The Myth of One-size-fits-all Creativity

The Creative Rebellion • Dispatch #012 • 3.5 min. read

Don't let anyone tell you their way is the only way to create.

Some people are up at 5am, creating in the silence of the early morning, done before anyone else even wakes for the day. Some light a candle late at night, play the perfect playlist, and write every draft by hand. Neither way is right (or wrong). But if they tell you their way is the way, ignore them.

We all have our own best way of working and how we work best is as unique as the work we create.

If you don't know how you work best, then experiment. Find out what works for others and try it for yourself, but with zero pressure to use it if it doesn't feel right to you. Try creating in the morning, midday, in the evening, or late at night. Try it with music and without. It won't take long to figure out what works and what doesn't.

(And when in doubt, go for when you have the most energy).

Your creative routine should set you up to create. It should get you into the right frame of mind where ideas have the chance to come to life.

Don't get me wrong, it's still going to require work. We can't live in a marvelous state of flow every time we sit down to create. But your job is to create the most conducive environment for your creativity. If you work best listening to Hans Zimmer, great. If Japanese LoFi beats do the trick, go LoFi. If you need white noise, or coffee house din, or perfect silence, just figure out what works best. (And know that it might change). If the mood strikes you to jam out to the Beastie Boys, just go with it. You might be surprised what you create when you create the right environment.

Now, it's about to sound like I'm contradicting myself, but there is one non-negotiable thing you have to do if you want to be a prolific creator:

Follow a structure.

Because if you only create when you're inspired, then you won't create much. Trust me, I've tried writing a book only when the inspiration strikes. I've been writing that book for about 9 years...

It's an ecstatic experience when inspiration strikes like lightning and an idea is borne from above on a bolt of electricity. But it isn't an easily controlled, repeatable event.

So your job is to do the work.

Sit your butt in the seat and face the blank page.

Start digging.

Move some dirt around.

See what happens.

If inspiration strikes, wonderful.

If not, put in the work anyway.

There's a great quote from Jason Bagley, the Creative Director behind the iconic ​commercial​ that rejuvenated Old Spice a few years ago. He says,

Stop focusing on something you can’t control—the quality of ideas, and start focusing on what you can control—the quantity of ideas. Your job isn’t to come up with great ideas, it's to come up with tons of ideas. Even if they're all terrible. Because something magical happens when you focus on quantity instead of quality; the creative process becomes 10x more playful and fun. And in this state of prolific playfulness, you will accidentally come up with more and better ideas even though you weren’t trying to.

Do you have a perfect creative environment?

Stay rebellious,

Travis

P.S. If you found this helpful, please share it with a friend.

P.P.S. Subscribe to The Creative Rebellion to be sure you never miss a post! Dispatches will arrive in your inbox every Saturday morning.

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Quick Inspiration

• Listen: ​Life and Death​ - Michael Giacchino, Lost: Season 1 (3m 41s)

• Read: ​Laziness and Discipline​ - Austin Kleon, blog post (2m 56s)

• Watch: ​Give Yourself Permission to Be Creative​ - Ethan Hawke, TED Talk (9m 07s)

Deeper Inspiration

​The Creative Act: A Way of Being - Rick Rubin​

I just finished reading this. It's a wonderfully short book for being 432 pages because it's arranged in a way that it can be read in pieces. It's got great bits of inspiration and reminders of the importance of creativity. Whether creativity is your full-time job or a hobby, this book will encourage you to keep creating and to view all of life through a creative lens. Most importantly, it will make you want to put it down and create something yourself. ​I rated it 4/5 on Goodreads​.

Don’t Break the Chain

The Creative Rebellion • Dispatch #005 • 4.75 min read

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Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to not break the chain.

I've been a bit of a productivity nerd almost as long as I've been a creative. I've tried every method out there: Pomodoro, time blocking, the Eisenhower Principle, sprints, Kanban, to-do lists, to-do apps, time tracking apps, spreadsheets, et al.

I've used task and project management apps like: Basecamp, Asana, Monday, Clickup, Trello. (My favorite is Asana).

