Daily Creative with Todd Henry

We have more tools available for time management than at any point in human history. However, managing our time is a fool’s errand if we’re not investing that time in ways that create future value. Things like creativity, insight, and even life satisfaction must be considered, not just efficiency. However, many people and organizations sacrifice effectiveness on the altar of short-term efficiency.

David Kadavy has just released a book in which he argues that we must manage our ability to bring our full creative faculties to whatever work is in front of us rather than simply focusing on managing our time. His book is called Mind Management, Not Time Management, and covers the principles of maintaining focus, creativity, and viability each day.

In our conversation we discuss:

• Why we inevitably hit a point of diminishing returns with our creative efforts, and how to prevent it.
• How Paul McCartney wrote Yesterday, and why it’s a perfect illustration of the four phases of creativity.
• Methods for capturing every idea as it appears so that it doesn’t slip away.
• How to structure your days to take advantage of your best creative hours rather than force-fitting your tasks into a pre-determined template.

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These are not, as they say, normal times. And, extra-ordinary times demand extra-ordinary tactics. As I’ve conducted a number of training sessions and speaking events over the past several weeks, I realized that much of the solution to the low-grade anxiety that many of us are feeling at the moment comes down to three things, all of which start with the letter “B”:

Buffers: We need to establish some space “between” our commitments, including space at the beginning, middle, and end of our day, so that we can stay engaged and focused.

Backburners: We need to have some way of engaging creatively beyond our on-demand work. This might look like developing a new skill, establishing a hobby, or finding some way of expressing ourselves and taking creative risks that are relatively actually low-risk because no one is judging our work.

Breakwaters: We need to establish a bit of a sea wall against the onslaught of media and news that can easily overwhelm us and cause us to feel disengaged. This means putting some boundaries in place to help prevent overload.

In this episode, we dive deeper into each of these three areas and offer some practical tips for implementing the three “B’s”.

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We are surrounded by sounds that impact our mood, our attention, and our sense of place and being. Yet few of us actually stop to consider how those sounds are made, or the strategy behind them. On this episode, we talk with Dallas Taylor, host of the 20 Thousand Hertz podcast. He shares with us the importance of opening our ears to the world around us, and offers insights into how soundcraft can shape human experience.

Dallas Taylor is the host of Twenty Thousand Hertz, a lovingly crafted podcast with TED that reveals the stories behind the world’s most recognizable and interesting sounds. He’s also the Creative Director of Defacto Sound, the sound design source for the world’s most thoughtful brands. Dallas is also a sound designer, consultant, writer, and TED mainstage speaker.

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Why does certain criticism sting so much? I’ve come to believe that it’s often not for the reason we suspect.

When doing creative work, especially in public, you are essentially inviting feedback. I’ve said before that those who work in public are essentially painting a giant target on themselves, and thus must be willing to deal with the sting of the arrows. However, while I believe this to be true in principle, in practice it is often much more challenging.

Which leads me to this question: have you ever considered why certain forms of criticism sting you more than others? Do you respond with more anger, defensiveness, or aggression with certain types of feedback than with others?

If so, it could be that there is some form of limiting narrative or embedded belief/fear that is lurking just beneath the surface, waiting for an opportunity to pounce.

Here’s an experiment I’d like to propose:

1. Pay attention to your response to critique and feedback over the coming week. If it suits you, perhaps even write each piece of feedback down.
2. More importantly, see if you can identify why that feedback elicited such a strong response in you. Is it possible that there is some defining story that’s affecting your engagement?
3. If you can spot some beliefs/narratives, consider how else they might be playing out in your life and work. Are they affecting the choices you make, the opportunities you seek, or your relationships? Is so, how? It’s often not the circumstances we learn from, but our response to them. Identifying limiting narratives or patterns of self-destruction can help us spot them when they crop up, then nip them before they cause us to implode or obsess needlessly over critique.

Understanding why criticism stings can help us learn from it and apply insights to life and work.

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In my book Die Empty, I examined the common places where bright, sharp, talented people eventually get stuck in their life and career.

The goal, of course, is to get your best work out of you every day and to not leave it inside or take it to your grave with you like so many people do. We all have a unique contribution to make to the world through our life and work, but unless we are purposeful about getting to it, others may never experience it. There are three kinds of work that we engage in as we go about our day. (I also addressed these in a recent podcast.) They are Mapping, Making, and Meshing.

Mapping is planning your work. It is when you strategize, conceive, think, plan, and plot your course of action. It’s the “work before the work” that helps you stay aligned.

Making is actually doing the work. It is when you are creating the actual value you are being paid for, or doing the tasks you devised while mapping.

Meshing is the third kind of work, and it’s often overlooked in the hustle of daily activity. It is all of the “work between the work” that actually makes you more effective when you are working. It’s comprised of things like following your curiosity, study, developing your skills, and asking deeper questions about why you are doing your work.

Depending on how diligent you are at engaging in these three kinds of work, you will occasionally fall into one of four “productivity profiles”.

Mapping + Making – Meshing = Driver

Drivers are “heads down”. They are ploughing through their work and getting things done, and they are extremely effective in short bursts and in the short-term. However, over time they become decreasingly effective because they aren’t doing the little things that prepare them for future challenges and obstacles. They are not developing themselves or their capacity for future effectiveness.

Mapping + Meshing – Making = Dreamer

The dreamer loves to talk about ideas, and loves to develop skills and follow curiosity where it leads, but is not disciplined about getting the work done. They tend to have big ideas, but no follow-through. Of course, this is not a path to making a valuable contribution.

Meshing + Making – Mapping = Drifter

This is my achilles heel. The drifter is someone who loves to develop skills and follow curiosity, and loves to engage in the act of making, but they lack the conviction of a long-term strategic plan. Thus, they tend to leave a series of half-finished projects in their wake. They bounce from shiny new project to shiny new project, and fall prey to what Scott Belsky calls the “project plateau”, which is when they hop to a new project when the old one stalls.

Mapping + Making + Meshing = Developer

This is the most desirable of the four profiles, because it allows you to take advantage of all three kinds of work and weave them together to take advantage of opportunities. Developers are best positioned to spot and leverage opportunities because they are planning, they are being diligent about doing the work, and they are developing themselves and their skills to position them for future activity.

So which of the four profiles most reflects your tendencies? The good news is that if you see yourself in one of them, it’s easy to adjust and get back on the Developer path. Everyone has their tendencies and weak spots, but awareness of them is the first step toward more productive and contributive activity.

Question: Which of these four profiles to you tend toward the most, and how does it affect your work?

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