Fast Company | Business + Innovation: I’d love to have a toolkit that promised me great, creative ideas every time I sat down to work. Obviously that’s not going to happen--creativity doesn’t come from tools.
But luckily there are some tools that can improve our chances of working creatively.
13 comments:
My teachers in high school always wanted us to take notes with a pen and paper, because that is how we would remember and I know this is true, especially with notes that I have rewritten over and over again. This also makes a good study technique.
I LOVE the second point because my desk is a mess. In fact my entire room is clean, except for my desk, but I think that is more because I don't have enough space/I have too many things. This has me thinking if my desk has pushed some of my creativity, but I do have doubts.
This article is slightly reflective of me, which is pretty funny, I like to work out, listen to music, and I have my own comfy chair to think and nap. I am glad that I have some crucial pieces for creative work.
While I do agree with some of the "tools" mentioned in this article, I'm not sure how helpful these tools are to everyone. For example, if my desk is a constant mess, I feel like I can't find anything and get frustrated working there so I ultimately move to somewhere else to work. Maybe a better phrase would be to say that working in an organic environment helps creativity (such as outside or even a room like 33). Also, personally, when I wake up from naps the last thing I generally want to do is generate ideas. I would rather just continue being still.
These "tools," although potentially helpful, aren't the most important thing to being more creative though. From my experience this year, I find that i am better able to generate ideas if I have had feedback from teachers or peers of a previous project. Personally, feedback has been the most important factor in me pushing my imagination this past year. I'm surprised that this was not a seventh tool.
I hate to be a naysayer, but I call BS on half of these, and the other half I only moderately agree with. Well, that's for me anyways, and that's the key, you can't make a list like this for everyone, because it's different for every one. The handwriting part I agree with because personal experience has taught me that devices are much too difficult to handle for many of the quick-note scenarios we find ourselves in. The messy desk...false. I cannot think while my desk is a mess, it just irks me and I go an clean it. The notebook is a great idea, and I have the problem of the notebook never being where I want it. Exercise is not necessary for divergent thinking, although having a distraction on hand is often a good thing. 2048, a bobblehead, or a mini basket ball net are all just as good as running or tennis, for me. Ambient noise is a good idea (the only consistently good one on the list), but sometimes the ambient noise in the headphones is too concentrated, and is more annoying than useful. Also, having headphones in can be a bad distraction. Lastly, napping. Occasional naps I believe are good (I think the whole world would double in productivity if we could sleep when we're tired and wake up naturally, instead of sleeping 10-7), but my most creative times are when I am wide awake (and maybe a little hyper), not when I'm drowsy.
The point about messes is the one that stands up with me the most. Although I attempt (not always successfully) to keep the floor of my room clean, any horizontal surface becomes filled with stuff nearly instantly. My desk, the tops of my dressers, even the sides of carboard boxes that were left out quickly get piled high with stuff. I don't quite no where it comes from as I seemed perfectly fine without the extra space until a new surface appears. That said, this article is cool because it makes me feel a little less bad about my habits. I live in a state of reasonably organized chaos, and it helps me thrive emotionally and creatively.
I think I've been discovering these tips and tricks out on my own for the past couple of years. I typically do most of these tips, but I still cannot get myself to take notes with pen and paper, or at least in a class situation. I simply prefer to have a database which I can easily and quickly search through as well as backup for future use. However, when going through ideas for projects, I almost always use pen and paper simply because it opens up a new way to connect notes and diagram. I also find iPad apps that allow for drawing and organizing of notes to be very useful in my creative process as well.
I have mixed feelings about several of the suggestions in this article. First, I agree with the results of using pen and paper for taking notes, and remembering information, but i disagree with the notion that when writing an original work, its faster to do by hand. I know many people for whom this is not true. Second, I understand the idea of the messy desk sparking creativity, and being in a creative environment, but i find that this has it limits. Although being messy can help spark creativity, I have found repeatedly that when you actually need to execute on that creative idea, you have to get organized first.
Well I absolutely despise running but I agree with the article that exercise can really help clear your mind and make it easier to think and solve problems. And while I used to also be adamantly against taking notes with a pen and paper this semester I experienced a great awakening and now I take all my notes in a notebook. It really helps me remember everything and also keeps me paying attention.
As with most articles about productivity this article doesn't really tell us anything new, but it does act as an important reminder of things that are very easy to forget. For many years people have enjoyed the benefits of notebooks, messy desks, and naps, what I think is interesting about this article is that it begins to back up these already common tools with science. I would really like to know more about how they studied these topics and how they will continue to study them. I would really like to know if the findings were the same for all types of people of if some people reacted differently. For example, does everyone benefit from hand writing, or is that just the majority of people? I know that I always get more down on paper when it is digital paper and it is higher quality writing. I'd like to know if that is all in my head or if that is actually the case for me.
I guess these could work? A lot of these tools seem like things that would just be helpful with productivity in general, not necessarily creativity. I personally do many of these things and I don't know if it actually helps with creativity but I suppose anything is possible. I think that the creative process is different for everyone thus it will require different tools to assist in that process. When saying that these are "The 6 Best Tools for Creative Work, According to Science," that's discounting a lot of potential creative tools from being the best simply because they aren't good enough for science. And that's bogus.
Well, now I have an excuse for having an incredibly messy desk (it also explains why I'm attracted to unhealthy snacks). The section on ambient noise is really interesting too- it explains why sometimes studio is a really productive place to work, and sometimes really terrible. I've also noticed that I work much better on days that I start out with a run, although I don't have enough time to make that a consistent habit.
I really enjoy working on the computer but the tangibility of paper and pencil does always have a quality to it that is very conducive to creative thought. Although typing is very easy, it does in a way have to be more deliberate than writing by hand. One reason I feel computers can sometimes be a hindrance to note taking and idea generation and development is their lack of freedom in format. With paper you can draw a web, connect ideas, and group ideas together while the computer is very linear.
I really like working with physical things when I'm connecting ideas or putting ideas into a sequence. If I have to turn building blocks into a story, I'll often print each photo or concept out as little pieces that I can rearrange. Although a similar thing could be done on the computer, it never works as well. If my desk is too messy I tend to avoid it so I would lean more towards organized chaos.
I use Evernote and I have many digital notebooks dedicated to art or imagery I find online, quotes and stories, museum trips, and ideas I have. When starting a project I'm stuck on, it really helps to flip through these collections and see where that takes me. I highly suggest using a system that allows you to capture things you run into efficiently and easily otherwise it's easy to forget about it.
I do believe exercise is really helpful, I just find it hard to set aside time and effort to do it. Silence totally kills my creativity but music can sometimes be too much so I agree a little bit of noise or buzz is nice. That's why Starbucks is so great!
I love weekends because I can spend sometime in the in between state between asleep and awake to think about things for the day or fall back asleep and dream about them.
I like this list. I do a lot of these things already, i.e. taking notes with a pen and paper rather than on a computer. I like to learn by physically doing things rather than making them virtual. I tend to have a messy desk, but that's probably due to a lack of organization upkeep than making a creative work environment. One thing that I don't do a lot is exercise. I try to take the stairs when I can, and I lift things when I'm not a crew or working on a big project, but aside from that, I don't work out or even jog sometimes. At home I occasionally ride my bike, but I'd like to do that more next year by riding my bike to classes when I can.
I agree with all the tips in this article. I have found most of them personally helpful, when I have been unable to think up new or creative ideas. I do think that things like playing music or having a messy workspace are very subjective and while they may work for some, they may be a detriment to others. I do however, think that everyone should try all the things on this list at least once.
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