Yesterday I got Mark McGuinness’s Creative Pathfinder Lesson 6: How to Handle a Creative Block (When You’re Supposed to be the Creative Pro). One suggestion he makes is using the Pomodoro Technique which was developed by Francesco Cirillo in 1992. The basic idea is that studies have shown we work best in short increments of time and with this technique you choose a task then set a timer for 25 minutes, after which you take a 5 minute break. Download the book for free at www.pomodorotechnique.com.
Four Powerful Types of Creative Thinking: from Mark McGuinness’ Creative Pathfinder Series
I am subscribing to feeds from Mark McGuinness who is sharing his Creative Pathfinder series of lessons. Enjoying the program which arrives via email. To sign yourself up, go to: http://lateralaction.com/pathfinder.
Monday, I got Lesson Five, which is “The Four Most Powerful Types of Creative Thinking.” In summary those are: 1) reframing; 2) mind mapping; 3) insight; and 4) creative flow. I really like what he suggests about ways to reframe things. Here’s questions he suggests asking:
• Meaning — what else could this mean?
• Context — where else could this be useful?
• Learning — what can I learn from this?
• Humour — what’s the funny side of this?
• Solution — what would I be doing if I’d solved the problem? Can I start doing any of that right now?
• Silver lining — what opportunities are lurking inside this problem?
• Points of view — how does this look to the other people involved?
• Heroes — how would one of my creative heroes approach this problem?
How to Make This The Best Year of Your Life
I was re-reading Debbie Ford’s book, The Best Year of Your Life. I was surprised to find that she suggests setting only two goals “that will support you in creating your vision and becoming the person you want to be (from p. 107).
Internet Voodoo for Artists
I subscribe to feeds from several internet marketers including Jeff Johnson. Just received Johnson’s video titled: Jeff Johnson’s Traffic Voodoo 2.0: Unstoppable Traffic. Of pertinent interest in this video is recent data released by Comscore, a respected company that researches the internet which states that “as of Dec. 2009, 28.1% of all searches in the Google network happened on Youtube.” Is your video on Youtube?