Tag: “Creativity”

In addition to your usual and familiar routines and daily work tasks, you surely have in your to-do lists a handful of tasks that will require a certain level of creativity to get done (and sometimes, a lot of creativity will be necessary). These tasks can be hazardous to your productivity. On the one hand, if you don’t feel very creative, you may put these tasks off. On the other hand, though, these more unusual and creative-oriented tasks are often the ones you will want to do the most in those moments when you feel especially lucid, and this can become a detriment to your ability to accomplish other tasks that may be more important at the time but which don’t seem as interesting or fun.

It often seems that side projects are only an entrepreneurial thing, that they are done just by people who seek a new or alternative way to get money and make a living. Of course, that might be the target of a side project, but you don’t need to think about working on a side project only in terms of starting another company. Having a personal side project, apart from your usual work, has many other benefits:

For some reason I don’t quite understand, it seems that creative people are not very fond of seeking greater productivity through better personal organization. There is the idea that to be creative one must not be subject to any rule or system that can stifle the freedom that creativity requires. You must unleash your imagination, intuition, and intellectual curiosity.

Humor is a tangible demonstration of the most important attributes of the right side of the brain: the ability to place situations in context, to see the big picture, to combine different elements to create new things, and so on. According to various investigations, humor reduces hostility, relieves stress, allows a better criticism and helps to communicate difficult messages. It turns out that, used skillfully, it can be a great stimulus for creativity, a trait increasingly necessary for success.

I recently read the book A Whole New Mind by Daniel H. Pink. Brilliant, I highly recommend reading it. The author explains how we are evolving from a society that elevates individuals who have developed further the skills that reside in the left brain (Information Age) to a society where those that are committed to develop the skills residing on the right side will succeed (Conceptual Age).