TODAY’S IDEA:
Practice Proactive Procrastination
— From: Steal Like An Artist by Austin Kleon
For many of us, the best ideas strike randomly, and likely in a place—like the shower or the gym—where we cannot write them down. So we interrupt what we’re doing, scramble to finish, change the watch/ring to the other hand, or repeat the idea incessantly… until we can get to a piece of paper or favorite electronic device to write it down.
While ideas are very welcome at any time (see: 15 Famous Ideas That Were Invented in Dreams), I’ve often wondered if we could purposefully create those a-ha! moments to our benefit. Turns out, we can. Austin Kleon in his great (and beautifully designed) book talks about harnessing this power to come up with ideas by boring ourselves on purpose. He calls it “practicing proactive procrastination.”
“Take time to be bored. […] Creative people need time to just sit around and do nothing. I get some of my best ideas when I’m bored, which is why I never take my shirts to the cleaners. I love ironing my shirts—it’s so boring, I almost always get good ideas. If you’re out of ideas, wash the dishes. Take a really long walk. Stare at a spot on the wall for as long as you can. As the artist Maira Kalman says, ‘Avoiding work is the way to focus my mind.’ Take time to mess around. Get lost. Wander. You never know where it’s going to lead you.”
I believe we are ALL creative people. We all make use of creativity and imagination to solve our problems, to see things from a different angle, to come up with new and exciting projects, to surprise our loved ones, etc. And thus it comes as no surprise that more and more people are scheduling time to just think. One of the most famous examples is Bill Gates taking “Think Weeks,” but short of that, as Kleon mentions, even the time that it takes to iron a few shirts will produce results.
Maybe that is why Raymond Inmon said, “If you are seeking creative ideas, go out walking. Angels whisper to a man when he goes for a walk.”
And don’t forget to take a notebook with you!
ACTION
TODAY: Take a few minutes to practice proactive procrastination today by going for a walk or simply taking time to think. Pick an issue that you need to solve and set the intention to find answers or solutions during your “think time.”
FUTURE: Plan to take some “think time” periodically, and schedule it in your calendar. By creating this habit, you’ll be able to harness the power the ideas to your benefit and your business and life will be better for it!
Let me know how it goes!