Making Time to Explore

September 10, 2012 by 1 Comment

It’s easy getting stuck in the rat-race of getting things done every day. We have an agenda set for ourselves, have our to-do lists guide us, or have to answer to someone or some entity that demands we do certain things (that would be our jobs).

But, it’s no way to live to constantly be working on something and not give ourselves the time to explore new interests, technologies, and other things that spark our creativity.

The 20%

Google has been known for giving their employees 20% of their time during the week to work on their own projects that are unrelated to their current work (of course, they are owned by Google) where they can try new things or work on something that they are truly interested in with Google’s full resources. This type of leeway is meant to make Google engineers more creative, feel like they have more freedom, and keep them interested in their jobs and Google as a whole.

It’s a smart move, really. Engineers get to make cool stuff that they like and learn some stuff along the way and Google gets cool stuff made for them under their roof. But, we all don’t work at Google and don’t have a cool, short-and-sandle work environment where we can explore. So, what do we do? How do we get to explore?

Setting up creative time

I was blown away by the recent Cal Newport piece regarding setting up a GCTD (Getting Creative Things Done) system with an age-old productivity trick; time-blocking. I’m not going to explain Cal’s piece in its entirety (because if you are into getting stuff done, you need to read this one), but he basically suggests setting up chunks of time of an hour or more to do our creative work throughout the day. Cal suggests setting these chunks up at the beginning of the week and relating them to one or two important projects that you are working on. These chunks aren’t to be considered single tasks that need done at the end of the time chunk; they are open ended areas of time where you can concentrate on creative tasks like writing, problem solving, planning, etc.

The idea is to put a process in place, one that you trust, where you can get your creative work done, not to simply “get something done”. It’s important to leave this time “open-ended” and free. Once again, go read Cal’s post.

This idea can be used not only for work that you have to do, but also for work that you want to do and new things that you want to explore.

Giving yourself permission

So, rather than thinking that spinning your wheels on learning something new or getting nowhere with something that you find interesting is a total waste of time, remember that you need this type of creative exploration to enhance your current skills. Without taking the time and giving yourself the permission to explore, you will never know exactly what you interests you and what you want to do, even if it’s a “hobby” or “side-work”.

I started writing online about 5 years ago. I started a crappy gadget blog with the (naive) hopes of making some money online. But in that process I learned that I actually enjoyed writing and did more of it outside of that crappy gadget blog. I got into technical writing and writing about business and productivity. I started this site with hopes to take creativity and productivity with technology to a valuable place end and create something fun and useful for others. I now write for Lifehack and other online publications.

Without giving myself the permission to take the time to try something new and be creative, I would have never found my passion for writing. And the best thing is that I am still learning and exploring this creative endeavor today.

Practicality

There is a lot of advice about how to make this time to explore, but I suggest that you look no further than the piece that Cal wrote (one last time, read this thing now) and also a recent Back to Work episode about calendaring and how it means more than just calendaring.

We have to be able to take the time to let ourselves fool around and not really go anywhere. We all have important work to do, but without this time to explore, we will eventually not know what other important work there is for us to do.

Filed Under: Creativity, Productivity Tagged With: , , , ,

The #1 Thing That Will Destroy Your Creativity in the Morning

July 31, 2012 by Leave a Comment

I found that there is something that you can do every single morning that will invariably kill your productivity and creativity before it even sees the light of day. This action is so nefarious and horrible for your inner creativity that I have banned it from life completely in the morning.

Only until I have put in a little bit of writing or problem solving, even just enough to clear my head and let out some ideas that I may latch onto later in the day or week, do I actually partake in this horrible act.

Want to know what it is?

Consuming media.

Let’s define this:

consuming |kənˈso͞omiNG| adjective
(of a feeling) completely filling one’s mind and attention; absorbing:
consumingly adverb

media |ˈmēdēə| noun
1. plural form of medium.
2. (usu. the media) the main means of mass communication (esp. television, radio, newspapers, and the Internet) regarded collectively

Instead of filling one’s (your) mind with ideas that are ours, if we get up and check email, read our favorite sites, get lost in Techmeme or reddit, then we are allowing others to steer our thoughts and direction for the day. This could possibly be one of the biggest stumbling blocks in creativity and productivity in our day if we let it consume us and give in.

