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10 Creative Rituals You Should Steal

10 Creative Rituals You Should Steal
Benjamin Franklin made sure to end every day by asking “What good have I done today?” Maya Angelou only wrote in tiny hotel rooms. Jack Kerouac made sure to touch the ground nine times before writing. Sustained creativity doesn’t come from a flash of brilliance or a single afternoon of inspiration. Venture capitalist Brad Feld takes a week off every three months: The most impactful thing I’ve done is to take a week off the grid every quarter. Read the entire interview here. Former Obama campaign CTO Harper Reed the importance of the daily “retrospective”: [The presidential campaign] had a really good team dynamic that relied quite a bit on the “retrospective” meeting at the end of a project that allowed us to stop and say: “What was it like to launch? Read the entire interview here. Best-selling author Cheryl Strayed on the importance of writing daily: I often recommend writing as a tool for self-discovery because it’s helped me so much. Read the entire interview here. How about you? Related:  Rituals

55 Quotes To Inspire Creativity, Innovation and Action “The truly creative mind in any field is no more than this: A human creature born abnormally, inhumanely sensitive. To them… a touch is a blow, a sound is a noise, a misfortune is a tragedy, a joy is an ecstasy, a friend is a lover, a lover is a god, and failure is death. Add to this cruelly delicate organism the overpowering necessity to create, create, create — so that without the creating of music or poetry or books or buildings or something of meaning, their very breath is cut off… They must create, must pour out creation. “F@*# self-doubt. “Creativity comes from trust. “Institutions will try to preserve the problem to which they are the solution”—Clay Shirky “I am not afraid…I was born to do this.” – Joan of Arc “If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.” “Do not be critics, you people, I beg you. “Security is mostly a superstition. “Everyone has talent.

Do It Yourself Doodler So I am many things in this world, but an artist is not one of them. However, David Jablow is just that, and an impressive one no less. His Flickr stream is hands down one of the most impressive I’ve ever seen. He’s taken a 1950′s style Peggy Sue magazine model and put different worlds around her using a single template. The creativity and artistic detail are spectacular. You should definitely go check out his Flickr stream, but here are some you’ll find there. Blank This is the basic template used for the entire portfolio. Ninja Barn Angel v Devil Devil 1, Angel 0 Escapee Riveter There can be no distractions while working the high steel. The Dig I think I know how this ends for our favorite doodle. Trapeeze Painter Picasso he ain’t. Getaway Mermaid I would buy this match on pay-per-view. Mud Papoose’s Revenge Just supporting my statement that babies and toddlers are jerks. Brawl Weresquirrel Mr. Cat Burglar Spacegirl ———- Advertisement ———- ———- Advertisement ———- Fire Drop Body Slam Watcha gonna do brother!?

The Daily Routines of 7 Famous Entrepreneurs & How to Design Yours Our daily routines can make a huge difference to how healthy, happy and productive we are. I’ve recently tried adjusting my own routine in the hopes of getting more done and wasting less time in-between tasks or activities. While it’s important to understand how your own brain works and what routine will suit your body best, I always find it interesting to see what works for others when planning something new for myself. Amazing routines of 7 successful entrepreneurs In the hopes of building the best routine I could, I did some research on the daily routines of some of the most successful people I know of. Jack Dorsey, CEO Square & Founder of Twitter In this video interview with Twitter and Square co-founder, Jack Dorsey, he explains his daily routine as he juggles a full-time role at both companies. To get everything done, Jack puts in an 8-hour day at each company, every day. Back then, when he wrote the post however, it meant that he’s doing 16-hour workdays, Monday-Friday. 1.) 2.) 3.)

that artist woman How Boredom Promulgates Creativity in Business.... This is part of a series of articles by MBA students at California College of the Arts dMBA program. Follow along here. By Jesse Meyer-Appel One might think that boredom doesn’t create creativity and success in the business world, but contrary to belief, it does. According to Baroness Greenfield, an eminent neuroscientist at Oxford University, “Boredom encourages creativity. Children’s bedrooms littered with bears receiving emergency treatment or dolls circumnavigating the turbulent ‘carpet seas’ are everyday evidence of how boredom fires the imagination.” The same sort of inspiration is created in the business world vis-à-vis boredom. In de Bono’s book, Serious Creativity, he asserts that even when things are going along, well, swimmingly, “some of the best results come when people stop to think about things that no one else has stopped to think about.” However, the “creative pause” might soon become a thing of the past. Creativity is not a natural process in the brain.

