Time (Management) and Creativity

I find it difficult to teach or consult creative thinking skills without discussing about time and how people use it.

My recommendations:

• Bodil Jönsson (please, see my book list) sees Western people as 'slaves' of digital time. So, please, consider throwing away your wrist watch and sleep long without alarm clocks ;-)   

• Average citizen in the US watches 4 hours of TV every day!  We Europeans are very close to it. How about keeping your tellytime in minimum and focus on books, conversations with your family and friends and taking exercise ;-)

• As a (former) mobile learning and mobility researcher, I agree with Perry and friends (2002) that there is still a lot of 'access anytime, anyplace and anywhere' hype around. Do you really need to be available all the time? Get a mobile phone that enables you to switch off the GSM/GPRS/WLAN part (like Ericsson P910, Nokia Communicator 9300/9500 or Palm Treo). It may even be a healthy choice for your tissues ;-)     

• Elisabeth Churchill [Hi! We met in C&T 2003 :-) ] and Nina Wakeford (2002) have observed that “Experience of mobility is embedded in an experience of temporality which includes mutually negotiated rhythms of contact, availability and accessibility”. Please, tell and indicate your  rhythm to your colleagues. Tell them when you are available and how do  you wish to be contacted. Creating new things requires often solitude.

• According to psychoanalyst Lawrence Kubie (1958) creativity has its roots, not in the unconcious, but in the 'preconcious system' flowing between the concious and unconcious. This is the state we experience between sleep and wakefulness or during daydreams.  How about trying a technique to maximise this state? Try meditation, NLP or related. Or just try to read and make notes while laying down.    
  

• Sauna can be a device for time management! We Finns have utilised it for thousands of years. In wintertime I highly recommend outdoor winter swimming (Avantouinti). Pure Awareness! (Crazy Finns, you will propably say :-)

• When thinking about enhancing work groups' creativity, see the Harvard Business Review August 2002 article by Teresa Amabile, Constance Hadley and Steven Cramer. Nice time management suggestions for team leaders!

The above mentioned topics may be sometimes unrealistic. I realise it in my everyday life as a father with limited time management skills :-)

You have a time (management) tip related to creativity? Please, add a comment and let us know!

Comments

[finding loose slot machines]

Time Management is most important for us.i think so time is so valuable for every person.we have to do work in proper time.so always be alert for time management because along this time, time management is also must for every work and in every field so if u will work in proper time management definitely u will get success.i have also read this Time (Management) and Creativity article so its great.so i like it very much.its quite informative so thanks to give this nice post.i would like to appreciate to your efforts.

[annie]

This is a great article. I use this program called REFRAME, it's specifically designed for creative people, and it works really well. You don't have to sort through a book, you get an email every day with a simple task, and there are certified counselors and a professional organizer online every day to help out. Check it out: http://www.reframeproductivity.com