:: adgruntie :: More on creativity

+ Checking up on posts at Creative Generalist, I found he had posted on an article from The Observer from 2002 on creativity.

Reverie is crucial to the creative mind. And although this predominantly comes down to nurture over nature, creativity is lost without an instinctive ability to access free-floating mental states. The myth goes that creatives either lie back and let the muse come to them, or force it out through hard work and lengthy trial and error. The reality is somewhere between the two - a combination of inspiration and evaluation, of being able to let an idea come to you and then crafting it into shape.

[ snip ]

Creative people do, however, intuitively know the value of alternating the rhythms of work: when to let the mind wander, when to get down to hard work and when to put a problem on the back burner and leave the subconscious to mull it over. This is a crucial flexibility of mind demonstrated by the way creative people, even during periods of intense activity, manage to create little holes for themselves where they will instinctively take the mini breaks they need to let ideas come to them.

Time out feeds the quietness of mind that is essential to creativity.

Ain't that the truth! Sometimes when working on billing it's tough to figure out exact amount of time working on a project. Clients have no idea what deal they get as while not working on the project physically, so often I find my brain pondering ways to creatively solve the client's problem while in the shower, washing after dinner or while driving. ;)