by John on March 10, 2008
While traveling the past few weeks, I read The Starfish and the Spider for a research project I have due later this month. I read it on my Amazon Kindle. The Kindle experience is turning out to be all I hoped it would — other than having to turn it off for takeoff and landing.
I obsessively, er, avidly collect notes from books I read. I have a database of quotes and thoughts stored in Yojimbo for most of the books I’ve read in the last 4-5 years. In my typical workflow, I underline or make notes in the margin as I read. If there is something I really want to remember, I will dog ear the page. After finishing the book, I go back through it and manually enter the quotes and thoughts I want to remember into Yojimbo. This part often feels tedious, and I admit I have 4-5 recent reads stacked up that I need to do this with. (Maybe I’m not so obsessive after all.)
Reading the book on my Kindle has saved me an hour or more, because I’m not going to have to review my highlights and scribbles. All of them were saved in the clippings file on the Kindle. When I attached the Kindle to my computer, I just opened up the clippings text file, highlighted all the notes from the book and pasted them into a Yojimbo note. When it comes time to write, I’ll drag that note into Scrivener. Bada bing, bada boom. (I can’t believe I just typed that, but I can’t bring myself to delete it.)
Now if only I could figure out how to do Chicago style citations of a Kindle book…
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by John on February 23, 2008
Some of my favorite links on creativity and workflow from the interweb this week:
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by John on February 18, 2008
I read Ethan Watters’ Urban Tribes in 2005. While I thought the book was interesting, what stuck with me most was the realm in which the book was written. Ethan Watters is one of the co-founders of the San Francisco Writers’ Grotto. It is a shared “office for the creative self-employed” operating with the hypothesis “that community is conducive to productivity”.
Even those who work primarily alone benefit greatly from being in the presence of others. It might just be the reassurance of having others nearby, the competitive urge of hearing someone else’s keyboard, or the availability of another soul to help mold an idea.
I have worked without a designated office space, other than at home, for the last three years. Several times a week, I find that I have to get out and work in a coffee shop, just to have some sense of activity around me. It is good to be around others, but there are disadvantages as only certain tasks can really be done in that setting.
Today, a friend forwarded me a link to a new shared workspace that will be opening in Austin called LaunchPad Coworking. More and more, creatives are making a living as free-lancers and telecommuters. This seems like the right time for this kind of space. I get excited about the possibilities of having something like this available and I hope it works out for them.
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by John on February 8, 2008
Two elemental fears sabotage my creative process time and again.
The first fear is that my creative expressions won’t be received well by others. It would take many blog entries (and hours of therapy) to unravel that fear. That’s not what this blog entry is about…I’m afraid no one would want to read about that anyway. Maybe I’ll talk about that someday. If everyone is really nice. And asks nicely. And promises to not be mean. And tells me that they like me even if they don’t.
The second fear is that I am going to run out of creativity. To put words to that sounds silly, but I find that impulse often lurks just beneath my consciousness. Creativity, however, is without limits. It doesn’t deplete like a self-contained reservoir that will run dry.
Creativity begets creativity. Each idea I explore generates two or three more. The idea for this blog wandered aimlessly in my head for several months. I wondered if I could sustain it. The simple action of writing that first post generated a flow of thoughts for future posts. My primal instinct was to pile them in a corner, thinking that I should hoard them for the future. If I only shared one every few days, I thought, I wouldn’t run out of ideas.
Fortunately, it doesn’t work that way. As I write, I find that each new post releases more captive ideas. Now if you’ll excuse me, Ijust got another one.
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by John on January 12, 2008
The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled. - Plutarch
I am enamored with the concept behind this quote. In this age of information, it is commonly concluded that the chief role of the human brain is to remember and store all that information we come across. While that may be one function of the human brain, it is not the most distinctive or the most useful.
We spend so much time trying to remember details that the brain’s primary function is lost in the mix. At most, the brain should be used to store information short term until we can move it to a more permanent home. This frees up our mind for creating and shaping. The more we can free our mind of details, the more creative it frees us to be.
This might sound counterintuitive, but it is true. All of us need a system to record reminders of things we need to do and people we need to see. If we have a reliable system, this frees our brain to focus on creating and shaping rather than remembering.
Three years ago, I read Getting Things Done, by David Allen. The quote above came from that book, and it shaped a fair amount of the thinking I have shared above. The original idea for this blog came from me wanting to explore how David Allen’s ideas can be helpful for the aspiring creative. (In fact, the title of the entry is also the original working title in my mind for this blog, and gettingthingscreated.com points here as well. ) Much of what I blog here will be about my own processes of clearing my mind of details so it can be set free to dream, innovate and problem solve.
For more on the Getting Things Done workflow (commonly known as GTD), take a look at the wikipedia entry. I’m also adding links to the sidebar of some of the GTD sites I have found most helpful.
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by John on January 11, 2008
This blog definitely has a target audience. I would say it is, oh, everyone.
One of my core assumptions about humanity is that everyone is creative. Spend a little time with a child, any child, and you’ll see my point. Children have no trouble dreaming, imagining and delighting in what is not. A few days ago, I sat on the couch with my toddler and we made up a story…I should say that she made up a story. I just got her started: “Once upon a time…” Within a few minutes, she had told me all about a bird that was learning to fly, but afraid. The bird wore a helmet for safety, even though it ended up just walking most of the time. She’s a Seuss in the making!
Creativity is not something we outgrow, but it might be something we outrun. As we grow up, risk becomes more apparent. The potential of having our thoughts or ideas rejected begins to feel dangerous. Fear of being or thinking different leads us to stuff our creative selves away.
One does not have to work in some kind of artistic expression to be creative. I’m convinced that opportunities for creativity exist in just about any job. Every chance to find a third option, a new or better way to do something, or a different perspective is a window for creativity to breeze its way in.
But even if you can’t see that possibility in your current job, I would bet that there is a tiny voice inside you saying something that needs to be expressed. Are you willing to help that voice be heard? Let me help you get started:
Once upon a time…
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by John on January 10, 2008
Somewhere in my soul, creativity struggles to spring out.
I’m often labeled as ‘creative’, but being creative often feels like work. Maybe it’s not creativity that is work…it’s trying to find the time and space to be creative.
Here’s the thing — it seems to me that creativity happens in two parts. There is that initial burst of idea that comes to us. It’s that moment of inspiration for something that we want to share, to express. I have lots of those. Even though I capture them pretty well, these ideas stack up and topple over before I can do something with them. I think the constant flow of these ideas is why others think I’m creative.
It’s part two, though, where creativity truly happens. That’s where the idea, the inspiration, comes to life. It takes work. It requires some sweat. It means that one has to find the motivation and the space to bring those ideas to life. And sometimes, or quite often in my case, one just has to get over the fear of producing complete crap.
So that’s what I hope this blog can be about. It’s a quest to be one who practices creativity. There will be some thoughts about the first part — capturing those moments of inspiration. I think I even have some good ideas to share as far as that goes. But it will also be about finding the space and courage to be creative. I’m hoping to learn that one as I go, and perhaps share some crap with you along the way.
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