I’ve worked on creative projects all my professional life. I plan to write about my observations around creativity and the nuances around it.
Creativity And Deadlines
It always helps to start a creative campaign, an idea or a project with a deadline or milestone in mind.
It always works because the closer the deadline, fewer the opportunities to doubt your ideas, the urge to ‘make’ it perfect and eventually complicate your work.
I’m reminded of the the Parkinson’s Law “work expands to fill the time available for it’s completion”. Ship it. Make it better.
In school, I believed that good writers are those who follow the rules of grammar.
Come to think of it, most popular blogs, good Twitter threads, Facebook posts, and insightful newsletters are littered with grammatical and spelling errors.
And before you shoot me off, I’m not against grammatically correct sentences or writing perfect literature. But knowing the difference between a period and a semi-colon doesn’t matter as much as having good ideas to share.
With the advent of AI tools, it’s easier to chisel your writing to a version that your high school teacher would be proud of! All I’m saying is
Ability to express good ideas far outweigh the ability to write grammatically correct articles.
Along those lines, I wanted to reflect on the ‘Connection Paradox’. The advent of communication apps and social media platforms has created more connectedness than ever before. There’s a constant dopamine drip.
I feel we’re less connected to those around us. We get a peek into people’s life via updates. But rarely know the struggles, joys, and everyday happening about people.
While these platforms have widely expanded our network, we have far lesser people we actually feel connected to :)
I wanted to jump onto the reflection bandwagon and speak about 9 things I realized or practiced this year.
You can never understand people, you can only make them feel heard. So stop saying “I understand”. You don’t! You’re not the one in their shoes :). Make them feel heard.
You have far lesser friends than you think. Most people are with you for the ride to have fun or convenience. Real friends are the ones who stand by you when you really don’t have anything to offer in return.
We need people who question our assumptions. I used to get agitated when someone questioned a decision of mine. I came to realize that the more someone questions your assumptions, the more you uncover blind spots.
Family comes first. Always- Not matter how big your social circle, no matter how much money you have, and no matter what- your family will always remain your #1 cheerleader. They will stand by you no matter what. Cherish every moment you spend with them.
It’s okay to say “I don’t know”– We’re brought up in a culture where ‘know-it-all’ is glorified. It’s stupid. It’s reasonable to have no opinion on things that you haven’t done enough research on.
It’s okay to change your opinions. In fact, changing opinions should be seen as a sign of strength and courage. We form opinions based on biases and exposure we have at a particular point in time. It’s okay for the opinion to change if you get materials that disprove what you earlier believed.
Spending stuff on yourself is an investment- Therapy, courses, Gym memberships, app subscriptions, books, travel, and experiences- these are NOT expenditures. These are investments.
Have fun. If you’re not having fun doing something, quit it right away. Life’s too short to do stuff that’s not fun.
I was not an avid reader growing up. I always had phases where I read a ton of books. And I had stages (much longer than the reading phase) where I read ZERO books.
All this changed in the past year. I read 20+ books. And started my content creation journey around.. reading books. Not bad for someone who didn’t grow up reading.
So what did I do right this time around? A lot. These 5 tips helped me read in a meaningful way.
Stuck to a routine– I tried to read for 30 mins in the morning every weekday. And read stuff on my kindle when I found it difficult to sleep. This way I averaged 45 mins of reading every weekday. It was a grind when I started and slowly it became an integral part of my day.
Read For Curiosity– Instead of looking for the bestsellers, or trending stuff, I picked up books on subjects I’m curious about. Decision-making, Behavioral economics, and company cultures are a few things I explored this year. I let go of the FOMO of reading THE book to feel included. And being off-social media helped in a big way.
Read For Cure– I read books around subjects I needed the most help with. I was trying to find cure through books. At the start of the year, I realized I needed to stay calmer and be more mindful about how I go about things. I read a ton about mindfulness (and starting to read a bit of philosophy now).
Read for Fun– This is a philosophy I employ in every aspect of life. Are you having fun reading books? If not, what is that you can do to make it fun? Fiction? Classics? Audiobooks? Shorter books? Whatever floats your boat. As long you’re reading.
Quit more books- If there’s one tip I want you to take away from this post, it’s this. Quit books that don’t hold your attention. Quit books that don’t interest you anymore. Quit books that feel draggy. Quit reading if you’re not enjoying it.
Start treating books like blog posts. You don’t feel the guilt when you don’t finish a blog post. Then why put up with a draggy book? You’re not obligated to focus on the book. It’s the book’s responsibility to hold your attention :).
By quitting boring books, you’re increasing your chances of finding interesting reads.
The advertising agency J Walter Thompson used to set a test for aspiring copywriters. One of the questions was simple
Here are two identical 25-cent coins. Sell me the one on the right
One successful candidate understood the “ALCHEMY” and he said
I’ll take the right-hand coin and dip it in Marilyn Monroe’s bag. Then I’ll sell you a genuine 25-cent coin as owned by Marilyn Monroe.
I read this example in Alchemy: The Surprising Power of Ideas That Don't Make Sense. Since then I couldn’t stop thinking about the number of decisions we take every day that is NOT “Rational”.
We don’t value things, we value their meaning. The reason why so many luxury and lifestyle brands thrive.
All buying decisions are emotional and backed by post-purchase rationalization.
Looking around my table, I find at least 3 items (an iPhone, an expensive pen, and a blender) that I got because they make me feel a certain way. Logically, I could live with a more economical option.
But what explains these purchases? No data would tell you!
You never see people getting a talkers block. As in, no one wakes up in the morning and discovers that they have nothing to say and hence sit quietly for days together.
Why do we have creator’s block then?
Why we don’t care about “Talkers block”
Talkers block is non-existent because we’ve trained ourselves to speak irrespective of whether we have something to say.
We rarely think about a conversation coming back to haunt us.
All talk is cheap, and can easily be denied.
We talk poorly and eventually (and sometimes) we talk smart. We get better at articulating because we talk more.
If we blurt out something useful, we try to talk more about things that worked. We follow a pattern.
The creator’s block is no different
Just create poor stuff.
Write poorly in public until you can write better
Produce poor pieces of art until you can produce good pieces
Write bad poetry until you churn out a good one.
I believe that every single person should produce something they’re passionate about. An art. A social media post. A video. Whatever floats your boat.
If you know you have to create something in consistent intervals, even a single line/tweet/art, you will improve what you do.
