Archive for the ‘Creativity’ Category

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It’s all in the mind: Turning work into play

March 20th, 2012 by Jane

When I mention the word “work” or “study”, what immediately jumps to mind?

Many of us can’t help but think of pressure, deadlines, the possibility of failure, fatigue, discomfort and a lack of choice.

The word “play” on the other hand conjures up a whole other world. Relaxation, having fun, feeling energised and not being worried about achieving a certain outcome are all images that may spring to mind.

In my talks, I often tell students that it’s possible for them to get their work done in significantly less time with the right strategies and mindset. If they focus on doing one task at a time they can create more time for themselves to go and do the things they really enjoy doing.

Why draw out a painfully boring task by multitasking and faffing around? It’s like getting your legs waxed, pulling off an old band-aid or having a needle. The quicker it’s over and done with, the better I say.

But perhaps all this time I’ve been a little misguided in my thinking.

You see, what if there was no distinction between work and play? What if there was a way to make your work feel like play?

Social psychologist Ellen Langer suggests that it is possible to transform the experience of difficult, tiresome work into play. The only thing you need to change is your mindset.

Most of us, when we sit down to do our work have to deal with a mindset that is deeply afraid of failure and dislikes having to experience pain and/or discomfort. But as Langer points out in her book “The Power of Mindful Learning” most of the work we need to do is not inherently boring or unpleasant. Many of us come to see it this way simply because we feel like our performance will be judged and evaluated (and not in a positive way).

For example, let’s say you throw yourself into completing a project. You spend hours researching and writing it. You even stay up until the early hours of the morning thinking about it and refining it.

Then, your boss or teacher returns your work with the following feedback –

“This is not up to scratch. My 4 year old child could do better than this. What happened?”

How would you feel? Most likely you wouldn’t feel great and it would be a blow to your self-esteem.

So what many students do is they try to protect their self-esteem by distancing themselves from their work. After all, if they never do the work, what can others say about it? Nothing.

But when you live your life in this way (never putting yourself out there and giving things a decent shot), life becomes boring and predictable very quickly. It’s hardly a satisfying way to live.

So how can we enjoy the process of working and learning more?

Developing a mindset of being less attached to achieving particular results is a start. Studies have found that students are able to think and perform better when they are less concerned about their grades and more involved in the process of learning.

With a little creativity and imagination, you can also bring a piece of work to life and make it enjoyable. Social Psychologist Ellen Langer gives the example of learning anatomy which is typically viewed as a pretty tedious task. But there are several ways it can be transformed into an engaging activity. She states –

“…what if it [learning anatomy] were a board game or a jigsaw puzzle in which we got to assemble or disassemble people we knew? Or consider the cliché that students of medicine think they have virtually every disease they study. Once you really think you have a disease, learning its symptoms, etiology, and cure may still not be fun, but it certainly isn’t as hard”

It also appears that merely placing the label “play” on a particular activity influences how much we are able to enjoy the task and focus on it. A study by Sophia Snow and Ellen Langer found that when difficult activities were labelled as ‘play’ as opposed to ‘work’, participants enjoyed the tasks more and their minds seemed to wander less throughout the activity.

So next time you have a task to do that you’re really dreading, simply take a moment to think about how you’re relating to the task. Are you afraid of failure? Do you think it’s going to be a painful chore? Brainstorm various ways you could make the task more engaging.

Just remember, no task is inherently boring. It’s our mindset that ultimately determines whether it is or isn’t. Don’t like your current mindset? Change it.

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Posted by Jane Posted in Creativity, Motivation | No Comments »


Visual note-taking for people who think they can’t draw

January 22nd, 2012 by Jane

If I asked you to draw a picture of a chicken what would your reaction be? “No way, I can’t draw” or “Sure, no problem!”?

Many people I work with have a black and white view when it comes to drawing. They think they either can or can’t draw.

