Slowing down is helping a lot.

It’s been a while, not much to talk about and not much progress in the creative areas as in finished projects, however small.

Is that a bad thing? No, I have been slowing down a lot and have been working on my projects without any planning, just keeping the focus on consistency. I have also been outside a lot, walking around, running, and sitting down with a book. Logging off, and making sure I enjoy everything. 

A strange phenomenon of the modern times is that we are communicating a lot and doing less actual work. Contemplating and thinking requires focus, rest and breathing room. Doomscrolling and other digital addictions only distract from consistent work, and doing nothing is an integral part of the process. 

It might be viewed as a badge of honor and work ethic to always be (extremely) busy and planning the calendar as full as possible. All of which is counter productive. 

I have done more in way less time this period and enjoying things much more. As I am no longer striving for the maximum result, which mostly meant planning as much time as I could manage on every activity and forgetting to take enough breaks to digest and process my ideas, thinking and learning. And while I already planned breaks and rest, this was just too rigid. 

The biggest problem as always is keeping the balance and flow. But skipping a lot of distractions has helped a lot. Even as simple as taking a nice walk without your phone is a great idea. Maybe a dumb phone is an idea? Anyway until next time. 

Book review – Creative Quest

Another book review. Since the whole Corona crisis thing I have been focussing more on reading. Which has been paying out big time. My reading skills are getting better which after my brain damage wasn’t a guarantee that It would become better again.

I still get tired easily when reading but reading now goes faster and I remember somewhat more. It’s also something I can easily cut into small segments.

So yeah, been reading more. And reading some cool stuff as well. This review is on a book written by Questlove which deals with creativity and how you can set your mind in a way your creativity flows. And how to deal with distractions , and make it more of a framework. 

Every chapter deals with a topic which creative people are faced with, building your art, managing tasks surrounding making art, getting your art out there and sell it. Networking , staying in touch with people. And so on. 

I have music as a hobby and I know this won’t turn into a career anytime some. But everything in the book is applicable to the creative side of other professions whether it be as a software developer, product manager , journalist. Most professions have a creative side to them. And need a mindset and framework to fit that creative process.  It’s making sure all the conditions are set for being at your best creative wise. 

So I highly recommend this book for basically everyone that feels the need to be creative as a hobby or in parts of their job.