Comments on: How Being Busy Means Not Being Creative

By: Ryan

Ryan — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 06:24:36 +0000

Not only that but if you spend some time being creative then you can think up ways to be more productive with your time, making you less busy. Which of course gives you more time to be creative etc.

By: Ali Hale

Ali Hale — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 18:06:03 +0000

Ugh, that sounds really tough, Shelly. I’m afraid I don’t have any easy answers.

With my writing, I find it helpful to block out chunks of time where I can just think about the work and not about the rest of life/business. Though it sounds like you’re trying that with the work-at-home day…

Is there any way you can take a creative retreat? Perhaps a long weekend? Not to necessarily do actual creative *work*, but to just give your brain the time it needs to recharge and regather material for the times when you do turn to creating ad campaigns.

Good luck!

By: Shelly

Shelly — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 13:05:52 +0000

I love this because it puts where I’m at with my job right now into words. Trouble is, I don’t know what to do about it. I run a marketing department. I now have six employees. In 2008, I had one. I’ve traded building stories for our website, designing flyers and brochures, etc. for building a department. On one hand, I believe that building a department is in its own way creative. I love it. I feel like I’m looking at the bigger picture and making a difference. However, my creative responsibilities haven’t gone away entirely. I still have to come up with ad campaigns for print, radio and television. While I work well with my department, I find that bridge between building and managing a department and building an ad, more difficult to cross. The bridge between both sides of my brain is getting rickety and yesterday I was stuck in the middle for the entire day. I have taken up running to de-stress and clear my head, but I can’t say it’s helping my creativity. I’m just not sure how to keep the path between my creative mind and my role as a manager easy to cross. Anyone have any advice for staying creative when you have to be busy too? I’ve taken to adding one work-at-home day to my schedule again and I spent the whole day trying to cross that bridge. Productive? Uh, no.

By: You Are Creative – Take it Further — Aliventures

You Are Creative – Take it Further — Aliventures — Fri, 07 May 2010 09:30:56 +0000

[...] Busyness and creativity do not play well. (If this is an issue for you, read this piece I wrote for Productive Flourishing: How Being Busy Means Not Being Creative) [...]

By: Ali Hale

Ali Hale — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 09:24:35 +0000

Thanks Annabel! I think busyness can be very numbing and tempting like that — it’s sometimes a way to hide from the big picture…

By: Annabel Candy, Get In the Hot Spot

Annabel Candy, Get In the Hot Spot — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 23:49:53 +0000

So easy to bury our heads in the sand and get busy doing nothing to take our mind off the fact that all we’re really doing is engaging in mindless activity. It’s a trap and a great excuse for not doing more productive things.

Thanks for writing this and highlighting it:)

By: Where Self Improvement and Self-Love Meet

Where Self Improvement and Self-Love Meet — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 05:01:03 +0000

[...] the way – where you work on developing self-discipline, or where you learn the hard way that being busy destroys your creativity. But, on the whole, it’s supposed to be an adventure. It’s not supposed to be a life-sapping [...]

By: Ali Hale

Ali Hale — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 20:44:52 +0000

Haha, wonderful story, thank you for sharing! I can put in maybe 7 hours on fiction writing, then I'm totally spent. (And yeah, I think programmers get a rough deal; used to work with some lovely ones when I did software testing.) .-= Ali Hale´s last blog ..Struggling With Self Improvement? =-.

By: Danté Bell

Danté Bell — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 20:02:40 +0000

Excellent post Ali. Brings back memories of when I was IT Director at Young & Ribucam. One of the guys that wrote the music for commercials sat across the hall from me. One day, he was laying on the sofa in his office, strumming a guitar; he shot up and said to me, “They really expect me to be creative 4 hours a day here! No way anyone can do that!!” That was one of the funniest things I had heard in awhile as we in IT were putting in 14 hour days and were expected to be creative in our problem solving., which is impossible when you’re working, not creating!

Ciao, Danté
.-= Danté Bell´s last blog ..Taking Fewer Pictures =-.

By: Ali Hale

Ali Hale — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:43:57 +0000

Hah, I love “Focusiness” (though I think I’m going to confuse it with “Folksiness” if I’m not careful). Yes, I think Busyness is a Type A sort of laziness. It’s probably better to be genuinely lazy!
.-= Ali Hale´s last blog ..Struggling With Self Improvement? =-.