For this reason, teaching any form of visual note-taking to students, such as mind mapping, is often accompanied with loud groans and much resistance.

“My teacher already taught me this”, “Oh no, anything but mind mapping!” and “I can’t draw for *#$%!” they say with distressed looks on their faces.

What students often fail to realise is this – you don’t need to be good at drawing to take visual notes. All you can manage are stick figures? Stress less. This is actually a great place to start.

Here’s the thing: any picture is better than no picture when it comes to taking notes. Why? Well, research demonstrates that students that draw pictures when they learn retain 30% more information than students that don’t draw pictures.

So you can relax. Your pictures don’t need to be perfect. As long as you can understand them that’s all that matters.

Which means that even simple, rough pictures are fine. But if you’re not satisfied with your stick figures, the good news is you can improve your drawings and it doesn’t have to take you years of hard work and practice.

Don’t get me wrong, practice can make you really good at pretty much anything (drawing included). Take my friend Sharon for example. She’s been drawing since the age of 3 and slogged away at art school and as a children’s illustrator for many years. Now, she whips out fun, little drawings at amazing speeds with ease whilst watching television. She regularly reminds me –

“The more you draw, the better you’ll get”.

But let’s say you want to improve your drawing skills and don’t have years to devote to this activity like my friend Sharon did. How can you fast track your drawing skills and take them to the next level?

There are some amazing resources out there that show you how to draw the basics and the basics are all you really need if your taking visual notes for subjects like law, psychology, environmental science or history.

So if you’re keen to progress from drawing stick figures, I highly recommend exploring the following useful resources –

Make a world by Ed Emberley: This classic book shows you how to draw almost anything in a number of simple steps. Ed Emberley states that if you can draw some basic shapes (e.g. a triangle, circle and square) then you have what it takes to draw all the pictures in his book (and there are dozens) – horses jumping, Vikings, pirate flags, camels, etc.

Austin Kleon’s Blog: Austin Kleon is a poet with a difference (he takes newspaper articles and blacks out the words he doesn’t want with a thick black marker to create his poems). He’s also an awesome visual note taker to boot. He has taken visual notes for conferences and written several blog posts on visual note-taking. Check out a collection of his blog posts on this topic here.

Visual Note Taking 101: A group of visual note-taking gurus (Austin Kleon, Mike Rohde, Sunni Brown and Dave Gray) spoke at a conference on the basics of visual note-taking. The audio was recorded, synced with the slides they used on the day and uploaded online. Whilst it’s a bit slow to get into and a fair bit is lost by not being able to see these people speak, there is gold in this 58 minute session. It’s well worth seeing samples of their visual notes and hearing their tips.

Whether it was a teacher or a school student that told you couldn’t draw, you shouldn’t let those conversations stop you from taking visual notes in your classes. It’s actually a lot of fun. And what we know from the psychology of learning is that:

Fun = Greater understanding + retention of information = Better grades

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Developing Razor Sharp Focus with Zen Habits Blogger, Leo Babauta

July 22nd, 2011 by Jane

If you’ve just logged into Facebook or your email for the 10th time today or find yourself thinking in Facebook statuses throughout the day, it may be time to read Leo Babauta’s eBook “Focus: A simplicity manifesto in the age of distraction”.

This free eBook contains dozens of practical suggestions to help you enjoy life more, enhance your creativity and get things done.

If there ever was an equivalent of steroids for focus, this book is it – it’s a great tool to help anyone develop razor sharp focus and churn out quality work.

After reading this book, I made a number of changes that dramatically sharpened my focus. I have summarised a number of the strategies in the mind map below.

Create Focus Rituals/Habits: Babauta defines a ritual as a set of actions you repeat habitually.

He argues that rituals can help us to get into a focused mindset and suggests a number of rituals for the morning, before you begin your work, to help you refocus on your work and for the end of the day. For instance, my morning ritual involves having a shower, eating a bowl of healthy muesli with fresh fruit and 10 minutes of meditation. Nowadays, I resist the urge to check my email and Facebook in the morning.

