In recent days since the pandemic, it’s been difficult for me to get creative inspiration while working from home.
We don’t bump into others at work to discuss ideas. We don’t even go to in-person events where you spontaneously meet new people and have unexpected discussions.
So I decided to deliberately embed some habits that will force me to think creative. Before we get into that, here is why I think creative ideas are so important for knowledge workers.
Why creative ideas are important
In an entrepreneurial or a creative role, ideas are your bread and butter. There’s no guaranteed paycheque. You get paid to bring value to your clients. This value you bring better be unique, or difficult to find, otherwise you become a commodity. So by design you get paid to bring unique ideas to the table. This applies to other knowledge work as well not just entrepreneurship.
Developers get paid to solve software problems. Software development is a highly intellectual work because you receive a problem from clients and you dive into your knowledge bank to find what technology can somewhat solve the problem. You then write code to provide a solution.
Marketers get paid to generate market traction. Routine social media or content creation doesn’t cut it these days. There is so much noise that you need to cut through the clutter. So your marketing ideas better be unique. If you are not generating ideas, your paycheque will soon hit a ceiling and your job will either be packaged into a new app in the app store or shipped to a low cost region for someone to do at a fraction of the price.
What are the ingredients to embed creativity in your work
Here are a few things I think that are important to get your creative juices flowing –
Minimize stress
Stillness
Problem solving list
Writing things down
Sources of creative inspiration
Minimize stress
There are too many interruptions these days that prevent you from focussing on deep work. So by default our lives have become more stressful than before. Plus if you have a demanding job, your stress levels will be amplified.
There’s no one to teach you how to deal with today’s noisy world. So you have to find ways to minimize your stress levels if you want your creative juices to flow.
Meditation helps with this and there are other stress mitigation tactics you can apply. Build a regular habit of meditating or praying. Then bring the lessons of meditation to your daily life. I have been meditating regularly for over 3 years now and I think I am much more grounded than before. I can think objectively without letting my emotions drive my life.
Be proactive on things that are in your control and don’t worry about reactivity too much. Just because someone said or did something doesn’t mean you need to react. Pause before responding.
Stillness
You need to find some dedicated time when we are not interrupted by notifications.
Find a time that is quiet by default with no one around you. For me the best time is early mornings during my morning coffee before 8 am. My phone remains silent and I deliberately don’t check emails, slack or social media. 6 to 8 am is sacred time for me where I focus on my biggest opportunities. We’ll call these opportunities but they may be challenges too. Afterall all challenges are opportunities in disguise.
This can be during the workday or late at night too. The key is to find this time and book it on your calendar as sacred time. Making it a habit is key.
Problem solving list
A problem solving list is important.
Our minds will always wander into the abyss and start thinking about the movie we saw last night. You need to deliberately bring your mind back into a creative opportunity. If you have a list of things that need thinking, you can channel your thoughts towards those. The goal is not to force yourself but to gently nudge a general direction of your thoughts and your unconscious mind will do the rest. This is proactive nudging and not letting your anxiety take over.
Writing things down
The human mind has evolved to become a better pattern matching machine than a memory store. So unless you write ideas down, you will forget them. Anything you don’t write down you will forget by default. So when you are spending this quiet time thinking about your biggest challenges or opportunities, it’s important to write things down.
My approach to writing these are in Opprotunity – Next Action pairs. I write a line about the opportunity and a next action I can take about it. Here’s an example –
Opportunity – We need to improve our sales automation
– Next action – Create a list of areas that can be automated
Sources of creative inspiration
This may be the habit that is the most difficult to implement in our daily routine. Unless you are Elon Musk or Einstein, you will need some external sources of inspiration to get your creative juices flowing. I have several of these.
The most valuable inspiration for me is our podcast. The guests that speak on my podcast bring unique ideas to the table. The process of creating the storyline for the podcast, speaking to the guest and listening to the episode later is an invaluable source of inspiration for me. There’s a reason they say two minds are greater than the sum of their parts.
Next is books. I am a voracious reader. I share an Audible library of audio books with my wife. I listen to audio books when exercising and during bed time. This embeds at least 20 mins of reading time / listening time every day in my routine. I also read on my Kindle or iPad. The ideas in the books gets me thinking about how to apply these in our lives and work. Almost always, I am able to add more to these ideas or at least find out how they apply to my situation. My reading time often feels like meditation.
In closing, I think it’s important to start with a few of the steps above if not all. Find one that’s easiest for you, build a habit and move to the next. I wish you all the best in your creative journey.
Leave a Reply