To make laugher more enjoyable, give yourself permission to laugh – make it a point to laugh more over the next week. Some people experience guilt over taking time to enjoy the funner things in life, so if you’re one of these people – remember what good you’re doing yourself by laughing.

Some ideas to get you chuckling:

• Watch some videos on YouTube: maybe your work blocks it, or you live in Pakistan, but if you can find your way around one of those things, YouTube is the ultimate place to find something to make you laugh. I enjoy Reckless Tortuga, The Onion News Network, or Wheezywaiter.
• Go to a live show: the only limitation of watching a video on YouTube is you’re still in your usual environment. If you go to a live comedy show – improv, sketch, or stand-up – you’re in an environment with laugher in mind, surrounded by people with laughter in mind. This builds on the social aspect of laughter to get laughing even harder, and relaxing even more.
• Schedule a night with friends: hopefully your friends make you laugh. If not, you need to get some new friends. If you haven’t all gotten together for awhile, host a party at your place, or summon everyone to dinner. Laughter better ensue.
• Laugh while you work: if you really can’t get away – or are having trouble thinking creatively on a project at work, try consuming some funny media while you work. I like to watch 30 Rock on hulu on my second monitor while I work, but Podcasts are of course ideal for this. I hear that Uhh Yeah Dude is funny.

Yuck it up!

Related posts:

1. Creativity Bootcamp: Socialize
2. Creativity Bootcamp: Move Your Body
3. Creativity Bootcamp: Express Your Thoughts

Too much exposure to other people’s opinions or thoughts can drown out your own inner voice; and creativity is all about your individual interpretation of what you encounter in the world. To really develop a strong and individual point of view that is still relevant to the world, not only do you have to understand the world – through socializing – you have to develop and own your unique way of processing the stimuli of the world. But, the constant blizzard of information that we encounter throughout our day makes this a challenge.

This week: do one activity in isolation – away from computers and people – that uses your brain. Here’s a few ideas:

• Check out a book from a library: yeah, that’s right, a paper book. One that doesn’t even have hyperlinks on it. Choose a dense subject which interests you, preferably non-fiction. Read the table of contents, and pick the chapter that makes your brain “salivate” when you read it. Then eat it up. Take notes. Repeat. If you don’t finish the book, who cares? I recently did this with Evolutionary Psychology: A Beginner’s Guide. What subject will you explore?
• Write in your notebook: this is like the writing exercise I talked about, but this time you have to use a notebook – not a computer. This is to slow down your mind to your writing pace, and keep you from checking Twitter every 3 minutes.
• Think: stare at a wall. Stare at a sunset. Just do nothing, and think. I do this habitually, and I swear – it’s like watching television for me.

Or, maybe you have an idea for an isolating activity that helps you develop your own point of view. When you’re done, do some more thinking: how do these new thoughts that you’ve processed – isolated from the day-to-day world – relate to the discussions and subjects you encounter day-to-day?

Related posts:

1. Creativity Bootcamp: Express Your Thoughts
2. Creativity Bootcamp: Move Your Body
3. Creativity Bootcamp: Use Your Senses

This week: attend a social gathering around an interest that is outside of your core competency (but is still something about which you are curious). If you’re a designer, go to a gathering of computer geeks. If you’re an architect, go hang out with some web designers. As you talk with these people, what do you notice about them that is different from what you observe in people from your own field? What are some similarities that you find?

Sometimes when we get too involved in a particular interest, we forget that there are communities around other interests, which approach things differently. I’ve encountered many different communities of interest working in Advertising, traditional Graphic Design, Architecture, and startups – and they all have their own unique ways of seeing the word, and different sets of things which they value.

For example, the people I encountered working in Architecture tended to have an appreciation for design, history, and credentials that was completely different from what I encountered working for startups in Silicon Valley. While an Architect will tend to be interested in the material honesty of a real brick wall vs. a brick veneer – the tech startup person tended to be interested in disrupting the status quo. When I moved to Chicago, I wanted to reconnect with the Architecture community, so I went to a Young Architects Forum happy hour just to get that fresh perspective.