Managing Email: A lecturer once told me “You’ll get 10% more done in the day if you don’t check your email first thing in the morning”.

She was partly right. A more accurate assessment would have been 30%!

I’ve noticed that when I check my email first thing in the morning I feel slightly out of control for rest of the day. In reactive, agitated mode. Far from proactive, productive and peaceful.

Babauta states –

“Have a disconnect time each day. It’s like setting office hours if you’re a professor – you set the times that work best for you, and you can even let people know about these times”.

Set your office “disconnection” hours and be strict with them (8am – 10am is what works best for me). It’s highly likely that you’ll get the majority of work done for the day during these distraction free hours.

Take Time to Reflect and Review: Babauta recommends that we create a simplified list of the top three things we need to do in the day and then complete task number 1 before checking email, Facebook, etc.

Sometimes it’s really tempting to want to check your email before completing the first task. But Babauta states -

“If you feel the urge to check your email or switch to another task, stop yourself. Breathe deeply. Re-focus yourself. Get back to the task at hand”.


Help for Addicts: Don’t kid yourself, Facebook and email is highly addictive. Behavioural psychologist B.F Skinner’s experiments with rats in the skinner boxes illustrated just how addictive unpredictable rewards can be. The reality is Facebook is designed to be addictive. It’s full of unpredictable rewards.

So let’s face it, some of us need help when it comes to controlling the number of times we log into these sites. That’s where blocker programs come in – they either lock you out of the Internet entirely or certain sites that you specify.

When it comes to writing on the computer, some of us are easily distracted. Writing programs, such as Write Room and Typewriter, clear away all distractions and take up the whole screen on your computer. Some programs even make the sound of a typewriter as you write (but a word of warning, this gets kind of annoying after awhile!).

It’s important to note that these applications won’t miraculously solve your problem of getting easily distracted. They are just tools. They will help you sharpen your focus but only if you’re committed and disciplined enough to use them in the first place.

Take a Digital Detox: We need time away from the Internet, television, video games, etc. Time when we disconnect from these digital devices and immerse ourselves in other creative pursuits that will help us to grow. It’s also important for us to take time to reflect on our lives (when was the last time you sat back and thought, “Am I really doing what I want to be doing with my life?”)

Babauta suggests –

“Go on a mini cleanse. Start with something that’s not so scary: perhaps a day, or even half a day. Do this once a week. Later, as you get used to this, try a 2-3 day cleanse and maybe even work your way up to a week.”

Managing Your Space: Remove 95% of all the posters and bits of paper stuck to your office wall (all I have is a Gantt chart and colourful picture of a Hindu goddess). A clear wall means you have less stuff to be distracted by.

You may also want to consider investing in a pair of comfortable headphones. Headphones serve two functions – firstly, they block out the noise made by others so you have more attentional resources available. Secondly, they signal to others that you’re deep in thought and don’t want to be disturbed.

How to Work: Work in focused bursts for 50 minutes (no distractions) and then take a 20-minute break. In your break get away from technological devices. Go for a walk, do some stretches, etc.

When you work it can also help to get away from your computer and work with just a notepad and pen. Again, it’s most likely that you’ll feel the urge to want to go online when you do this for the first time. If this is the case, take a deep breath and refocus.

All in all, I really enjoyed reading “Focus: A simplicity manifesto in the age of distraction”. It was easy to read and written in a clear and focused way. Babauta provides a lot of valuable information and strategies that can easily be incorporated into one’s life.

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So you think you’re stupid?

July 6th, 2011 by Jane

If you were a student who found studying Science, Maths or English a painful experience or you never could quite “get” these subjects, don’t feel bad or think you’re stupid.

According to creativity expert Sir Ken Robinson – it’s not your fault.

The school system failed you.

