Procrastination. It’s the black-eyed monster that none of us can actually manage to avoid. The bump in the road gleefully looking for new victims. The Toon Town cement wall that hops around at will, just waiting for unsuspecting passersby.

The question isn’t whether or not you procrastinate. I think all of us have put off a project or a paper or an errand indefinitely at some point or another. Since it usually isn’t nice enough to go away, however, we end up dealing with it sooner or later.

Usually at 2 am. When the project’s due by 9.

Deadlines are great motivators, but there’s something to be said for cutting the stress out of the equation. With that in mind, here are 5 quick and easy steps to kick procrastination to the curb!

1) Keep your to-do list short. My to-do list stretches across at least three sheets of paper on any given day. Staring at that too long is enough to give me hives…and the uncontrollable urge to crawl back into bed and play sick until it goes away. Break your list down into small, bite-sized pieces. Figure out what you HAVE to do today and put it on top. When you’re done with that, THEN start adding more to the list.

2) Learn to take projects in small bites. “Design, proof, print and distribute 50,000 flyers” isn’t a small bite. But that’s often what ends up written on the to-do list. Break it down. Do the writing, then the graphics (or vice versa). Then do your edits. View the proof. Print. Small bites help you get it done without feeling like it’s all about to crash down on your head!

3) Get started first thing in the morning. It’s easy to dawdle over that first cup of coffee. The sooner you get started, however, the sooner you’ll get in the groove and the sooner it’s going to get done. So dig in instead of spending an hour or two pondering over your email. As a matter of fact…

4) Decide when you’re going to be checking your messages. If it’s not time, don’t do it. Email, telephone and random people at the door can suck hours at a time. By the time you’re done, your day is gone and you haven’t scratched a thing off of your list.

5) Learn to say no. Procrastination happens most often when we’re feeling overwhelmed. Take a good, hard look at your project list. Is it made up of things you want/have to do, or is it full of things you just couldn’t say no to?

Trim your list, take it in small bites and learn to “just do it”. Procrastination will go flying out the window in no time.

Tags: Business, creativity, procrastination

// You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Have you paid a visit to Planet SARK lately?

No, that’s not a weird, random sci-fi reference, although those of you who’ve met me know that I’m guilty of those from time to time. Planet SARK is a place of growth, renewal, creativity, exhuberance and yes, at times, just plain silliness.

On Planet SARK, there is a magic cottage of creativity where the great and mighty SARK herself goes to bask. A small toolshed that has been remade into a home, an office and yes, a source of inspiration. It is a place free of stress, where dreams grow wild and free, unfettered by the rules of this insignificant thing we call reality.

Unfettered by reality. Know what we used to call people who dared to throw aside the yoke of reality and bravely wander out into a creative new world? Nut jobs. Loonies. Psychopaths.

Daydreamers. Scandalous.

Friday is swiftly coming to a close, with the weekend to follow, so I’m not going to harp on the awesomeness of rejecting this reality. Instead, I’m going to task all you savvy printing and marketing and dreaming people with a mission this weekend.

When you get home tonight, I want you to find your cottage of creativity. It doesn’t have to be an actual cottage, as SARK’s is. Maybe it’s an office. A room. A quiet corner. A spot under a shady tree where you grab your notebook or colored pencils and while away a quiet summer’s afternoon.

Find a spot where you can let reality stop dragging you down and see how far your creativity can soar.

Tags: creativity, inspiration, marketing

// You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Earlier this week my oldest son passed a major milestone in his life: He was finally allowed to watch “The Matrix”. (Great movie, too bad they never made a sequel…J) Not 24 hours later I read a great post on Copyblogger about what today’s businesses could learn from the Matrix.

 What are the odds? It was obvious fate was jumping up and down and screaming that this post had to be written.

The Copyblogger post is well worth reading, and you can check it out here, but the whole philosophy of both the post and the movie it was created from can be summed up in one sentence: In order to think outside the box, we must first accept that there is no box.

They didn't just look cool. They were also the savviest marketers in town.

It’s Not Real…Yet

Imagine that you were alive two centuries ago, and someone told you that today we’d be flying through the air in giant metal birds and talking to people thousands of miles away on tiny little devices that link by going into space? You’d have thought they were crazy. Things like that can’t happen in the real world.

But both of these things are very real, and very much taken for granted by today’s society. We call them airplanes and cell phones. The point is, nothing is “real” until you make it that way. So by restricting your mind to think in terms of what is real today, you’re missing your chance to create what’s going to be real tomorrow.

Just ask Steve Jobs. He’ll tell you all about it.

The Only Box You Think Inside is the One You Build Yourself

Didn’t you ever want to be bad? Just once? Here’s my challenge to you this year; take the time to kick everyone else’s rules to the curb. Deny their reality. Live in your own.

