Time to Create, Part II

“All of man’s troubles stem from his inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” Pascal

In our helter skelter, rush-around world, time is our most precious commodity. And time—time spent alone, time to think and tinker and play—is the one ingredient that is absolutely necessary for creativity and innovation.

An article in this month’s Inc. magazine, Creative Control: Even Bosses Need Time to Dream, analyzes the need for entrepreneurs and CEOs to make time for idea generation because:

• “Companies need new ideas to thrive.”
• “Staying cretive is among the healthiest tings a CEO can do personally and for the company.”
• “Idea generation may be the CEO’s strongest suit, and consequently a company’s greatest asset.”

Paul Budnitz, founder of Kidrobot, is one CEO who hasn’t given up his creative juice for the more mundane tasks of business life. “He came up with 53 original items last year alone” because he forces himself to make time for idea generation. During a recent trip to China for a week of crisis management, he took time to “sit in a room and think about new toy ideas.”

Travel can be a great opportunity for creative thinking, not only because a change of scenery gives us a new perspective. Time spent waiting in airports and hotels and on airplanes can be used for creative incubation.

Take a hint from Erik Djukastein, president of Contech Electronics, who recently turned the management and finance functions of his company over to somebody else and gave himself the title of chief innovation officer. I’m hoping that title catches on. It will definitely appear on my next business card.

© Copyright 2007 Dixie Darr. All rights reserved

Time to Create

“Don’t say that you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson and Albert Einstein.” H. Jackson Brown Jr.

Okay, that’s a scary thought. Do you know what these people managed to accomplish in their lifetimes? It’s all I can do to clean the bathroom. On the other hand, I can’t imagine any of these people having to spend time cleaning the bathroom. While not exactly single-minded in their pursuits, they were at any rate single-minded in pursuing what they considered important.

As Charlie Chaplin said, “Genius is the ability to edit.” That’s true in life as well as acting, writing or painting. Most of us have WAY too many things and WAY too many activities and we’re not especially good at getting rid of those we don’t really need. I speak from personal experience.

My students sometimes get very angry when I suggest to them that while they are in school, they may not be able to do everything they did before. Like most people, they think time management means learning to do things faster so they can fit more into the same amount of time. Not true. The first rule of time management is to eliminate everything that doesn’t contribute to your goals. As humorist H. L. Menken once observed, “It is impossible to imagine Goethe or Beethoven being good at billiards or golf.”

Another rule of time management is to match your tasks to the times that are best suited for them. One study reported that our best ideas come at the following times:

6 a.m. – noon 30%

Noon – 6 p.m. 14%

6 p.m. – midnight 33%

Midnight – 6 a.m. 23%

The times will, of course, vary from person to person, but it looks like another argument for afternoon naps.

© Copyright 2007 Dixie Darr. All rights reserved

Creative environments

“You can’t wait for creativity. You have to go after it with a club.” Jack London

You can improve your creative output by working in a space that contributes to your creativity. For me, that means lots of visual stimulation: books, pictures and color. I also need music or TV for background noise, toys (juggling balls, a yoyo, and a teleidoscope are my favorites), plenty of colorful marking pens, paper pads in various sizes and Post-It notes in all sizes and colors.

Other ideas are a flipchart or white board and markers, a baby picture of yourself, a symbol or picture of your vision, cartoon books or other inspirational books such as Living Juicy by SARK. You also need a comfortable chair or bed. Natural light and a view of nature from a window is also nice. If you can’t manage that, pets, a fish tank or a plant will help.

Even with the perfect environment, you may still find that you get your best ideas while driving, exercising, sleeping or bathing. Be prepared to capture these flashes of inspiration by:

· Keeping a pad and pencil by the bed.

· Having a voice recorder in the car.

· Keeping a grease pencil in the shower.

· Carrying 3/5” index cards or a small notebook in your pocket or purse

· Leaving a voice mail message for yourself

If you still find yourself in a situation where you can’t write down or record your ideas, try composing a song or rhyme to help you remember. These bursts of insight can be fleeting, so we have to be ready to catch them whenever they appear.

© Copyright 2007 Dixie Darr. All rights reserved