Image via Design Crush
Staying creative is a tricky beast — with so much information being thrown at us from all directions, it can be hard to release your mind from the distractions and really focus on creating something new.
I’m working on a personal project to get my creative synapses properly firing, but I’m finding it hard to really get it off the ground. By the time I get home from work my ability to think creatively has been used up for another day and the minutae of running a household takes over. How does one find the time to think and work creatively while there are towels to be washed, pots of pasta to stir, cat litter trays to empty and gym memberships to ignore?
Number 2 on this list is finally working its way into my daily life: for all the years I have loved Moleskine notebooks, I’ve always been terrible at actually using them. I’ve collected all the part-used notebooks and put them in a pile by my front door to remind me to take them with me when I leave the house, so now all I just come up with something to go in them.
Number 11 has also been taken on with some gusto lately, but is faltering as I inevitably find myself listening to my three ‘new’ bands (at the moment Frightened Rabbit, The National, and Bön Iver) on repeat and forget to look for anything else. A Spotify subscription should hopefully resolve this. Are you listening Santa?
Next, I’m going to take on number 31 — my workspace is currently wherever I end up with my laptop, usually on the sofa in front of the TV… not the most inspiring. I’ve decided there shall be two spaces for work in my flat: my dining table for hanging on to the kitchen winter warmth and the study for the serious ‘get your head down’ stuff. Now where do I find the motivation to tidy up my workspace so I can have the motivation to work?
Coincidentally, I picked up the first issue of Innovator Scotland at lunchtime which has an interesting piece on creativity. Read it — and the whole magazine — here (page 22).
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What sort of creative things are you trying to do?
Just bits and bobs related to my project (which I’m sure I’ve told you about?) Also, it’d be nice to be more creative in general — I’d like to leave *some* kind of mark on the world ;-)
I really like this post :) I relate a lot. I’m finding it really difficult to be creative just now just cause of the things I need to get done in the evening.
I don’t think you were ever not creative though :P Surely it relates to everything you do, including photography and design/marketing?
I think it helps me to assign a time of the day to be creative, even if it’s just to do a small thing. If you ever want to hang out and do creative-type things, I’d be up for it. :)
Also, way too many smiley faces. Bad Annabel.
(they looked less obnoxious when they weren’t yellow)
I actually might switch that off (it’s a default setting), though being encouraged to use fewer smilies isn’t necessarily a bad thing!
Thanks Annabel. It’s funny, while writing this I didn’t once think of photography — I think all that time taking photos of drunk, awful people has made me consider my photography a chore rather than an expression of creativity. My camera is still dead, which doesn’t really help now that I’m free to use it for other things.
We should get together and do things! We just need to decide *what*…
I think you should consider this blog part of being creative. Your photos and writing are very much so. The Molskines are a very good idea, even just for doodling.
I find this very hard too. My jobs is quite creative — i bake and cook and play and do art and write and sing with the kids — but i find that at home often i just want to sit down and read for a bit. I am forcing myself to draw every day (and it is still by force, and i date every page so i can’t fool myself) and trying to make one thing per week — either a thing or some baking.
It’s all about consistency really, I suppose. I write something here every once in a while, but far too sporadically for me to take it seriously — the quality of my writing has suffered enormously because I only really write if I *have* to.
On a positive note: I fixed my proper camera last night, and the camera on my new phone is hugely improved so I may resurrect the old iPhone photo a day project.
I think a couple of things every week could be do-able — might sharpen me up a bit so I can approach my project with a bit more enthusiasm. I think it’s a similar thing for me — what I need to do is so similar to what I do during the day that I’m going to have to force myself!
What sort of stuff do you draw? I’ve never been able to draw, apart from compulsively drawing hundreds of three-dimensional boxes on meeting papers…
I’m glad your camera is mended. until my phone broke, I used it’s camera or carried a point and shoot about.
I draw all sort — mugs, close ups of chairs, thing on desks, stuff in the park, the backs of bus seats. I take a wee sketchbook everywhere and then when I have 5 minutes I do a quick drawing. If i slip on doing one a day I make myself catch up by then end of the week. it’s not bad really. It could be done as a photography project easily.
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I like creativity, we tried to start a writing group but we were rubbish at staying organised.
Maybe we should try again?
Also you could join me in the pain that is NaNoWriMo…
Hi. Really enjoyed this blog. I can totally relate with the post work-commute difficulty of re-energising the brain for personal creativity. My guitar learning and writing (or lack thereof) suffers most. However, I really liked your list and will try and use it. I’ve already circulated round my team in work!!
Also, check out bandcamp for new unsigned music. i love it and no subscription required for great unsigned music :)