Sooner or later creativity, drive and a blatant refusal to be trapped by someone else’s way of thinking will pay off. Your reality will become their reality. And you’ll get to kiss that box goodbye.

Tags: creative thinking, creativity, the matrix, thinking outside the box

// You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

“The imagination imitates. It is the critical spirit that creates.” Oscar Wilde

We’ve all stared in awe at amazing 3-D sidewalk art, or a breathtaking photograph, or a building that’s obviously off the beaten path. Way off the beaten path. Envy abounds. Who are these creative geniuses?

They’re you.

All right, so they’re not really you…but they could be. Everyone has deep, untapped wells of creativity. All you have to do is learn how to get to them and, once you’re there, how to make the most of it.

1) Don’t Self Edit

Think before you speak. Did your mother ever tell you that when you were growing up? I know mine sure did.

When tapping into your creativity, speak first. It’s called brainstorming. Let all of your ideas, no matter how crazy those ideas happen to be, flow out. Don’t censor, don’t edit.

There’ll be time to do that later.

2) Do It for Yourself First

Channeling your creative streak into someone else’s vision is hard. Really hard. When you’re creating you need to do it for yourself first. Let your own vision flow out onto the page, even if your vision isn’t always the same as the guys you’re creating for.

Many a book or marketing piece has been born not from the mind of the CEO that ordered it, but from the artist that created it. Your vision might not be as far off as you think. And if it is? Don’t throw out what you create. You never know when you’re going to want it later.

3) If You Restrict Your Creativity to Work, You’ve Already Lost

Making your passion your career is hard. Really hard. If you love to write, it makes sense to write for a living, right? If you’re an artist, why not let graphic art win the day?

The problem is, what you create at work isn’t necessarily exactly where your passion lies. Creating ad copy is a long way from painting landscapes, and brochures aren’t the great American novel.

Restricting your creativity to work is going to restrict your creativity, period.

4) Branding Isn’t the End All/Be All to Your Creative Summons

I toss this in because one of the coolest marketing pieces our graphic artists ever put together didn’t look like they should have anything to do with our brand. But it was snappy, it was sassy, and we decided to use it anyway.

We haven’t regretted that. Don’t let your brand restrict how creative you can be.

5) Creativity Only Takes Up Time If You Let It

If you have forever to work on a project, you’re going to overthink it. Period. If you’re stuck on something, give yourself five minutes and just do it. Let your brain do what it’s going to do. When you’re in too much of a hurry to get in your own way what you create can be something spectacular.

6) Daydream

Your teachers, parents and yes, your boss have effectively dedicated their lives to getting you to stop daydreaming and start doing. But when you daydream is precisely when your imagination gives you the tools to create.

The next time you’re working on a project I want you to take at least 15 min, lay back, close your eyes and let your mind drift. Think about the project, but don’t force your mind to go where you want it to go. (This is great for writing and film projects, by the way.)

What you come up with will be the epitome of your creativity.

7) Sleep!

When you’re exhausted your brain has all it can do to keep your lower functions rolling. Basically, your body’s so busy worrying about how to keep breathing and walk without walking into the walls that it doesn’t have any energy to spare for the art of creativity.

Make sure you’re getting 8-10 each night. You’ll be amazed what your creativity will do.

Leave Fear Behind

Do you know why we all aren’t writers, or artists, or video game designers? Because we’re afraid. We’re afraid we’re not going to succeed, so we don’t even try. We look at what we create, immediately assume it’s not good enough, and throw in the towel.

Tapping into your creativity is like learning to walk. You’re going to fall down. It’s going to hurt. You can decide whether to give up, spend the rest of your life crawling and never reach your full potential, or you can get back up and try again.

I know where my money would be.

Tags: art, be more creative, creativity, graphic design, how to write, marketing, writing

// You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Think spending a weekend on a mountain in Nepal is the only way to get in touch with your creative side? Think again!

Creative marketing is one part good sense, one part research, one part experience and at least ten parts creative thinking. In a perfect world we’d all have an unending, unrelenting supply of creativity that would keep our edges sharp and our marketing materials toeing the line. In reality, however, a week of pushing our brains to the limit at a 9 to 5 pace can leave us mentally depleted…and creatively challenged.

A quick trip to the mountains can do wonders to recharge your creative batteries. So can sitting around your house! Yes, that’s right, your sofa could hold the key to a lifetime of successful, creative marketing. Who’d have guessed?

Here’s are 10 unexpected ways to shake off the mental null of the week and revitalize your brain cells so you walk into work on Monday brimming with creative potential.

Did you have your wedding pics with a soccer ball? Don't be afraid to think outside the box!!