So, what can we do instead?

Rather than read something or get lost in a chain of email first thing in the morning, I beg you to actually turn everything off (well, everything but your handy-dandy text editor or other creation tool) and actually make something, even if it’s small and shitty. Just get something down, whether it be your thoughts, pictures, spoken word, code, anything. This will set you up for a much more productive and creative day.

I’m an IT Manager for an aerospace company and I like to think of myself as a technologist as well as writer. One of the greatest things that I can do first thing in the morning (after I work out and feed my puppies) is sit down, shut up, and let myself write for a little while. I don’t stop and let ideas flow onto the paper. Nine times out of ten I find some idea that is worth pursuing. Ten times out of ten I find peace of mind, peace of mind that that no email checking or news reading would ever give me.

This act of creating something early in the morning is important for technologist’s because it sets us up for the day and can also give us the time that we need to iron out a problem that has been bothering us. I have found many times where my morning writing has led me to, “ohhhh, that’s the reason that [x] happened. I know how to fix that.” Creating in the mornings is vital to problem solving and idea creation.

So, join me. In the mornings don’t consume media. Create some.

Filed Under: Productivity Tagged With: , , , ,

It Ain’t Easy Being a Creator in the Post-PC Era

March 8, 2012 by Leave a Comment

In case you missed it, a company from sunny Cupertino, CA announced a new product yesterday. The new iPad is said to amaze us and push consumers further into the post-PC era.

The post-PC era sounds all fine and good for the consumers out there sucking up content, replying to emails, and looking at photos, but what about creators? Are they left out of the post-PC era, or can they (we) too use post-PC devices and ideas to create content, products, and things that change our world?

For the creators

I remember when the first iPad came out. Many tech pundits and media said that the device what a “consumption-only” device because of its lack of a physical keyboard, camera, etc. No one could really create anything on this thing. Then we saw

Creators need tools that can react to input and changes immediately[1. Thanks to Mr. Schechter for the link], showing them what they are in the process of creating. Creators need tools that are ubiquitous and easy to use. To think that someone can’t possibly create something because they aren’t “doing it the hard way” is starting to be an annoying remnant of curmudgeons that are showing that they are afraid of the future.

The new tools like iPhoto, iMovie, and the iWorks suite show us that we can use thin, light, and “limited” devices to create. We are slowly seeing that we won’t need bloated devices, 8GB of RAM, and spec crazy devices to create with.

The fact is that creators want tools they don’t have to think about and that get the job done. If it is in the form of dictating to an iPad, using a Bluetooth 4.0 pressure-sensitive stylus, or just a plain old wireless keyboard then that is awesome. If technology is reducing the friction of creation by giving us easier and more beautiful tools to use, then that is the new way to create.

What about programmers and technologists?

Programming on the iPad (or any tablet/post-PC device) is a bit of a bear and something that hasn’t been fully paid attention to yet. Other than remotely connecting to another PC, Mac, or Linux box and using your device as a dumb terminal, there isn’t really any way to compile and create software directly on the device. Other than programming, tasks like creating documentation, project plans, flow charts, business proposals, etc. But this is mostly “administration” type of work, not technological creation.

As of now, technologists and programmers are still tied to their Macs and PCs until there is a good way to incorporate all of their powerful tools on a post-PC era type of device. Sure, we can use remote facilities of our devices to program, compile, and even push code out for consumers to use, but there is not yet a way to do all of this natively.

In due time.

Being a creator now

It’s not easy to be a full-time, post-PC era creator. But neither is being a creator, developer, or technologist in general.

This is a new time and place and we are still feeling it out. It’s still the early days and as of now, it appears much easier to be a consumer. The tools will definitely get better as we the creators demand them and create them for each other. So, don’t give up your MacBooks and PCs just yet; the post-PC era isn’t fully realized for technological creation.

Filed Under: Technology Tagged With: , , , , , ,