There is a major misconception with creativity.
People think it's all about creative flow.
Yes,
Creative flow is one of the most amazing parts of creativity,
But there's another key piece that people often leave out.
Structure.
You need structure for the creativity to flow.
I like to imagine creativity as an endless waterfall.
It's infinite.
There's so many possibilities and that's amazing.
Except.
Without any structure.
Creativity puddles out into chaos.
Now here's the thing,
If you have too much structure.
.
.
It goes nowhere.
If you have too little structure it kind of goes everywhere but also nowhere.
So the right amount of structure,
Open the creativity and amazing things happen.
Now here are a few simple.
And sort of silly ways that I bring some structure into my day so I can do more deep,
Productive work.
Number one.
Cost about $10.
It's a timer,
Easy to use.
You rotate it,
You hit go.
I put 20 to 30 minutes of time at a time.
Put it in iSight and I get the work.
Something amazing happens when you know there is some time element structure.
I do two,
Three,
Four sometimes of those and each one I give myself like a one minute break.
The system's called Pomodoro.
Look it up.
It's amazing.
It helps your brain.
Work but also rest and refresh.
Number two.
You know,
You know,
You know that these things are WMDs,
Weapons of mass distraction.
I don't need to tell you about this.
So simple thing I do sort of silly thing I do.
Yes,
I put it on do not disturb,
But then I put it in another room in the basement in the corner in a box.
And it's symbolic to me that it's deep work time.
Distractions away.
I put my computer on do not disturb.
No notifications.
And there's something about having it away from me that signals to me,
All right,
It's that time again,
It's time to work.
So try it out and see if you have your own versions of structure.
Not too much,
Not too little,
Just the right amount to allow creativity to flow.
Thanks for watching.
My name is Darius and I'll see you next time.