1) Watch TV and cruise the web (but not too much). A lot of people will argue with this one, which is why I put it first. 45 minutes of television does wonders to revitalize my energy and recharge my creativity when I’ve hit a slump. Not only does vegging out in front of the tv require very little brain power, letting your batteries unwind, it also opens a whole new world where anything’s possible. Let your mind chew on that for a night or two and you might be surprised at what it spits back out!

2) Play with your kids. “Barbie can’t swim to the moon.” “Why?” Nothing breathes creativity like the unfettered mind of a child. Step away from the computer, pick up a doll or a horse or the broom and play with your kids.

3) Take a yoga class. By the end of the week your mind is filled with useless clutter that’s just sitting around taking up valuable real estate. Leftover resentment from your argument with a co-worker, new changes or revision requests from a client, the unending to-do list you have to tackle on Monday. Yoga is based on a clear mind and a healthy body, both of which will do wonders to increase your creativity.

4) Clean your house. Can you move freely in a cluttered room? Can you dance? Can you sing? Of course not, and neither can your mind! Grab that broom (the one you were just riding on a minute ago) and the vacuum and get to work.

5) Fingerpaint. Maybe it’s the simple mindlessness of the process. Maybe it’s watching the colors swirl together. Maybe it’s as simple as transporting yourself back to the innocence of youth. Don’t ask me why it works. I just know it works.

6) Start a pick-up game. Are you a basketball player? A baseball fanatic? A fan of touch football in the park? Grab some friends and start a pick-up game. Make it a regular thing. Being around people exhilarates you, the game will challenge you, and you’ll come home tired but fresh and ready to tackle anything the day wants to throw your way.

7) Pick up a pen and a piece of paper. You do remember what those look like, right? The more time you spend staring at a computer screen, the more time your mind spends slowly shutting down at the thought of having to do it for even one more minute. Writer’s block, anyone?

Get in touch with your inner Yankovic. Pick a song off the radio and make up your own lyrics. It can be about anything (your dog, your house, doing the dishes, current events) as long as it’s not what the writer was singing about in the first place. Remember, creative marketing hinges on your ability to think outside the box. Rewrite your favorite Top 40 hit and find out just how far “outside the box” your mind can go!

9) Take a nap. We are, as a society, almost ridiculously sleep deprived. Trying to think when you’re tired is hard. Creativity becomes the impossible dream.

10) Pick up a book. Creativity inspires creativity. Creative authors who express their ideas and keep you actively interested throughout the life of their story know what they’re doing. The more you read, the more your brain will instinctively follow in their footsteps and the easier coming up with great ideas for creative marketing is going to be!

Tags: be more creative, creative marketing, creativity

// You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Ah, office supplies. The bane of your supply manager’s existence, a huge nuisance if you happen to be your supply manager. Tracking the ebb and flow of pencils, pens, paper clips and paper is half the battle. Figuring out what to do with the leftovers is the other half!

Pencil Necklace. Photo by Derwent Pencils.

Looking for a way to jump start your morning after a lazy Labor Day weekend? We polled our social networks to see if they could come up with 15 fun ideas for their leftover pencils (strictly in the interests of creativity, of course) and here’s what they had to say:

1)      Pencil jewelry (Take a second to take a look at this site, hosted by Derwent Pencils; this is actually an amazingly cool idea.)

2)      Make a peg-leg for the office mascot. (Only works if your office mascot is inanimate-I don’t think the office cat would appreciate this nearly as much as you would.)

3)      Jenga. Do I need to say anything else?

4)      Typing tools to avoid the germs on your neighbor’s keyboard.

5)      Use as a temporary earpiece for a pair of broken glasses.

6)      Aerate the office plants-just stab into the soil, then repeat. Not a viable substitution for the regular addition of water and sunshine.

7)      Tie to a string and use as a pendulum. (I’m not sure about the practical applications, unless you’re trying to hypnotize your co-workers, but this one was popular.)

8)      Use the shavings as fuel for your campfire on the next office camping trip.

9)      Carve out the leftover graphite, crush into a powder and mix with water to make watercolor paint. (Does

"Tiniest Key Ever" Photo by Dalton Ghetti

that actually work?)

10)   Make a + using rubber bands and use string to transform peg-legged office mascot into a marionette.

11)   Pencil carvings. (Some of these are amazing, but you have to wonder who, besides Mr. Ghetti himself, would have that much time on their hands!)

12)   Build a log cabin with the assistance of leftover poster putty.

13)   Photo frames for a touch of professional décor.

14)   Tie up the office plant after you forget to water it.

15)   Pencil fights!

How do you use your leftover office supplies?

Tags: creativity, employee creativity, going green, leftover pencils, motivational ideas, office supplies, recycling

// You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.