Leo Babauta on Creativity

Leo Babauta of Zen Habits has great life hacker tips on tons of things, from organization to creativity, and I enjoyed this list so much, I wanted to share it. Here are his top tips for creativity:

• Play.
• Don’t consume and create at the same time — separate the processes.
• Shut out the outside world.
• Reflect on your life and work daily.
• Look for inspiration all around you, in the smallest places.
• Start small.
• Just get it out, no matter how crappy that first draft.
• Don’t try for perfect. Just get it out there, asap, and get feedback.
• Constantly make it better.
• Ignore the naysayers.
• But let criticism help you grow.
• Teach and you’ll learn.
• Shake things up, see things in new ways.
• Apply things in other fields to your field, in ways not done before.
• Drink ridiculous amounts of coffee.
• Write all ideas down immediately.
• Turn your work into play.
• Play with kids.
• Get out, move, see new things, talk to new people.
• Read wildly different things. Especially stuff you disagree with.
• Get lots of rest. Overwork kills creativity.
• Don’t force it. Relax, play, it will start to flow.
• Allow your mind to wander. Allow distractions, when you’re looking for inspiration.
• Then shut them off when you’re going to create.
• Do it when you’re excited.
• When you’re not, find something else to be excited about.
• Don’t be afraid to be stupid and silly.
• Small ideas are good. You don’t need to change the world — just change one thing.
• When something is killing your creativity, kill it.
• Stop reading creativity advice, clear away everything, and just create.
• Most of all, have fun doing it.

“Sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before
breakfast.” - Lewis Carroll