Habits will form with or without me.

If being creative and innovative requires consistent new work then the hard part will be consistently doing, working and making. I’ve found that I need habits. Rather then falling into a pattern, I have to design a pattern to refine and structure my habits. I need habits that allow me to generate new and valuable products consistently.

Habits will form with or without me; I’d rather have some input.

Principles for crafting creative habits.

These are not the habits themselves but rather principles for iteration on habits that I found helpful. Some of my creative habits are consistently capture and clearing my headspace. By looking at the principles, creative habits can be formed and refined — so that the same habit can take many forms.

• Consistency: keep repeating habits to find what works and see benefits (Yes, I know that is the basis of what a habit is, still worth saying).
• Iteration: change what’s not working.
• Output: share the process and result.
• Fit: refine habits to complement each other.
• Friction: know the effort and overhead added to daily life.
• Intention: act with the purpose of improving your work.

Habits technically are repetitive behaviors done unconsciously. ‘Habit’ may be a weak word here. Still the idea is to form your creative habits consciously, before they become an unconscious way of operating.

It’s all been said before.
It important we remind each other of what habits and processes work. We need to talk and share ideas. This is me sharing my a bit of thinking. If we don’t share how will we get better?

The poet Scott Cairns was asked if writing is sojourning or propaganda. I concur it’s a bit of both. I hope to propagate my ideas on the post-industrial creative culture, where we are all artist, as I sojourn to find a new place where artist are essential to building the world we all want.

I don’t want a monologue, rather a conversation.