Where can you find these groups with which to meet? Meetup.com is probably the best place, but there’s also Yahoo Groups, Google Groups, or even Craigslist.

So get out there and have some conversations with some people who are passionate about something that may just be a curiosity of yours. It will open your eyes.

Related posts:

1. Creativity Bootcamp: Isolate
2. Creativity Bootcamp: Move Your Body
3. Creativity Bootcamp: Express Your Thoughts

The most relatable medium I can think of for understanding this is cooking. Some people are great at it, but even more are absolutely paralyzed at the thought of trying to cook something. I personally used to not cook that much, relying mostly on frozen microwavables.

Eventually I forced myself to start cooking. As someone who suffers from perfection paralysis, in the beginning, making a meal was an incredibly difficult undertaking for me. I would look up a recipe on my favorite recipe site, make a list of ingredients, and – hey, what is a beet anyway? (look up on Wikipedia). I’d finally make a list of all of the ingredients, buy the stuff at the grocery store, and check the recipe 3 dozen times to make sure I was getting everything right. Today, I can improvise a meal – with modest skill – out of whatever is available, and I don’t even own a microwave.

I get the sense that next time, I'll use less heat.

The valuable thing I learned after awhile is that cooking isn’t all that difficult. You get some food, and you heat it up. Wonder what two foods might taste like together? Just smell one, then smell the other, and imagine. If that doesn’t work, then simply try eating them together. The same thing works with spices. Sometimes, you fuck up and overcook, undercook, mis-match, or overspice. Then what? You do it differently next time, and eventually you learn. By Using Your Senses.

This week: cook a meal unlike any meal you have cooked before. That doesn’t mean it has to be extravagant, just something you don’t usually cook. Most of us cook the same couple of things over and over again. If you are in a habit of making hamburgers and pizzas, try making some Glazed Salmon. Always making Chicken? Make some Roasted Pheasant.

While you’re making the recipe, improvise a little bit. Maybe you don’t have some of the spices available, so smell and imagine the spices in your dish. How does it “taste?” If imagining isn’t enough, you might have to try it for real.

The important thing is that you get out of routine, and be forced to Use Your Senses.

PS Don’t forget to nomm your dish.

Fire photo by liber

Related posts:

1. Creativity Bootcamp: Socialize
2. Creativity Bootcamp: Express Your Thoughts
3. Creativity Bootcamp: Isolate

Writing and drawing are extremely powerful activities for practicing your creativity. I often find that when I write or draw, I unlock ideas that I wasn’t even aware that I had. The main hurdle to overcome in this is just getting the motivation to do the expressing.

So, you need to do whatever you can to reduce the friction between your brain and a medium of expression (in this case, writing or drawing). For most of us, the problem is perfection paralysis. We become paralyzed by the fear that what we write, draw, speak, or dance will be just plain wrong. While you eventually have to create something lucid if you’re going to put it out into the world, this isn’t necessary at all in the creative process. All of these expressive functions are locked away from each other, and it isn’t until we exercise them that they can hone one another.

This week, write. Use whatever tool it is that makes it easiest for you to write. My favorites are a quality notebook with a quality pen, and a plain text document. Microsoft Word is your enemy. Too much friction.

Write about anything. If you can’t think of something to write about, then write about how you can’t think of anything to write about. It doesn’t even have to make sense. Make a nonsense string of words that pop into your head as you write, if that’s what you need to do to make it easy to write. What’s important is that you express your thoughts, and break down the barrier between the medium and your mind.

Do this for 10 minutes. Just 10 minutes this week is all you need. If you feel like continuing – then do! Do it every day if you can. But just do it at least once. For 10 minutes. That’s it!

Let us know how it goes!

