What time of day when you feel most creative?
Photographers have a window of time shortly after sunrise or before sunset. During this time, the lighting is warm and the pictures look brilliant.
I would like to share a daily practice which can give amazing benefits, called the ‘hour of creativity’.
I believe everyone can schedule an ‘hour of creativity’ on a regular basis. It might sound like a simple practice, but can have a dramatic impact on your work and life.
This is a block of free time when you can spend doing your most creative work, without limitations or any distractions. Morning is a great time to choose, when you first wake up and your mind has been fully rested.
So why is an hour of creativity per day such a useful daily habit?
It helps us connect back with essential being, our ‘Creative Self’, and get closer to who we are. Think of it as a form of therapy; an antidote for our modern age of a distracted mind.
Here are a few more things to keep in mind for improving your everyday creativity:
- Forming creativity routine
If the key to creating new habits is to start small and being consistent, the secret is to stay flexible. In other words, without being overly strict with yourself, especially at the start. That way you won’t lose faith and most importantly, enjoying the process. Challenge yourself to see if you can get to 30 days of your new habit.
- Overcoming fear
Fear is one aspect which we all have to overcome at some point, no matter how much experience you have. One of the fears when creating something is the fear of looking ridiculous. Nobody wants to look ridiculous, but you’re better off making friends with fear but also letting go of it. In order to practice creativity, we need to start from where we are now. We need to be okay with not being perfect and it’s okay to fail.
- Simplify by eliminating activities that take energy away from you
By consistently focusing on removing those activities which drain your energy, you’ll free yourself up and find more time and energy to start creating things which you’re more passionate about.
You might choose to do any of the following, or invent your own expression:
- Painting – this is a practice where you could start each day with a blank canvas. Just grab a paintbrush and get it moving around the page. You never know what you might create, and if it doesn’t make sense then call it abstract!
- Drawing – The world’s your oyster when it comes to drawing. From portraits and flowers to cartoons and just doodling. Everyone loved drawing as a child.
- Writing – you could choose to handwrite, or perhaps write on google docs or notes. You could write stories, poems, articles or just begin with journaling your thoughts.
- Speaking (or singing!) – you could even choose to record yourself talking into a mic and record your hour of creativity straight into your digital device.
- Dancing – you could spend your creative time dancing. After all, dancing is certainly considered a creative art, and it’s really your own unique expression that matters.
It’s important not to judge what you make in creative time.
In fact, I’d suggest keeping it a secret and don’t tell anyone because it’s your own personal journey of discovering your self expression.
Here are a few more tips on getting into a state of flow:
Don’t Limit Yourself
It’s important to stay open in your hour of creativity, there’s no need to limit yourself on what’s possible. If you find yourself thinking to yourself, how is this productive? Why am I doing this? Let go of the idea of limitation.
Don’t Judge Your Expression
There’s no need to judge what you create. The mere act of creating and expressing yourself is what really matters. It’s like a tap. In the beginning, you may just get a few drops, and that’s okay! It’s all part of the process of creating. You can edit some other time.
Try not to have too much of an agenda
Having an agenda forces your creativity in a particular way. The best form of creativity is when you don’t have any limits and you’re able to work in a state of flow. Sure choose your method of creativity, like writing, painting, drawing etc. But there’s no need to impose a strong agenda for your creativity for best practice.
Switch off all your distractions
We live in an age of hyper distraction. Understand what your distractions are, and switch them off. For me, it’s my phone. So I keep my phone far away from me when I’m in my creative mode.
Don’t give up too early!
Give yourself a chance to get used to your hour of creative practice. For best results, make it a daily habit.
Wake up and Create
For most people, the morning time works best. If you have to, wake up a bit earlier than you normally to make sure you make use of your full hour.
Make it playful
Why not enjoy it as much as possible and make it playful? Life is too short to be serious.
What advice would you say to yourself if you were to able to do anything you wanted to?
Later on, look at what you’ve made
What you make is really a message to yourself. For instance, what I’m writing here is really resonating with me, because it’s actually being written to myself.
Finish your session of Creativity with Gratitude
What we are grateful for in our lives tends to expand. So a great way to finish your hour is just silently grateful for whatever was created.
