2014: Twelve Habits of Creativity

Previously, I wrote about my Outreach Habit, how I pushed through difficulty, and how it changed who I am. It garnered enough interest for a follow-up post. And indeed, this year I created a spin-off of the Outreach Habit: career workshops where grad students and post-docs made concrete progress on their own careers, available here and described by a participant here. 

And the Outreach Habit was just Phase One.

Creativity is like any other skill. It can be deliberately practiced and improved. Importantly, one can’t just read about how to be creative and then be creative. People sometimes want tips and tricks (i.e. shortcuts and magic bullets), but you actually have to actually implement creative techniques yourself, figure out what works for you, and make it a habit to think creatively. The only way to build a habit is through concrete action - doing it everyday.

Creativity doesn’t “just happen.” It’s not spontaneous (though it can feel like it in the moment). It’s not waiting around to be inspired. And it's certainly not out of your control (though it is partly out of your conscious control).

With this in mind, I dedicated each month of 2014 to a different Habit of Creativity.

Creativity is simply this: Taking things that already exist and connecting them in new ways. This doesn’t just happen by itself. To do this, five basic ingredients need to be cultivated:

1) Raw material. Obviously, you can’t connect things you don’t know exist. This is why I did my 52 Books in 52 Weeks challenge in 2013- to maximize exposure to ideas.

2) Actively engaging with ideas. You can’t expect creativity to "just happen.” There are specific ways to wrestle with ideas.

3) Relationships. I personally like to be by myself and think, but adopting other people’s viewpoints is the fastest way to look at the same old boring thing in a different light.

4) A creative environment. Daily routines, schedules, work space, etc all need to be tinkered with. This will be different for different people, but trial and error is always required.

5) Deliberate skill acquisition. Skills create opportunities to access and cultivate the four ingredients above.

Each Habit of Creativity is targeted at one of the above ingredients.

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Monthly Habits of Creativity 

Just like the Outreach Habit, I strived to practice a Habit of Creativity every single day for 30-50 days, using the Mini-Habits method. When I fell off, I got back on as quickly as I could.

These targeted my specific weaknesses. If you want to develop your own Habits of Creativity, you can try mine out, but don’t adopt them wholesale. Instead, be creative...

I’m not going to explain these in detail. Instead, I’ve included links to what inspired the habit.

My 2014 Habits of Creativity:

•    January: Outreach

•    February: Read scientific papers daily

•    March: Learn to draw... using Inkscape vector graphics. Required myself to to post one new drawing everyday on Facebook. Also used this to generate all the figures for my 1-hour presentation on my thesis work. 

•    April: Empathy

•    May: Write down 10 ideas

•    June: Journal

•    July: Active recall

•    August: Learn programming in R (continued until November)

•    September: Deep work rituals

•    October: Mind mapping 

•    November: Morning ritual to promote clarity of thought and stay focused on my most important work. Includes journaling, exercise, and reading

•    December: Evening ritual dedicated to building relationships

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Interested or Skeptical?

Below are some common responses I got to my Outreach Habit, likely relevant to rest of my habits.

A common response: "Wow, that sounds like it took a lot of time. I wish I had that kind of time."

“I don’t have time” is a bullshit excuse. You just need the right plan. The Outreach Habit took 10 minutes per day.

Another common response: “Wow, you were really motivated to do that. How did you inspire yourself everyday?”

“I’m not feeling motivated” is a crutch. You don’t need inspiration to take action. Most days I did not feel motivated. Action leads to motivation, not the other way around.

Another common response: “You’re so extroverted! I wish I could do that” or… “That sounds like faking it and not being yourself..."

“I’m not that type of person” is irrelevant. You can become that type of person. I’m still an introvert, by the way. Being around others is exhausting. But that doesn’t mean I can’t reach out to others.