In his book, “The Element”, Robinson argues that the school system is broken. It has succeeded in educating many people out of their creativity and producing a clear set of “winners” and “losers”.

The “winners” are the academic students who end up becoming university professors.

The “losers” are the students who are talented and creative but think they’re not. Why? Because what they’re good at was never recognised or valued in school.

As it turns out many wildly successful people, such as artists Chuck Close and George Harrison, struggled at school. Robinson states –

“Some of the most brilliant, creative people I know did not do well at school. Many of them didn’t really discover what they could do—and who they really were—until they’d left school and recovered from their education”.

Robinson makes the case that the modern day school system values certain subjects such as maths and languages more than creative areas such as music, dance and art.

This in turn shapes how we perceive intelligence – being good at maths and literacy. With such a narrow view of intelligence it’s no wonder that so many students think that they’re stupid.

A large part of the book focuses on the importance of finding your element (i.e. what you love doing and what you’re good at).

How can you possibly know when you’ve found your element?

A good sign is “complete absorption in an activity…concentration on the task at hand that allows one to forget everything else” Robinson states. The activity should be intrinsically rewarding and give you an incredible amount of energy.

He encourages us to take risks and step out of our comfort zones, find our element and pursue it. He also offers some practical advice on how to go about doing this and what to expect. In a nutshell –

• Find your tribe – Surround yourself with people who love what you love. This can help to provide inspiration, support and feedback.

• Get a mentor – In searching for your element it helps to have the guidance of a mentor. Mentors can give us advice and techniques, push us past what we see as our limits, don’t allow us to succumb to self-doubt and encourage us to make the most of our capacities. Most importantly “they open our eyes to new possibilities and fire our aspirations”.

• Be prepared for some backlash – When you choose to do what you love, as opposed to settling for a socially acceptable job, don’t expect everyone to be overjoyed and completely supportive. There will be people in your family and circle of friends who don’t approve. Ignore them.

Robinson tells the story of Paulo Coelho (author of the International bestseller The Alchemist). As a young man Paulo’s parents wanted him to practice Law however Paulo had a deep desire to be a writer. Unfortunately, his parents couldn’t accept this. In an act of desperation, they put Paulo in a psychiatric institution where he received electroshock treatment. All in the name of love.

Chances are you won’t have to face a straight jacket and a padded room but prepare yourself for people who may try to clip your wings.

The most powerful part of the book for me was the afterword. Ken Robinson warns readers that on our journey to find what we love doing we must recognise that we live in a fragile ecosystem that has limits. Whatever we do to the planet ultimately impacts on our quality of life and wellbeing.

In the last few decades, humans have accomplished some amazing things – a man on the moon, the internet, iPads, 3D televisions, etc. Yet despite these achievements, many of us aren’t satisfied and are driven to create more and more.

“But there is a danger now that our imaginations may be failing us. We have seen far, but not far enough. We still think too narrowly and too closely about ourselves as individuals and as a species and too little about the consequences of our actions” he states.

After reading this book what I am left with is the importance of pursuing what you love without jeopardising the planet such that our children have the opportunity to do the same.

References

Robinson, Ken & Aronica, Lou. (2009). The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything. Penguin Books: London, England.

Ted Talk – Ken Robinson says Schools Kill Creativity

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How Yellow Paper and Zumba can Boost your Creativity

January 8th, 2011 by Jane

Want to be more creative? Then writing on warm coloured paper, hitting the gym and a view of nature may be your answer. These are just a few of the suggestions made by Dr Amantha Imber in her book “The Creativity Formula”.

With a solid understanding of the latest empirical research, Dr Imber provides a range of practical and simple solutions to get your creative juices flowing.

Whilst this book is written for a corporate/professional audience, I still found the advice relevant for high school and university students. In a nutshell, the strategies that appear to make us think more creatively also help us to work more effectively, be less stressed and have more fun!

Below are five ways to boost your creativity that are mentioned in Dr Imber’s book. I felt that these strategies were the most relevant to students.

