Can six showers a day make you a more creative writer? | Writing with Visuals #02
Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin takes six showers a day. It seems a little awkward. I know. Whenever he did not have ideas. He used to take showers. He has a shower installed in the corner of his office.
“ Productivity is the focus, creativity is “un-focus.”
Creativity is often not equal to productivity:
a) You are less creative when you are most productive.
b) You are less productive when you are most creative.
You are creative:
a) When you go for a walk.
b) When you start a conversation.
c) When you are just scrolling the Internet.
Doing nothing is almost hard for all of us. Even meditating, you have observed unlimited thoughts coming into mind. The unconscious mind becomes activated.
Get the best book on productivity:
That’s why ideas emerge when you are on a walk, listening to music, or in the shower.
According to a 2014 survey, 1 in 5 startup founders got their ideas during a vacation. The resting brain isn’t inactive. It switches on the Default Mode Network. Good for creativity.
Our too much obsession with technology has reduced the time in which we do nothing. Now when we do nothing, we do mobile. Mobile deprives you of three key elements of creativity:
a) Uncertainty.
b) Boredom.
c) Loneliness.
Creativity is observation, connecting the dots, and juxtapositions of ideas. Productivity involves time blocking, to-do lists, and discipline.
Creative people have strolling minds with specific constraints. The key is to move back and forth between a strolling mind and constraints.
“If you can build anything, you will build nothing.
If you can write anything, you will write nothing.
If you can do anything, you will do nothing.”
Creativity always begins with limitations. It often becomes hard to find new ideas, be more creative but it can only be overpowered by having some limits. Writing about a certain topic, try to focus on that particular story. Always have some guidelines and at least some headlines.
Focused attention is linked with more logical and scientific endeavors. But the less focused but more exploratory mind is more creative.
You may have a lot of ideas to write about. But just having ideas will not make you productive. You may not have a lot of ideas. But when you write about them. Then you are productive.
“Creativity ×Productivity = Impact”
— Scott Belsky
Henry David Thoreau writes about his writing mechanism :
“Methinks that the moment my legs begin to move, my thoughts begin to flow.”
Check out the first part of Writing with Visuals:
Open for gigs: ansrehman2@gmail.com