They all have their pros and cons, and some worked better for me than others (while I've talked to many people who prefer a different method or app than me).

But this year, I wanted to try something different.

I wanted to simplify the process.

Because sometimes maintaining the system takes as much time as the work itself. And doesn't that defeat the purpose?

Sidenote: when I talk about productivity, I don't mean it in the assembly line, "get as many widgets out the door as quickly as possible" way. I mean to use it as a method of making the best use of my time when working towards making progress on my goals and projects. I want to track what I have to do, when it needs to be done, and make sure I'm spending my time on the most important tasks.

Maybe you've heard the story about the time Brad Isaac asked Jerry Seinfeld how to be a better comedian. Seinfeld's answer was simple:

“The way to be a better comic is to create better jokes. The way to create better jokes is to write every day.

When Seinfeld was a young comedian, he committed to writing one joke a day.

Not an entire routine or even a whole monologue. Just one funny line.

He had a big 12-month wall calendar in his apartment. Every time he wrote a joke, he put a red ❌ on that date. Just one joke.

Before long he had a growing chain of red ❌’s on the calendar—a visual reminder of the work he put in day after day. Seinfeld shared that advice with Brad: Buy a big 12-month wall calendar and put a big red ❌ over every day you write. Once you start to see the chain form, you won’t want to break it.

Your only job is to not break the chain.

I like simple.

So I created my own habit tracker in a Baron Fig dotted grid notebook (Basically a hand-drawn version of the Baron Fig/James Clear Habit Journal). Columns are the days of the month, rows are the habits.

Every day I try to put an X in the square for each habit I'm tracking.

I’ve tracked my habits for 4 full months now and I’ve learned that that big ol’ ❌ is powerful. Seinfeld was onto something. It’s so simple, it works. My homemade habit tracker has more than just one habit to track. In fact, I've got 14 habits for May. And to be honest, I’ve broken several of the chains each month. But I’ve improved month over month. I’ve become more consistent. And that's the goal, not perfection, but consistency over time.

I'm playing the long game (the Infinite Game as Simon Sinek puts it). It works.

It plays along perfectly with what James Clear says in his book, Atomic Habits:

All big things come from small beginnings. The seed of every habit is a single, tiny decision. But as that decision is repeated, a habit sprouts and grows stronger. Roots entrench themselves and branches grow. The task of breaking a bad habit is like uprooting a powerful oak within us. And the task of building a good habit is like cultivating a delicate flower one day at a time.

Every day I commit to taking one small action toward a bigger habit I want to develop.

What does this have to do with creativity?

Not all 14 of my habits are related to creativity (at least not directly). But I guarantee you, that whatever non-creative habits you track and grow, the creative ones work the same way.

You don't lose 10 pounds in a single day. You eat less calories than you need every day and exercise consistently, and over time you lose 10 pounds.

In the same way:

You don't write a book all at once. You write it over the words and pages and chapters it takes to write a complete book. So don't just write your goal down: write a book. Make it happen. Write a chapter a day. 1,000 words a day. 5 minutes a day. Whatever metric you want to use. And then track it. Mark the ❌ every day you complete it. Watch that chain grow and do your best not to break it. Before you know it, you will have written a book. And not only that, you won't write only when you feel inspired, you will have built the habit of writing every day.

If you’re really tired tomorrow and don’t feel like writing, take five minutes and do it anyway.

Seriously.

Build the habit.

Get the sketchpad out, pick up the guitar, build your email list, post on LinkedIn, splash some paint across the canvas. Spend a few minutes engaged in your craft. Then do it again the next day. And the next.

I mean it.

I guarantee, this tiny habit will gain momentum and expand. You’ll soon discover there is time to devote to your craft on a daily basis.

If you really want to lock this practice in, buy a 12-month wall calendar like Seinfeld did. Or a notebook. Either way, put an ❌ over each day you showed up and did the work.

And then don’t break the chain!

Until next Saturday...

Stay rebellious,

Travis

P.S. If you found this helpful, please share it with a friend.

P.P.S. Subscribe to The Creative Rebellion to be sure you never miss a post! Dispatches will arrive in your inbox every Saturday morning.