1. Surround yourself with warm colours

Have you ever noticed that a lot of fast food chain logos and stores such as Hungry Jacks (aka Burger King), KFC, Red Rooster and McDonalds are all similar colours – either red, orange and yellow or a combination of these colours? This didn’t just happen by coincidence. There is psychological research behind it!

Research tells us that warm colours (e.g. red, yellow and orange) not only tend to stimulate our appetite but they make us feel happier too.

So what does this have to with creativity? Well, studies also tell us that when we feel happier we tend to have more creative ideas.

Dr Imber encourages readers to decorate their offices with warmly coloured posters and items. She also suggest we use yellow writing paper pads to scribble down ideas. With this in mind, I stuck up a poster of Saraswati (Hindu Goddess of knowledge and arts) that I picked up for $2 and covered my laptop stand with a bright scarf.

2. Have a view of nature or get an indoor plant

What would you prefer to look at – a brick wall or some trees? It may seem like a no brainer, but scientists have actually tested the effects of looking at these different sceneries. What they found is that people who were exposed to nature tended to have improved self esteem, better moods and experienced less stressed than others.

How does this relate to creativity? The obvious reason is that nature provides us with stress relief which allows us to think more clearly, be more focused and creative.

3. Create an original, quirky workspace

I’ve worked at a number of organisations where minimalist offices seemed to be all the rage. Quite frankly, they were boring and uninspiring places to work.

According to Dr Imber having a diverse range of objects and textures in your work environment can stimulate creative thought. She states -

“One of the best ways to provoke creative thought is to surround the brain with lots of diverse stimuli. This increases the number of connections sparked in the brain, and therefore the number of new ideas popping up. An office that has the bare minimum of furniture and accessories will not provide much stimulus to drive creative thought”

So don’t hold back. Dr Imber tells us to surround ourselves with artwork, posters, and Elvis figurines! She even goes as far as telling us to create a toy box for our office. Whilst I’m not a fan of clutter, I can certainly appreciate that a personalised, fun office would help one to think in new and different ways.

4. Move it

People who engage in just 30 minutes of aerobic exercise experience enhanced creativity and mental alertness. So before you start a mentally taxing task, go for a run or do a zumba or spin class. It doesn’t matter what you do, just as long as you work up a sweat.

I’ve started going to the gym first thing in the morning (6am) and noticed that it makes a huge difference not only to my energy levels but also in terms of my ability to focus and concentrate throughout the day.


5. Carry a notepad and pen with you at all times

Have you ever woken up in the middle of the night with a brilliant idea or the answer to a problem? Dr Imber states that we tend to have our most creative thoughts in the following places and situations – in bed, in the bath, on the toilet, on public transport and driving the car.

Unfortunately, when you wake up at 2am with a great idea in a semi sleep deprived state and there is no pen and paper in sight, it’s highly likely that you’re not going to write it down and the idea will be gone come the morning.

What often differentiates “creative” people from others is that they tend to capture a lot of their ideas whilst others simply forget them. Last year my friend and fellow PhD student, Dean Lasslet, gave me the idea to carry a pen and paper with me at all times to capture my ideas. This was a brilliant idea and I made significant progress with formulating my PhD project by doing this.

If a notebook and pen doesn’t work for you perhaps you may want to invest in a dictaphone/tape recorder. If you capture hundreds of brilliant ideas that would otherwise be forgotten, I’d say it’s money well spent.

References

Blanchette, D.M., Ramocki, S.P., O’Del, J.N., & Casey, M.S. (2005). Aerobic exercise and creative potential: Immediate and residual effects. Creativity Research Journal, 17, 257-264.

Imber, A. (2009). The Creativity Formula. Liminal Press: Victoria, Australia.

McCoy, J.M., & Evans, G.W. (2002). The potential role of the physical environment in fostering creativity. Creativity Research Journal, 14, 409-426.

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