TransportarOnline Raises Investment from Ex DHL Exec Latin American logistics and shipping marketplace TransportarOnline has received an undisclosed amount of angel investment from former DHL’s CEO for Global Customer Solutions, Hans Hickler, the company announced today. Previously known as MercadoTransporte, the online freight broker was one of the finalists at TNW Latin America Conference’s Startup Battle (see a video of their pitch). It was also during our event that the team met Hickler, who became an advisor to the company before investing in it. According to TransportarOnline CEO, Federico Vega, this contribution goes well beyond capital. Hickler’s investment comes in addition to the $185k seed capital that TransportarOnline had already received from NXTP Labs, Start-Up Chile, Fundación Chile and its own founders. TransportarOnline is still early-stage, and says that around 250 transactions have been completed on the platform since its launch in August 2012. Image credit: Thinkstock

The Daily Routines of Geniuses Juan Ponce de León spent his life searching for the fountain of youth. I have spent mine searching for the ideal daily routine. But as years of color-coded paper calendars have given way to cloud-based scheduling apps, routine has continued to elude me; each day is a new day, as unpredictable as a ride on a rodeo bull and over seemingly as quickly. Naturally, I was fascinated by the recent book, Daily Rituals: How Artists Work. Author Mason Curry examines the schedules of 161 painters, writers, and composers, as well as philosophers, scientists, and other exceptional thinkers. As I read, I became convinced that for these geniuses, a routine was more than a luxury — it was essential to their work. A workspace with minimal distractions. A daily walk. Accountability metrics. A clear dividing line between important work and busywork. A habit of stopping when they’re on a roll, not when they’re stuck. A supportive partner. Limited social lives.

Download Over 250 Free Art Books From the Getty Museum Yesterday, we wrote about the Wellcome Library’s opening up of its digital archives and making over 100,000 medical images freely available online. If you’ve already made your way through this choice selection (or if the prospect of viewing a 19th century leg amputation doesn’t quite pique your curiosity) have no fear. Getty Publications just announced the launch of its Virtual Library, where readers can freely browse and download over 250 art books from the publisher’s backlist catalogue. The Virtual Library consists of texts associated with several Getty institutions. Readers can view extensively researched exhibition catalogues from the J. Paul Getty Museum, including Paul Cézanne’s late-life watercolours, when the painter raised the still life to a high art (Cézanne in the Studio: Still Life in Watercolors, 2004), as well as the woefully underappreciated Flemish illustrations of the 15th and 16th centuries (Illuminating the Renaissance: The Triumph of Flemish Manuscript, 2003).

DreamWorks’ New Tablet Entertains--And Trains--The Next Generation Of Animators At CES this week, when DreamWorks Animation and the tech startup Fuhu introduced a kids tablet computer that they're co-developing, the most inventive feature went largely overlooked. Yes, the DreamTab, due out this spring, will readily stream DreamWorks' content, as well as shows from the Cartoon Network, Disney, and Nickelodeon; it will wirelessly communicate with other DreamWorks toys, creating the ultimate "connected playroom"; and it will have what Fuhu and DreamWorks claim is the safest way yet for kids to IM, email, and share photos--by complying with COPPA, the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. All good stuff. But what the DreamTab will have that no other kids tablet for kids (or adults, for that matter) has is a window into the creative process of world-class talent. By showing kids how animation gets made, DreamWorks is demystifying the art form, making it more accessible, and possibly inspiring the next wave of animators. [Images courtesy of DreamWorks]

Japan's DoCoMo Partners 500 Startups on Japan Incubator Japanese operator NTT DoCoMo has announced that it is investing in 500 Startups, as part of a deal that sees it launch its own mobile-focused incubator in Japan in partnership with the US company. DoCoMo revealed plans for its own startup-focused venture last October, and it says that the project is worth 10 billion yen — that’s approximately $109 million today, though the conversion was $125 million when first announced last year. Now the operator has confirmed that it has launched the program today, via a new operating company and with support from 500 Startups. The new DoCoMo incubator program is focused on tablet and smartphone related startups in Japan, as you’d well expect from a mobile operator. As well as mobile, DoCoMo says it is keen to recruit startups in the following fields: media/content, finance/payments, commerce, medical/healthcare, machine-to-machine (M2M), aggregation/platforms, environment/ecology and security/safety. Headline image via PHILIPPE LOPEZ/Getty Images

The 5 Daily Rituals That Will Make You Happy You know what percentage of people are really happy? Not “oh, life is pretty good”, I mean people who are flourishing. They feel their lives are fulfilling, meaningful and brimming with potential. Via The Sweet Spot: How to Find Your Groove at Home and Work: Only 17 percent of the adult population is said to be flourishing, fulfilling their potential for happiness, success, and productivity. Less than one in five. I’ve been accumulating the research on happiness for a while. Well, one expert finally put it together into a simple 5-part formula. Christine Carter is a sociologist at UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center which studies the psychology and neuroscience of well-being. So what’s this formula to find your “sweet spot” of happiness — without completely overhauling your life? Take Recess + Switch Autopilot On + Unshackle Yourself + Cultivate Relationships + Tolerate Some Discomfort = The Sweet Spot Okay, but what do we actually need to do? Don’t worry; it’s pretty easy. Do less.

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