Is Your Busy Schedule Killing Your Best Ideas?

Scheduling time for creativity may sound a little odd, right?

It’s been shown time and time again to work, especially if you tend to have a busy schedule.

And this doesn’t apply to just “creativity” - this can boost your connections with others, understanding and integrating new ideas, and much more.

It’s an important area that can be helped with a few quick real world steps.

Why I Started Doing This

Several years back I didn’t use my calendar as much and had a less busy schedule.

That changed.

With a busier schedule came less time to do the more creative “work” that I had done before:

• Taking time to get coffee and catch up on interesting articles I’d saved to Readwise Reader.

• Reviewing any upcoming trips and asking around (social media, in person) if there was anyone I should connect with at that location.

• Going for a walk and just thinking things over.

While I could temporarily give these things up, it wasn’t something I was happy with long term as each of those introduced some variety, stability, or contentment into my life.

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How To Implement Your Creative Time

This likely won’t come as a shock - you need to put it in your calendar.

I know several people that think it should “just happen” or “I’ll get around to it after I’m done with the work I need to do”.

That just means it’s likely to get bumped for other stuff that seem more important at the time. There’s always a fire to put out.

For getting started with this, I suggest putting in a 30 minute block and giving yourself some prompts in the calendar event:

• Go for a walk and think about an upcoming project - any resources or people you could connect with to help out?

• Go get coffee and read 1 chapter of a book or a few short articles.

• Connect via phone or email with 2 people you haven’t talked to in a month or more. Business, personal, whatever.

• Write a letter to a friend.

• Watch YouTube videos on a subject you know nothing about - be sure to set an alarm for 30 minutes!

Choose a time that you’re likely to stick with - directly before or after lunch can work well. Set a reminder or two and give it a shot.

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