Ideas and practices for regularly gathering sources of inspiration, eliminating blocks to more easily access creative states, prolong them, and leverage their power to develop and execute great work.

1. The Art of
Disciplined
Creativity
Denise R. Jacobs
Refresh Boston
May 2011

2. The Art of Social Media
The Artist:
@denisejacobs
The Medium:
@refreshboston
The Subject:
#creativityhabit

3. The Artist Still Known as Denise Jacobs
Speaker, Trainer, Author,
Pan-Creative

4. On
Creativity

5. “Creativity is about embracing
paradox. Creativity is the
merging of two incongruent
ideas.”
- Frank Chimero, Build
Conference Nov. 2010, The
Shape of Design

6. What’s the point?
Concepts, ideas, tips to help you instill
practices that will encourage you to
become even more conversant and
better able to collaborate with your
creativity.

7. We are alchemists

8. “Creativity is magical, but is not
magic.”
- Charles Limb, Your Brain on
Improvisation TED talk

9. Structure, Discipline, Path

10. The Art of
Disciplined
Creativity

11. Three
Facets of
The Way

12. Three Facets of The Way
1. The Path of One
2. It Takes Two
3. The Way of Many

13. The Path
of One

14. The Path of One
1. Habits to release
2. Habits to incorporate
3. Outcomes

15. Habits to
Release

16. Habits to Release
• Fire your inner critic
• Get over impostor syndrome
• Eliminate distractions

17. Fire your inner critic

18. Exorcise those evil voices
FEAR (“false evidence appearing real” or
“f*ck everything and run”) causes
unnecessary inhibitions which obstruct
the generation of new ideas on a
biochemical and neurological level.

19. Get over impostor syndrome

20. Drop comparisons

21. Eliminate distractions

22. Communication addiction

23. Habits to
Incorporate

24. Habits to Incorporate
• Show up everyday
• Gather up goodness
• Get it down
• Get physical
• Relax. Open. Let go. Receive.

25. Show up everyday

26. Clarify and strengthen habit fields

27. Work with time

28. Be willing

29. Gather up Goodness

30. “We are shaped and fashioned by
what we love.”
- Goethe

31. Collect and Curate

32. Tools
• Zootool.com • Evernote
• Imgspark.com • Diigo
• Scrnshots.com • Delicious
• Vi.sualize.us • Flickr
• Emberapp.com

33. Get it down

34. Capture ideas as they come

35. Sketchnotes, mind-mapping, etc.

36. Voice

37. Get physical

38. Take a walk

39. Balances your brain

40. Think with your hands

41. Relax. Open. Let Go. Receive.

42. Calm your brain cells

43. Suck at it (or be wrong)
• “Being right keeps us in place. Being
wrong forces us to explore.”
• – Steven Johnson, Where Good Ideas
Come From

44. “An essential aspect of creativity
is not being afraid to fail.”
- Dr. Edwin Land

45. Reframe #fail

46. Delegate

47. Outcomes

48. Outcomes
• Express. Produce.
• Flow

49. Express. Produce.

50. What you produce is unique
• Find your voice and sing your song
• Create what you want to see/use
• (Gather like an aficiando and)
Repurpose like an artist

51. Find Flow

52. The stage is set for Flow
• Clear a space – work area, time, head
• Have a goal: know what you want to
achieve and what it looks like
• Have the necessary materials on hand
• Eliminate distractions
• Practice
• Don’t force it

53. It Takes
Two

54. It Takes Two
• Externalize
• Invite

55. “Creation does not have to be a
tormented process – it can be a
peculiar, wondrous, bizarre
conversation and collaboration
between you and the strange
external entity that is not quite
you.”
- Elizabeth Gilbert, Nuturing

56. Externalize

57. Genius

58. “Genius is being able to
understand the essence without
having all of the
information….Genius is the
ability to see through to the
essential.”

59. Bring out your inner Genius
As opposed to “being” a genius, consider
that you have a genius – a mystical
spirit that accompanies you and
inspires and helps you to create
fantastic work.

60. Muses

61. Muses
Three original muses:
• Melete - practice or occasion
• Aoide – voice or song
• Mneme – memory
Muses were thought to be the true
speakers for whom an artist is merely
the mouthpiece. Muses inspire people
to do their best.

62. Ideas & Creative Spark
“The world is being circled by ideas and
creativity that wants to made manifest
and are looking for portals to come
through…”

63. “…If you don’t do it, it will find
someone else.”
- Elizabeth Gilbert

64. You are an avatar for ideas

65. Extend an Invitation

66. You’re Doin’ It Wrong
“My f*cking book won’t tell me its
name!”
“Well, if you’re going to talk to it like
that, it’s not going to tell you
anything.”

67. Sweet talk your ideas

68. Engage in regular dialogue

69. The Way
of Many

70. The Way of Many
• Collective Ideation
• Collaborate: Share and learn,
• Teach and Master

71. Collective
Ideation

72. The Goal:
To be whirling in a melee of ideas!

73. Incubate

74. Ideas are a network
…not an event.

75. • Ideas are cobbled together from
whatever we have nearby (or invite to
come to us)
• Ideas are borne from chaotic social
environments

76. Intellectual diversity
• Immerse yourself in intellectually
diverse environments

77. This will allow for slow hunches

78. Slow Hunch tips
• Give ideas time to simmer, to develop
into hunches
• Ideas often have long incubation
periods: they fade into view over time
• Share hunches with others – this sets
the stage for the aha/eureka moment

79. Collaborate:
Share and
Learn

80. Share time and mind
• Invite others to wonder with you
• Share mistakes – show your
imperfections (both you and others can
learn from it)

81. Make little bets
The creative process is a hands-on
experiment.
• Try something. Get feedback. Refine.
Get more feedback.
• d.school process: observe, suggest,
tinker, review feedback, reiterate

82. Teach and
Master

83. “To learn, read. To know, write.
To master, teach.”

84. Taking it up a notch
Teaching combines everything that has
been mentioned and takes knowledge
and ideas to a whole new level.

85. Discipline
is Victory

86. The goal: creative confidence
“…the confidence that, when given a
difficult problem, we have a
methodology that enables us to come
up with a solution that nobody has
before.”
David Kelley, Ideo

87. It does work

88. “Chance favors the
connected mind.”
– Steven Johnson, Where
Good Ideas Come From

89. “Inspiration favors the
creatively disciplined
mind.”
- Denise Jacobs, The Art of
Disciplined Creativity

90. Shameless Self-Promotion #1
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91. Shameless Self-Promotion #2
InterAct With
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A Holistic
Approach to Web
Design
InterActWithWebStandards.com
twitter.com/waspinteract

92. Thank you!
denisejacobs.com
denise@denisejacobs.com
twitter.com/denisejacobs
slideshare.net/denisejacobs