creativity

Hating Your Work Gets You Started

11:00AM Angus Kidman | We all want our work to be good, but when it comes to creative tasks like writing, producing something awful is often a great place to start. Having something to hate which you can edit is a lot better than having nothing at all. More »

Focus Your To-Do List With A “Skydiving List”

8:00AM Azadeh Ensha | To-do lists may work for some, but for others they’re an overwhelming reminder of everything yet to be done. Fed up with his to-do list, Slate’s John Dickerson suggests “blow[ing] up” the to-do list and figuratively going skydiving instead. More »

Improve Your Writing By Setting The Right Tone

4:00AM Azadeh Ensha | Whether you’re a novelist or just a prolific email-er, you write every day to communicate. If you’re looking to improve your writing, try incorporating the right pitch to better connect with your audience. More »

Why The Manager’s Schedule Blows Creative Productivity

8:00AM Gina Trapani | In his latest essay, Paul Graham describes the difference between what he calls the maker’s schedule and the manager’s schedule, explaining how the two are often at odds with each other. More »

Break Through Writer’s Block With Clusters

4:30AM Azadeh Ensha | Staring at a blank sheet of paper won’t do much to ward off your writer’s block. Next time you’re lacking for inspiration, try experimenting with clusters to get the creative juices flowing again. More »

Alcohol Really Can Boost Your Creativity

4:30PM Angus Kidman | It’s commonly thought that the drivel most people produce when asked for a piece of writing after knocking back a few drinks is proof that booze and creative pursuits don’t mix. But if you’ve ever felt that you do better at creative tasks after imbibing, genetics might actually be on your side. More »

Hive Five: Five Best Mind Mapping Applications

2:00AM Jason Fitzpatrick | Mind mapping is a great way to add structure to brainstorming sessions and visualise your ideas. Check out the applications your fellow readers use to do their best brainstorming. More »

StripGenerator Helps You Create Comic Masterpieces

6:30AM Jason Fitzpatrick | You’re a comic genius without an artistic platform. We sympathise. Don’t let your comic musings go unseen—use the simple drag-and-drop interface at StripGenerator to create your own comic strips. The interface is thankfully straightforward, and helpful for those just looking to get their work up. You get up to six panels per strip and a roster of drag-and-drop humans, beings, objects, shapes, and speech bubbles. The editor has lots of handy little features, like scaling of objects and the ability to clone panels, which is extremely convenient when you want to use the same background and objects as props in each panel. Once you create the strip, you can print it or publish it, which saves it to the StripGenerator servers. If you choose to publish it, you can grab a direct link, embed code, or BBcode for showing it off in forums. If you sign up for a free account, you can save your comic strips as blog entries with additional text and information attached to them—although registration doesn’t add any new features to the actual editor. If you know of any other sites for creating and hosting your own comic strips, sound off in the comments below. Strip Generator [via MakeUseOf] More »

Self-Aware Daydreamers More Creative, Study Shows

4:00AM Gina Trapani | While much creative insight happens while your mind wanders, the key is being able to interrupt your daydreams in time to notice, scientists say. News site Boston.com tells the story of how Arthur Fry dreamed up the multi-million dollar idea of Post-It Notes while daydreaming in church. More »

Tackle Projects One Quick Simple Problem at a Time

5:00AM Gina Trapani | Do-it-yourselfer Chris Connors says that one of the best ways to finish a complex project is to solve the first quick, simple problem—then move onto the next one. While his piece focuses on hardware projects, the concept is applicable to any undertaking. Connors writes: Quick Simple Problems may seem too easy, and may seem like they don’t get you to your destination. What they will do, however is to get you moving. If the problems are truly quick and simple, you will have rapid successes on your project. You won’t be sitting there wondering if it will work, you will know whether it works or not, and what the conditions that cause success are. One of the greatest asset you can create for yourself on a project is to feel good about the likelihood of the outcome. If you feel good about it, and feel like you are moving forward, you will have more ambition to try new experiments, which will also move the project toward success. What’s the next quick simple problem you’re going to solve today? Tell us about it in the comments. Quick Simple Problems [Make] More »