Digital Strategist Rich Nadworny wrote about the "The Creativity Conundrum" on the Huffington Post.
He summed up a number of studies by saying that in order to nourish creativity, companies should:
Encourage people to experience many different things;
Allow people to work on a variety of projects and clients to increase their reality-based experiences'
Provide an array of research and creative materials, across disciplines, to make people smarter;
Make sure people don't do the same thing all the time, every day.
Ensure that people have enough down time, either at work or at home, to process everything.
That's also a pretty good formula for creative individuals.
My experience is that our natural curiosity takes care of the first one, and certainly freelancers often end up working on a variety of projects,which also means we don't do the same things every day. The research and creative materials are more to hand than ever before, thanks to the net.
I think often the last one on the list--enough down time to process everything--is the biggest issue, especially for free-lancers.
I'm working on what I call the "two-minute vacation"--an audio track that allows you to clear you mind and get into a relaxed yet focused state. It's not done yet, but when it's ready I'll let you know here and in my Brainstorm & Focus e-bulletin. If you're not signed up for it yet, use the sign-in box below the blue arrow at the right of the page (if you're reading this elsewhere, the web address is www.Timetowrite.blogs.com).
