Mark Cuban, the owner of the Dallas Mavericks, once said that the only skill you need to succeed is creativity. I wouldn’t go that far, but creativity ranks up there with the skills you need to transform your business and career. In fact, it’s usually among the top 10 skills the World Economic Forum says you need to thrive in the future. In this article, I’ll explain how to build a daily creative habit even if you feel like your life is over-scheduled.
I’m not going to tell you that it will be easy. But it’s very doable. In just 15 minutes a day, you can get the process started of building a daily creative habit.
Have you ever noticed how the most accomplished individuals appear to get idea-after-after? They’re not pulling ideas out of the vortex. They actually have a process that they use. Many of these individuals are voracious readers, and many of their ideas come from the pages of books. In the book, A Technique for Producing Ideas, James Webb Young presents a five-step process for producing ideas.
Before I introduce you to the creativity and idea generation techniques outlined in the book, let’s first talk about the two types of people James Webb Young mentions in his book. Young refers to the Italian sociologist Vilfredo Pareto’s work. Just to refresh your memory, Pareto is the same person who came up with the 80/20 Rule. Pareto believed that there were two types of people – speculators and rentiers.
Have you read?
Summary Technique for Producing Ideas
Two Types of People
Speculators
- Pre-occupied with the possibilities of new combinations.
- Deal with financial and business schemes.
- Engaged with all kinds of inventions.
- Political and diplomatic reconstructor.
Rentiers
- Like routine
- Steady-going
- Unimaginative
- Conserving people
The speculative type of person is one who is always stirring the pot and cannot leave things alone. They always want to change things. Rentiers like the status quo. Speculators love rentiers because they can easily manipulate them. To master the creative process, generating new ideas, depends on whether you are a speculator or a rentier. Which one are you?
The implication for you is that there are some people in the world, who are unwilling to try anything new. Therefore, no technique for producing ideas will help them.To thrive, you want to be a speculator.
Five Steps to Producing Ideas – The Method
Step 1: Gather New Materials – Preparation
You have a problem or issue that you are grappling with. Or you have questions you need answered. Start to gather materials. There are two types of information that you have to gather – specific and general.
Specific Information:
This is information that is relevant to the specific problem or issue that you are trying to resolve.
General Information:
This is information from all fields. This is a lifelong activity that you do.
Keep in mind that a new idea is the result of combining general and specific information. Therefore, the more specific and general knowledge you have, the more opportunities to combine ideas. Think about a problem that you have at work that you want to invest time in solving. Using Step 1 of the creative process outlined above, get the process started.
- Write down the problem or issue that you are having. Or the questions you want answered.
- What specific or other information do you already have that will help you to resolve it? Collect the information and put it in one place.
- Which experts can you interview to get information? Make a list, then conduct the interviews.
- Is there someone who has resolved the issue before, even someone in another industry? Conduct some research, and if you find anyone, interview them to learn what they did.
- Use other source material such as books, articles, podcasts, and videos to gather information to solve the problem and answer the questions.
- You now have a useful source of ideas to work with.
Step 2: Look at the Information in Different Ways
- Read through all the information that you collected in Step 1 to solve your problem. Or answer your questions.
- Note important pieces of information and facts.
- Look at the information from many angles.
- Start playing with the information. Bring two or more pieces of fact together to see if they fit.
- Try to get at least some partial ideas.
- When partial ideas come to you, no matter how crazy or incomplete, write them down.
- When you get to the point where you are feeling that enough is enough, like it is pointless to do any additional work, it is time to stop and move on to the next step.
Step 3: Put the Problem Completely Out of Your Mind – Incubate
This is a necessary step in the creative process. Now, it is time to take a break, turn over the problem to your subconscious mind. Work on an unrelated task. Or do something that stimulates the imagination and emotions. The activities include the following.
- Listen to music.
- Go to the theater.
- Go to a movie.
- Read poetry.
- Read a detective story.
- Do word puzzles.
Step 4: The Idea Appears Out of Nowhere – Illumination
When you least expect it, the idea comes to you. This may sound magical, but the idea comes to you because you have followed the previous steps. You have done the work.
Step 5: Take Your Idea to the World/Shaping and Developing the Idea – Verification
- Ideas are seldom fully formed. Therefore, the idea is unlikely to be in a form that you can implement.
- Work with the idea to improve it.
- Subject it to criticism, test it, then refine it.
How to Build a Daily Creative Habit
It’s important to understand the five-step creative process. And that’s why I presented it. However, to build a daily creative habit, I want you to focus on gathering general information that was mentioned in Step One of the process. In just 15 minutes a day, start building a body of general knowledge that you can call on when you’re looking for a creative solution to a problem. The idea is to open yourself up to new ideas.
Spend 15 minutes each day, reading a book, watching a video, or listening to a podcast. Be judicious when choosing the information you want to consume. Rohit Bhargava in his book, Non-Obvious, writes about ‘brainful’ media. And that’s what you want to aim for. Also, make sure that you take notes as you consume the information. And store your notes where you can easily find them.
You could use the time to read a book summary. And some book summaries should be outside your niche and industry. Read on purpose, with specific goals in mind. Make mental connections between the book summaries and make connections between important ideas. Read broadly on diverse topics.
Here are two places to find free book summaries and notes.
131 Book Summaries: The Best Nonfiction Books, Summarized
Although not a free option, you can join my membership site, the Art of Learning.
How to Choose ‘Brainful’ Media
Use books or book summaries to your advantage to achieve:
- Personal goals.
- Solve practical problems.
- Answer pressing questions.
Questions can be specific to a book. What is more valuable is when questions address important challenges you’re currently facing in life, career, family, and business.
Final Thoughts: How to Build a Daily Creative Habit
Spending 15 minutes consuming ‘brainful’ content is a great start to building a general body of knowledge. When you’ve created the habit of doing this activity, I’d like you to add another 15 minutes. You can do two 15-minute sessions, or a 30-minute session. A year from now, imagine the amount of general knowledge you can draw from to creatively solve problems and answer questions. In addition, imagine the number of new ideas you’d have generated?
Next Steps
The One Problem is just one way to learn from me. You can also join the Art of Learning membership site.
