here and the fog, I do have a few things in the works:

I am working on a new design. I rolled the current design out late in the summer, and to be honest, I’ve been tired of the header image since September!

In addition to a few ideas for single posts, I have three new series that are taking shape in the incubator. Included in those are a few posts on The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp, a book that has been strongly recommended by Merlin Mann, among others.

I know that quite a few new subscribers have joined us in the last few months, so here are a few early series that you might have missed that have been popular with other readers:

Capture Everything – An early series, and still the most popular, on tools and tricks to capture every thought that you don’t want to lose.
Blinders – A series focusing mostly on tips and tricks to help shut out distractions when you need to be in an intense creative/productive mode.
Workflow Tools – My first, short series on hardware and software that I use. I plan to rerun this series soon with updates now that a year has passed and my workflow has reshaped with time.
Bird by Bird – Though it wasn’t an ‘official’ series, these reflections and quotes from Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird are some of my favorite posts.

Thanks for taking this journey with me…see you in the fog!

Creativityist » ponderings

Book Review: Making Ideas Happen

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tableticipation

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creating requires doing [the war of art]

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deadlines can be lifelines [the creative habit]

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be good to your soul [the creative habit]

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grooves, giving, and generosity [the creative habit]

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contexts: writing

The Incubator

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The Friction

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one year…and still pushing back the fog

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