Related posts:

1. Creativity Bootcamp: Isolate
2. Creativity Bootcamp: Use Your Senses
3. Creativity Bootcamp: Move Your Body

Moving Your Body is important for your creativity not only because it gets your heart pumping, making your brain work better, but also because of the connection between your body movements and your thoughts and feelings.

So, this week, do this thing for your creativity. You don’t have to worry about anything else. Just this one thing…

Do a physical activity or sport that you either have never done, or haven’t done in at least 6 months. I’ve been taking Salsa classes, and, in the past, I have taken improv and acting classes. When first doing these new-for-me activities, it was amazing to feel my brain light up as it discovered new movements and mind/body connections. If you’re having trouble coming up with ideas, try one of these things:

• Sign up for a (physical) arts class: dance, improv, or acting. You can also find low-commitment drop-ins in your city, just Google “[yourcity] [activity] drop-in classes”
• Sports: play a racket sport such as tennis or racquetball, hit some golf balls at a driving range, go swimming, or go bowling. Have you tried Yoga yet? This week is the week to do it!
• Just goof off: play catch with a friend, do a handstand, or find a pull-up bar to swing around on.

That’s it. That’s all you have to do this week. One physical thing you’ve never done before (preferred), or haven’t done in more than 6 months. You don’t even have to think about it, and you’ll be on your way to being more creative. Let us all know what you did, and how it worked out for you!

Related posts:

1. Creativity Bootcamp: Isolate
2. Creativity Bootcamp: Express Your Thoughts
3. Creativity Bootcamp: Socialize

Paralysis.

Remember when it was fun?

Make it fun again.

——

Fun photo by -Gep-

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When I returned to The States, I was starving for more. My design program wasn’t concerned with these aspects of design, but my university’s library had any book I needed about typography and proportion. In addition to my regular class work, I regularly spent 16 hours a day, alone in my apartment, devouring all of these books. My curiousity with the relationship between proportion and beautiful typography became an obsession. I even conducted my own exercise, where I laid out copy from a deodorant stick onto a canvas using nothing but proportionally-derived space to create a hierarchy. A few years later, when I taught a typography class, it was this odd exercise that I adapted into a lesson plan that was published in Ilene Strizver’s Type Rules!.

After all of this experimentation, I, of course had to re-do every project in my portfolio to live up to my new standards. I developed a sort of technique, which I demonstrate in this video. No, I’m not using the golden ratio. I’m simply creating a series of “blocks,” of descending size, based upon the aspect ratio of the “canvas” itself. I then use those blocks to determine margins, the size of elements, and the size of spaces between those elements. Oh, just watch the damn video.

I talk about this technique a little in my Design for the Coder’s Mind presentation, but this video should give you a much clearer picture.

——–

Image via briangeek

Hey, FREE book!

Best comment (relevant & thought-provoking) will receive a free copy of Kim Elam’s Geometry of Design, a book which I personally find fascinating. It’s full of illuminations of geometric proportion’s influence in beautiful design. Deadline: midnight PST Wednesday, February 18th.

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Thanks so much to all who chimed in on the creativity convertition! When I decided to solicit these ideas, I really wasn’t sure if I should expect to hear much of anything outside of my general understanding of creativity, but I really found some useful tips out of it all. Here are the 10 tips (in no significant order) that were 1) my favorite tips, in combination with 2) submitted by someone who invited – or at least attempted to invite, other people to participate.

Vote (NOW!) for your favorite tip by leaving a comment with the number of the entry that is your favorite, to determine who wins a copy of The Guerilla Art Kit. I’ll close voting at midnight PST Tuesday, February 11th.

