[-quick tip, practice-]

A Quick Creative Practice
~simple habits can have profound impacts~

Keep a tablet and a pen or pencil on your bedside table at all times!

DREAMS
If you wake with a dream still in reach, jot it down immediately. If you want to fall back to sleep, don’t worry about transcribing the full dream. If you write the most important words and images you’re likely to remember the connecting links later.

SOLUTIONS
Those transitional times just before falling asleep or waking—especially from a nap—are rich times for problem-solving and inspirational ideas. Having paper and pencil nearby will allow you to capture these gems that might otherwise disappear from your mind as the world crowds in.

SKETCHES
The tablet isn’t just for words. If you’re like me, you’ll sometimes *see* images that need to be painted or drawn. Make quick sketches before they too are lost to time.

[-practices, tips-]

a Quick Creative Practice
~simple practices have profound impacts~

Need Inspiration? Learn something new

Choose either a fairly simple skill - for example, how to do stencilling or beginning knitting - or - choose a skill that will take time and effort and one that you have, therefore, been putting off your whole life - like playing an instrument or learning a language. Either way, you’ll reap unforeseen benefits far beyond what you’re learning.

Question: “Do you know how old I’ll be by the time I learn to play the piano?”

Answer: “The same age you’ll be if you don’t learn to play the piano.”

Start now. Your efforts will be rewarded.

Learning something new inspires because:

• * it ignites the mind, firing up sluggish brain cells
• * new skill sets have bearing on what we already know in ways we can’t predict - for example, working with sumptuous wool yarn might provide a new connection to painting or composing
• * it reminds us that we are creative beings capable of continual evolution.

Originally published in the July 2005 issue of The Practically Creative Quarterly, theme: space and spaces

[-practices, tip-]

a Quick Creative Practice
~simple practices have profound impacts~

Schedule Creative Time

Of course you know this, but do you do it? If you don’t schedule time for being creative, no one else will. Whether you are overly busy or have lots of *free* time, your day will fill up with anything but creative pursuits if you don’t get it on your list. Literally write it down on your calendar, day book, computer, palm pilot or whatever you use to organize your life. Be specific and be serious about taking the time you saved just to be creative.

Originally published in the April 2005 issue of The Practically Creative Quarter, theme: inspiration

[-quick creative practice, tip-]

a Quick Creative Practice

~simple practices have profound impacts~

Write Down All Your Ideas

Writing it down does several important things:
• • keeps you from forgetting
  fleeting ideas, no matter how inspired, are easily forgotten
• • gets it out of your head so you can evaluate it
• • gives it validity and weight,
  the idea is no longer only an idea; it has reality because it’s on paper and can be seen
• • can begin to compare with other inspirations you’ve written down
  visualize how this idea might combine, enrich, work in ways you wouldn’t have thought of otherwise
• • saves it for another day
  maybe it’s an idea whose time has yet to come

Originally published in the April 2005 issue of The Practically Creative Quarterly, theme: inspiration

[-tip, practices-]

simple practices have profound impacts

Most of us tend to work better and - more importantly, finish! - if we have a deadline. If you don’t have a *real* one, try this as a mental trick.

Seek out a real world or an online individual or group. Set imaginary, but realistic, deadlines for yourselves and then urge each other to stick to them.

You’ll be surprise how much it helps even when the deadline has no consequences associated with it.

It’s also amazing how much it motivates to know that someone *out there* cares whether or not you keep going!

Don’t be discouraged if you have to try several groups or people before you find the right rapport. Discovering like-minded people is worth it, so keep looking if you haven’t found them yet.

If you belong to a group that helps in this way, post a comment to let others know.

For writers: NaNoWriMo - National Novel Writing Month
For artists: Illustration Friday