1. Is creativity a finite resource? Specifically, can creative
drain during the workday affect your capacity to be creative
with your personal projects?
Creativity has no usage quota. It's infinite. Just look at all the artists, musicians, choreographers, computers, actors, directors/producers, photographers and other creative talents who produced new works in their senior years. Even scientists and mathematicians, who shared new discoveries, continued their research for their entire lives. Instantly recognizable examples include: Picasso, Grandma Moses, Martin Scorsese, Helen Mirren, Diane Keaton, Morgan Freeman, Tom Hanks, Denzel Washington, Martha Graham, George Balanchine, Leonard Bernstein, Annie Leibovitz and Albert Einstein.
The creative process fuels innovative thinking. Like a muscle, it grows when used. People only stop being creative when they stop exercising their imaginations. Creativity taps into an endless source, which powers mental flexibility and propels fluidity of thought.
How can you tell if you're experiencing creative burnout?
Is it possible to put boundaries around creativity at your day
job in order to preserve creative energy for personal projects?
The first sign is mental sluggishness. It takes longer to think up or execute an idea. To stay fresh, creativity demands a mini vacation. It could be as simple as taking a walk, visiting a museum, seeing a play, listening to a concert, strolling through a forest, watching birds, doing yoga, painting, playing an instrument and so on. The mind needs a little break. That serves as an energy boost, a shot of adrenaline for the brain. Do something that reenergizes. Soon, the mind will be infused with new perceptual prowess and conceptual virtuosity.
Another tip is to prevent all interruptions for one hour a day. Do not check email. Do not answer the phone. Do not take a meeting. Do not allow anyone to stop the creative momentum. Once creators are in "the zone," they are in a sacred space. No intrusions are permitted. None! Everything can be put on hold for specified times during the day. If creative thinkers could be more protective over times when they were fully engrossed, they would be more productive. Interruptions actually delay the artistic, intuitive process. Artists and all creative professionals must vigilantly defend their "head space" It's priceless.
Personal experience examples:
Having written 14 books and two apps, two 12-part CD webinar series, a patented system of learning and award-winning advertising campaigns, I understand the creative process. For instance, when I owned an ad agency, I had a sign that rotated throughout the creative team. It said, "Priority Time" For one hour each day, team members who displayed the sign on their desk could not be interrupted. They all told me that they were more productive during that hour. Perhaps, just knowing that they would not be interrupted was empowering. The sign confirmed that their artistic time was valued and honored.
Right now, I'm editing my 15th book and finalizing my third app. To this day, when I'm thinking, creating or writing, I still won't tolerate being disturbed. It just takes too long to get back into flow. I have found that very few interruptions are important. Turn creative time into "Priority Time" It works.
Websites:
Books and tactikPAK@ learning system:
Apps on Apple Store:
App on Google Play:
MORE ABOUT MARGO BERMAN
After the 2006 release of Prof. Berman’s first book, Street-Smart Advertising (also available in Russian), she has written two more advertising books: The Brains Behind Great Ad Campaigns (2009, co-authored with Robyn Blakeman) and The Copywriter’s Toolkit (2012). In 2010, a second edition of her first book was released. Presently, all of her books are available globally including Asia, Europe, South Africa, India, Canada and Australia.
Her fourth book, MetaMind Yoga (2013, written with Richard Israel), guided readers through exercises to reach inner peace.
Her two 6-CD award-winning webinar sets, Street-Smart Advertising and More Street-Smart Advertising (2008) won a national AWC Clarion Award for Educational Reference. She created Mental Peanut Butter® Training and developed three advertising CDs.
Prof. Berman latest work, tactikPAK™, is a digital library of learning that she invented and patented. This interactive series will be released as ebooks and accompanying apps. As mobile mentors, they are peppered with whimsical illustrations and short quizzes to make learning fun. The first tactikPAK™, Copywriting (app and ebook), was released in November 2014.
Prof. Berman’s collective research from books, webinars and CDs to ebooks and apps are independent as well as interrelated works.
Currently, she is writing her 14th book. This one will focus on advertising campaign strategies.