Cultivating Creativity, Enhancing Productivity

I constantly strive to become both more creative and more productive. I'm also driven to distraction and often, a willing victim of our culture of constant consumption. With this post, I'm curating tips on productivity and creativity, would love to hear your thoughts. What aggravates you, prevents you from doing and being more? Here are a few of mine:

Creatvity & Productivity Killers:

• Digital noise, radio noise, TV noise, internet noise - we're surrounded by noise. It's the new normal. Noise! Noise! Noise!
• Facebook and other forms of social media: no explanation needed. (Tip: If you ever feel as though your IQ plummets each time you read your newsfeed, here's one way to cure it). Don't get me wrong, I believe in social when it's done right, it's just rarely done right.
• Purposeless Malaise, which I attribute to lack of a project(s) you are excited about: "A nerd needs a project because a nerd builds stuff. All the time. Those lulls in the conversation over dinner? That’s the nerd working on his project in his head." - from The Nerd Handbook
• News: obsessive news consumption is being driven by distraction. Important to stay up-to-date? Yes. The problem: most news is intended to sell more news. 
• Perfection: Embrace permanent beta and commit the hours, I believe in both the 10,000 hour rule and the 1,000 hour rule.
• Hare mentality: I think it's the number one killer in just about any endeavor. Business. Art. Life. Be the tortoise. Slow and steady wins the race. A blog is a good example. It's not to the swift the race is won (completed) it's to the consistent, the slow.
• Email: I believe in and practice inbox zero. Most people look at me like I'm nuts when I talk about it but it is possible.
• Inner and outer resistance, mental resistance. The struggle with yourself. Read Steven Pressfield's book, The War of Art: Winning the Inner Creative Battle. It's the last book on productivity and creativity you'll ever read.
• Disorganization/Messiness: I know. I'm stepping on toes. I've become a hyper-organized person (I'm not naturally organized), mostly to unclutter my mind so I can focus. I need all the help I can get.

Creativity & Productivity Enhancers:

• Silence: Drive without the radio on (hard for us music junkies to do). Go for a walk. Lay in bed and enjoy the silence until it becomes deafening. (If you make a habit of this, you'll need a recorder. I use Omnifocus to record notes/memos/thoughts).
• Solitude: I love traveling for one of many reasons, airports and airplanes are forced solitary retreats. Leave the house without your cell phone for once. Go to a bookstore. A library. A museum.
• Cultivate a love for art: "The greatest thinkers and the greatest businesspeople have a passion for some kind of art". - Mitch Joel
• Erect firewalls: we live in an unprecedented age. You can block TV ads, divert emails, deflect unnecessary phone calls, control social status updates and more. Yet most people do not erect firewalls to keep distractions to a minimum. It takes a little work but it is possible to block unwanted messages of virtually any kind.
• Use a modern task manager: I think a modern task manager is imperative. I use Omnifocus. It is the single most effective tool I own.
• Listen to Podcasts. Smart podcasts, like The Marketplace of Ideas by Colin Marshall. There are plenty more.
• Poetry: I love poetry. It's the antithesis of modern day news consumption. It forces you to slow down. If you don't like reading poetry, try listening to poetry.
• Music: Find inspiring music. Diversify. Cultivate a love for different types of music. I recommend Spotify.
• Friends. Friends that enlarge your vision. Friends that prefer discussing ideas over people. Friends that challenge you by virtue of their own professionalism and determination.

Leave a comment: what distracts you from being more productive? What tips do you have that we can share with others? What enhances your creativity?

(If you can't see the video below, click here; vid found via TNW).

Comments

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I do not have a SmartPhone. I have a cheap, embarassing GO PHONE. I buy unlimited minutes for $50 a month. I used 179 last month. I work from home and I'm very tethered to my computer, so not having an iPhone ensures that when I'm not in front of my computer I'm not engaging outside of my family or with work. This really helps me! Also, photography helps me. Peering through the lens, the world looks different and it makes me slow down and think of all the things I regularly miss. Great post, Bobby.

[Bobby Lehew]

Love that about the smartphone. Smart firewall. Photography: absolutely. I saw your last post about downtown OKC with the boot photos, loved it, great pics, the pics alone told a good story. Thanks, Jennifer!

[Lon McGowan]

Bobby, this was an excellent post. It really gets me motivated to be more creative. As for productive, I am a huge proponent of inbox zero...managing your inbox is the first step in being more productive and organized.

[Bobby Lehew]

Thanks, Lon. I agree (I think we have a lot in common). Love inbox zero, I don't know how most folks handle the deluge of email any other way. When I used my inbox as my task/project manager, I tended to respond to urgent (vs important & urgent). As we know (particularly in our industry) what's urgent isn't always what's most important. See you in Denver!

[Erich Campbell]

Great post, Bobby- you've got fantastic tips here that I'll just have to share.

[Bobby Lehew]

Thanks, Erich ... Both subjects are a passion of mine, something I think of often, particularly productivity. Thanks for sharing the post.

[Angela Bankston]

Excellent Post, Bobby. Thank you so much for sharing. It is great to have so many new resources in one place.

Brainstorming with other people on my team really sparks my creativity.

Funny how I participate in nearly all of your recommendations for enhancing creativity & productivity. However, I am guilty of nearly all of the "killers"....I guess the bad cancel out the good sometimes.

Thanks again for the tips!

[Bobby Lehew]

Me, too (brainstorming). I like brainstorming with the right people, as long as everyone understands it's part storm. :-) We recently had a project with a client that we tore up internally, called it ugly, poked at it til it bled. It wasn't pretty but it worked. By the time we got to the client presentation part, it went very well. But brainstorming and being willing to beat it up amongst friends was critical. It's not fun, but it works. Thanks for taking the time to comment, Angela, really appreciate it.

[Mike Stanfield]

Facebook would definitely be number one on my list of productivity killers.

Mike Stanfield
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[Bobby Lehew]

I think you echo the thoughts of many.