I’m into creativity these days. I’m fascinated by the creative process and all of its facets: the flow state that one falls into when working on bringing an idea out of the ether and onto the page/canvas/screen/floor/table, the sudden epiphanies that one gets in the shower or while falling asleep, the frustration that one feels when the idea is there but just tantalizingly out of reach. I’m thrilled by the burst of energy that accompanies the accomplishment of overcoming the challenges of making an idea tangible, the sense of empowerment that bubbles up after an act of creative expression.
The whole process intrigues me to no end, so I have delved into finding out about many aspects of creativity, but especially what I consider to be the beginning of creating anything: inspiration.
I’ve found out some great tips and ideas on how to tap into creative inspiration when you want and need it, and put it all together in a presentation, which I unveiled in June at Interlink Conference in Vancouver, BC.
The name of the presentation? “On-Demand Inspiration”. Watch the video, check out the slides, or get it all in one fell foop on the Interlink Conference Blog.
Denise Jacobs Interlink 2011 Presentation from Shawn Johnston on Vimeo.
I’m in love. Seriously! I’m in love with the ConvergeSE Conference that just happened in Columbia, SC last weekend. Why? It was a GREAT conference! There were fantastic presentations from Trent Walton, Chris Coyier, Christian Heilmann, and Ethan Marcotte on the nitty-gritty of CSS3 typography, CSS3 Selectors, HTML5 and Responsive Design, respectively. Leslie Jensen-Inman rocked the house with her presentation on “Make Awesomeness. Do Good”, bringing normally stoic right-brainers to tears. Carl Smith gave a great workshop on Finding Better Clients. And these were just the presentations that I was able to see. I’m sure the ones that I missed were equally as informative and enjoyable!
There was also my workshop, “CSS3: Ripe and Ready to Respond“, which was fantastically received, much to my delight. Take a peek at the slides to get a nice introduction to both responsive design and CSS3, if you’re so inclined.
So, I *just* had a great exchange on Twitter and I wanted to share the information generated from it in the hopes that it will help other people in the same situation.
As creatives (and often independents) in an ever-changing field, we end up doing a lot of work and having to wear quite a few hats. Whitney Hess, super-fabulous User Experience Consultant and all-around kick-butt woman in general, sent out this lament on Twitter today:
I have just gone through this process in the last couple of weeks myself. At the time, a dear friend gave me the verbal equivalent of a (helpful) slap in the face, and suggested that if I didn’t enjoy what I was doing and this was adversely affecting everything else, then I should offload it and outsource the task(s).
In empathy, I responded to Whitney:
To which she responded:
This is the advice I gave her. It just came off the cuff from my head, but I am thinking of it as “Offload and Outsource: How to be Awesome in 4 Easy Steps”:
- Know that you can’t do as much work and help as many people when you are gritting your teeth through a task
- Remember that the thing you hate is the thing that someone else loves, and you are helping them by offloading
- Ask for help/support/leads to good people. everyone is looking to be recognized and approached for the work they do
- Believe that you deserve to only do what you love to do and are brilliant at, and you’re worth the effort
My final quip to her on the matter was “how does all of that sound? that kind of work is a log-jam and prevents us from shining our brilliance.“, which is so, so true.
Have I mastered it myself? Heck no — but I am working on it. But that talk my friend gave me last week pushed me to outsource 2 major defacto time and energy logjams which have, in turn, unleashed an avalanche of productivity and creativity for me (including giving me the idea for a presentation on the subject, which I am really excited about putting together and doing soon). So I know that does it really work.
To further this process and change in mindframe along, I’ve finally started reading the book “Work Less, Make More” (it’s been on my shelf for over five years!) in efforts break myself of many ingrained habits of working like crazy and wearing it as a badge of honor but then losing out on the richness of life and relationships with people around me. So far, it has been a great read and exactly what I need right now to move forward so that I can go out do and be more out in the world — and achieve my goals of just being more awesome in general.
If anyone else has tips or anecdotes on offloading, outsourcing, or working less and making more, I would love to hear them.
Denise R. Jacobs is an Author, Speaker, Web Design Trainer, and Creativity Evangelist. Based in Miami, Florida, she is author of