Creative Productivity (and Productive Creativity) – TPW416

Do you consider yourself a creative person? Or like many of us, do you exclude yourself from that description? This week we’ll talk about creativity and where it fits into our lives as women who care about productivity and making lives that matter.

Creativity and creative expression are vital components of a productive life

I've been thinking lately about creativity and the urge for creative expression. My work is very cerebral, very left brain (left brain handles reading, writing, and calculations; it's the logical side; the right brain is more visual, deals in images more than words; intuitive side - see Left Brain vs. Right Brain: What Does This Mean for Me?). [Left: thinking in words, sequencing, linear thinking, math, facts, logic; Right: feelings visualization, imagination, intuition, rhythm, holistic thinking, arts] 

I've been feeling the need, I guess, to use more of my right brain--something creative. For me, it comes out in decorating my home, learning to do crafts using my Cricut machine. But I don’t always make time for this, and want to do more. I started researching it and found a ton of resources out there, including a book I’ll mention several times that I just found in my research for this episode and have only just started reading.

What is creativity

From Oxford Languages: “the use of the imagination or original ideas, especially in the production of an artistic work.” 

From Merriam-Webster online dictionary: “the ability to create” or “the quality of being creative” (synonyms: cleverness, imaginativeness, innovativeness, originality, ingeniousness, invention, imagination, ingenuity, inventiveness) 

“Creative”: “marked by the ability or power to create: given to creating” 

From Wikipedia: “Creativity is a phenomenon whereby something new and valuable is formed. The created item may be intangible (such as an idea, a scientific theory, a musical composition, or a joke) or a physical object (such as an invention, a printed literary work, or a painting).” 

From Britannica: “ the ability to make or otherwise bring into existence something new, whether a new solution to a problem, a new method or device, or a new artistic object or form.” 

From Find Your Unicorn Space: Reclaim Your Creative Life in a Too-Busy World by Eve Rodsky:

“The active and open pursuit of self-expression in any form, and which requires value-based curiosity and purposeful sharing of this pursuit with the world. Like the mythical equine that inspired the name, it doesn’t exist until you give yourself permission to reclaim, discover, and nurture the natural gifts and interests that make you you.”

What are the components of creativity?

Some components of creativity are curiosity, risk-taking, and independence of thought.

From Britannica: Personality characteristics shown to be associated with creative productivity include autonomy; mastery of a particular domain; self-assurance;...