One of my favorite places to visit was the art workshop where my friend keeps and works on all of her pieces of art. One of the reasons it so completely dazzled me was that the place was just littered with beautiful stuff, not only hers but her art mates as well, all set in plain view to see.
This does two things: one is definitely the environment factor, as you’re basking in a room full of who knows what is ready to be created, it feels like by simple osmosis, you can absorb some of the creativity that’s flying around and turn it into something cool to add to the collection.
Another is that since everything is all laid out, getting started with making a change is as easy as walking up to whatever captures your fancy at the moment, picking it up, and going to work on it.
If there was a way to make my computer and my physical desktop more like an art workshop, I could probably avoid what often happens to me when I sit in front of a computer which is become distracted and wander off wasting time browsing, if not simply stare and do nothing. I think having other kinds of distractions in the form of scripts, open e-books, and some running pad of notes will do wonders for keeping the mind wandering in the right sort of neighborhood.
I currently (try to) keep myself oriented with an “anything” journal and a Tiddlywiki set as my homepage, and I keep stuff I work on sync’d with Dropbox and my USB stick. It hasn’t really solidified into something routine, unfortunately. But try and try again I will.
Anyone have any other methods for staying creative and productive?
Feral Chicken 