Observation: new ideas can only emerge if there’s space for them to emerge into.

Implication: if your calendar is full of stuff; if your physical surroundings are full of stuff; if your mind is full of stuff: there’s simply no space for a truly creative idea to enter. And so it won’t come into the world¹.

Sure, your conscious mind might be able to ‘create’ things here and there through busy-ness, but it’s not really creativity. Just a rejigging of things you’ve encountered before. Real creative genius comes from somewhere outside the conscious thinking mind.

So, want to be creative? Do less. Preserve some sacred time for doing nothing. Ever heard people say they have their best ideas when they go for a walk in nature and stop thinking about work? That’s because they’ve opened up some temporal space, physical space and mind space. The full trio.

(Often our mind doesn’t like this idea because it likes to believe that it’s the source of all the creativity. It hates the realisation that creativity comes from somewhere other than it. Reassure it that it’ll still get to do the very important next stage: taking that creative impulse and translating it into words and action!)

But to receive that creative spark in the first place? Do less. Make space.

1. At least, not through you… ↩