Finalists

1. jelling recommends a set of playing cards by Brian Eno that give random suggestions, such as “honor the hidden intention of your error.”
2. Mary suggests assembling a “committee of whimsical people” to drink beer and brainstorm at a particular Tuscon, Arizona bar – and trying not to barf.
3. Adelle recommends Fuel Your Creativity, a blog soley created to provide inspiration.
4. sj suggests that you read magazines from industries NOT related to your own to get ideas from a different perspective.
5. Roger (who submitted via e-mail) has written a great blog post telling you to embrace failure: “errors serve a useful purpose: they tell us when to change direction.”
6. Stephen Davis suggests a blog post by Seth Godin, about how the market conditions of a recession can fuel creativity.
7. Gordon says that something as simple as some household chores can keep him thinking creatively.
8. Ryan suggest, amongst other things, that when listening to music “listen to whole albums, don’t use random,” presumably to keep yourself in one particular frame of mind.
9. Mark discovered in his improv class don’t try to be original.
10. Patty finds that by helping others, she gains a new perspective.

I’d like to add that 1) it was exceptionally difficult to narrow this down to the maximum of 10 that I promised, and 2) there are a couple of slightly late entries in this list that were so strong I decided to include them.

Remember, Vote (NOW!) for your favorite tip by leaving a comment with the number of the entry that is your favorite. Also, please feel free to continue the conversation about creativity, on the original post.

——–

image via wolfpix

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UPDATE The finalists have been chosen! Thanks to everyone who participated. Vote (NOW!), but please feel free to continue the conversation in the comments below.

How do you keep yourself thinking creatively? Maybe you just go for a walk, you do some yoga. Maybe you spar at your local boxing gym, or fire a gun at a firing range. Maybe it’s a website full of inspiration that you visit, or a simple blog post somewhere that gives you inspiration. The best answer to this question will win a copy of The Guerilla Art Kit, by Keri Smith – which will teach you to start an artistic revolution through your creativity. Whatever it is, be creative – and share it with us. Here’s how the convertition* works:

1. Submit your ways of being creative: do this by @ replying kadavy on Twitter, or simply leave a comment here. Also, if someone told you about this convertition, be sure to mention them, for Karma’s sake (they get clout in the convertition for telling you about it). Your creativity tip can be something you try yourself, or a website, article, book, or blog post that keeps you creative. Need some ideas? Check out my blog post, Eight Life Hacks for Creative Thinking. There may be ways that you stay creative that you hadn’t realized. (This blog post, by the way, is ineligible for submission. Sorry, I only wish.)
   • Not required, but encouraged: include “#cr8” in your tweets so everyone can follow along.
2. Be one of the finalists: Out of all of the submissions, I’ll pick no more than ten finalists. My admittedly unscientific criteria will be the following:
   • Originality of idea: while it may really keep you creative, simply saying “painting” is not likely to land you there – unless your presentation is really interesting (see next).
   • Presentation of the idea: Simple tweets and links to blog posts certainly stand a chance, but why not make a quick video of your creativity inspiring activity of choice – or some other format. The only requirement is that it can be shared on the web for all to see. Your presentation should arouse curiousity, entertain, or simply better explain how said activity keeps you thinking creatively.
   • How many people you get to participate in this convertition: As mentioned above, be sure to share who it is that told you about this convertition (and remind your friends to say you sent them). Remember socializing is a good way to keep yourself thinking creatively.
3. Get voted for: After I pick the finalists, and present them in a new blog post, I’ll ask all of you to vote – via comments – for which tip you like the best. It’s tempting to tell all of your friends to vote – and as such, this is totally permissible and encouraged.

So, how do you stay creative? Blog it, tweet it, whatever – take two minutes to share it with us, and you can win this excellent book. The deadline for submission is Midnight PST, Tuesday, February 3rd. Has passed.

Here’s a video version of the call-for-entries you might enjoy, too:

About the book (via Princeton Architectural Press):

We are living in a golden age of self-expression. The explosion of user-created content on blogs and social networking sites moved Time magazine to name “You” their 2006 person of the year. But while we may be spending a lot more time in virtual worlds, we have not lost the urge to make our physical world more meaningful. By leaving art and ideas in public places, you can affect someone’s day—change their mood or their mind—and maybe even change the world in the process! more >>

*convertition: sort of a competition, but more of a conversation: convertition.

——-

Image via alicepopkorn

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