I came across a great YouTube this week where John Cleese is talking about creativity. As always he is very engaging and he also brings some fresh insights into the creative process. He discusses conditions for allowing creativity and how most of the time we are in a closed mode of thinking. To get into the open mode – you need the following things…

1. Space
2. Time
3. Time
4. Confidence
5. Humour

He then proceeds to elaborate on what these are.

Anyway here he is – check it out for your self it is well worth the time to listen.

I tried to embed the video but it just refused to be enbedded, so I do apologize but you will have to follow a link. I gather I’m not the only one having this issue, the forums are full of people talking about it – well that made me feel a tiny bit better after the 15th attempt to embed!!! Anyway – heres the link – its worth watching!

John Cleese on Creativity

As a consolation prize for having to click this link, I have decided to give you a quick glance at the work I completed this week.

Bronze Pear

This weeks Question: What space physically and mentally have you created for your creativity this week?

Remember our mind map from last week? What you need to do now is, prioritize all of the things you listed on your mind map.  Here’s a suggestion of how you might do that  - the easiest  way might be to do another mind map – like this, which is based on Stephen Covey’s four quadrant time management system however I’ve slightly changed these divisions to include a section for tasks that might be delegated.

Making Time For Creativity

So now you need to look at all your tasks and manage yourself into time slots for them. Decide how much time a week you want to allocate to your creativity etc.

I can tell you that in all likelihood, your creative time will be  quite minimal unless you have really dedicated your life to your art.  It might be interesting for example to compare how much time you spend answering emails and browsing the internet, to how much time you spend creating – that could look quite scary.Yikes!!

I don’t know about you, but I really struggle with my INBOX.  It eats up way too much of my time and when it gets like 50 unanswered emails and I don’t have time to get to them – it’s a clunky rock I carry around in my subconscious all day or even for several days until I can get to it.  This uses up my precious energy and creates a cycle of depletion.

So what is to be done?

There are a million and one time management systems out there and guess what – NONE OF THEM WORK until you recognize that THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS TIME MANAGEMENT.

WE CAN ONLY MANAGE OURSELVES.

If you really DO want to be creative and are currently overwhelmed by your life, then there is only one thing you can do. 

You MUST set aside a space of time somewhere in your week that is for your creativity. THIS TIME SLOT MUST BE NON NEGOTIABLE  in terms of your availability for other things, people etc.  The biggest temptation will be to do things like – have a coffee with a friend in this space because “there is no where else in the week and you haven’t seen them for ages. ” Or similar things.  As soon as you begin allowing this erosion of your precious creative time, pretty soon it will be all filled up with other things and you will be wondering why you can’t seem to get your painting  or creative project finished.

Doing this exercise can be quite a wake up call as to how much priority we really place on our Creativity.  Whatever the outcome I think the trick is to recognize where we are really at and if this is where we really want to be and take it from there.

This Weeks Question: Have you done your mind map yet?

Last week I spoke about not being OK with lacking the time to be creative and how we arrive at this state of affairs through our own choices.

If it is not OK with you, what can you do?

My first suggestion is to sit down and do a time map.  How do you do this?

Beginning NOW, and for the next week make a note of all the activities you do in a week and how long you spend on each one. I know – I can hear your thoughts ….. I haven’t got time to do that, what a dumb idea…. etc etc. However if you can get over your inner Mr Negative Feedback person, this will give you invaluable insight into how to make more time appear in your day.  Why? Because you will get the chance to see where you squander your precious minutes, hours and days and how you might use them better.

Now Listen UP!!!

MOST IMPORTANT!    Please include things like………………………….

Time spent -

• Chatting with friends
• Chatting on the phone or to the neighbour over the back fence
• Hanging out or doing washing
• Answering emails!!!!!!
• Work work
• Preparing meals and eating them
• Showering
• Going out for coffee
• Running around after other people like, kids, bosses, partners and needy friends

etc. etc. etc…… you get the idea.  WHY is it important or even useful to do this?

When you make time to do this little exercise you can then see, over the course of the week where most of your time goes and look at how some of those activities might be condensed or even eliminated.

Then build yourself a list of all these activities and prioritize them into 4 categories -

• Things that Have To Be Done – ie. Meal preparation, work work, cleaning house/garden – weekly or daily repeatables etc
• Things I’d like to do if I had time – Personal time
• Creative Time
• Things To Be Delegated

Now put this information into a mind map. – It might look like this.

This Week’s Question: How might you make time for your creativity?

Next Week’s Insights: What to do with this i information.

Creativity Myth #3

“I love being creative, I just can’t seem to find the time.”

Time is a funny thing wouldn’t you agree. It seems to be elastic, invisibly stretchy.  Some days seem to contain so much more time than others.  The old saying  ‘Time flies when you’re having fun’ has a lot of wisdom in it.

There is really only one thing in the world in which there is true equality and that is TIME. We all get to have 24 hours in a day – no less no more.  The all important question is – What do you do with your 24 hours?

A good way to think of time is to pretend it is money.  Here are some things to think about….

• How do you spend your time?
• Are you thrifty with your time?
• Do you squander your time?
• Do you have a savings plan?
• Who steals your time – or rather – who do you allow to steal your time?

Now of course we all lead busy lives so often find ourselves far too busy to get our creativity out of the back pocket, dust it off and see what it looks like. Why is it do you think that you can’t find the time to be creative?

I can hear the million and one excuses (no apology for the word) bubbling into your head right now.  The simple truth is, that if you are not being creative it is because you are choosing not to be.  It is not because you don’t have the time, rather it is because other things have a higher priority for you, and that is OK – you just need to acknowledge it, allow it to be what it is and not beat yourself up about it. 

If it is not OK with you  - well what to do about that ?  See next week’s post for some ideas on how to tackle this.

This Weeks Question: What is one thing you could do this week to make some new creative time for yourself.  It doesn’t have to be big – tiny steps…….

It’s not that often that we see a big business get into supporting global change and conservation.  I was impressed when an email arrived in my box today, from Eckersley’s art store, promoting an initiative from Oxfam. –  Design for Change – which is a unique and collaborative online space for designers, writers, thinkers, inventors, believers and changemakers to forge creative solutions to global problems.

They currently have a challenge running to come up with solutions for ways we can reduce the amount of house hold waste, particularly food waste that we have in our homes. Anyone with design, writing or marketing skills can respond to the challenge and potentially have their work turned into a national campaign. Read more about the brief here.

Did you know that in countries like Australia, almost 1/3 of all food produced is lost or wasted and most of this occurs after we buy  it?

This is an opportunity to use our creative skills in a really constructive and positive way.

It will be interesting to follow this site and see what other challenges they come up with.

“Oxfam Australia envisions a future free from poverty. While we know that this isn’t an easy task, we do know that effective design, marketing and communications strategies have the ability to transform the way people think and act with a global perspective.

Design for Change aims to tap into this power of the creative community to create positive change on a local, national and global level.”

Today’s Question:  What creative solutions can you come up with to reduce food waste in your home? – Share your thoughts here or on the Oxfam site

This is a wonderful story about the human spirit and creativity at its most inventive perhaps.  It takes place in a rubbish tip of all places. I shall leave the video to tell the story….

This Weeks Question: What instrument can you play, can you make an instrument of your own?