Making art often means getting out of the comfort zone. Alan Henry of Lifehacker explains the science of breaking out of your comfort zone: Routine and patterns minimize risk. Making something scares us. Creating something inherently feels risky. Who knows if it’ll be good? The comfort zone feels happy with low anxiety and low stress.Continue reading "Escape the Comfort Zone: Uncanny Creativity 41"

Try this: Stop Multitasking.

Focus on one task at a time. One aspect of one task.

Multitasking even hurts well-practiced habits. A 1990's experiment on productivity demonstrated that switching between two tasks slowed participants.

I previously read the book Steal like an Artist by Austin Kleon. I'm working on reviewing the followup book "Show Your Work. Inspired by Kleon's discussion of his inspirations, I think the creative ethic of Tina Fey is pretty great.

Try this: Imagine you’re a 7 year old. Children playing is filled with curiosity. They haven’t learned the stock responses of adults. Ask yourself what a kid would do in this situation. In one psychological experiment, college volunteers were asked what they’d do if school was cancelled for the day. A second group was givenContinue reading "Imagine You’re 7 Years Old: Quick Tip 5"

“Creativity is intelligence having fun.” Albert Einstein Make a game of it.   A study at MIT Sloan found that games helped participants come up with more ideas. This episode has ideas to make your art practice fun. When I say art, I mean all things creative. Whether you’re creating web design, paintings, or knitting. Since you need toContinue reading "Make Practice into Fun: Uncanny Creativity 39"

Take a new perspective on your creative process. This episode presents some of my favorite quotes from the book Think Like A Freak by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. How can we apply these ideas to imagination and creation? The book written by the team behind the Freakonomics book and podcast. Here’s some favorite quotes from the book andContinue reading "Tips to Change Your Perspective: Uncanny Creativity 38"

Try this: Stop doing something How do we make time for art? In his book Getting Things Done, David Allen recommends we ask ourselves if we really have to be doing a task. Consider delegating a task. Maybe you hire a maid every month to cut back on cleaning. Put tasks on your someday/maybe list. OneContinue reading "Stop Doing Something: Quick Tip 4"

Optimism helps us be more creative. We can learn to explain our lives in positive ways. We can definitely use his concepts to have a better creative process. Let’s talk about editing our Mental First Draft! What is an explanatory style? Optimism and pessimism are the stories we tell ourselves. We tell ourselves stories about failure, loss, and problems. As discussed inContinue reading "Creative Optimism: Uncanny Creativity 37"

Walking boosts creativity in real time and shortly after. Following being seated, participants scored higher on creativity tests. Walking outside had the most impact. At the same time, a treadmill still increased creativity. The paper titled “Give Your Ideas Some Legs: The Positive Effect of Walking on Creative Thinking” was published in The Journal ofContinue reading "Walk to Boost Your Creative Thinking: Quick Tip 3"

What we think will happen is not always what happens. Part of being an artist is accepting that being wrong is okay. It’s part of the fun of our work! The feeling of being wrong is a pleasant surprise. We turn mistakes into art. “To live a creative life we must first lose the fearContinue reading "How to be wrong: Uncanny Creativity 36"