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
Web Afternoon / Atlanta
October 2011

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

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

4. On Creativity

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

9. Always delightful

10. Structure, Discipline, Path

12. Three Facets
of
The Way

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

14. The Path of
One

15. The Path of One
1. Eliminate
2. Incorporate
3. Train your brain
4. Gather and document
5. Gamify it

16. Eliminate
Creativity
Killers

17. Communication addiction

18. Multitasking

19. Banish you inner critic

20. The evil voices in your head
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.

21. Impostor syndrome

22. Comparisons

23. Incorporate
Creativity
Supporters

24. Show up everyday

25. Habit fields

26. Sprint

27. Delegate

28. Think with your hands

29. Lo-fi time

30. Train Your
Brain

31. Get your alpha on

32. Balance your brain

33. Get physical

34. Be Willing

35. Be Mindful

36. Gather and
Document

38. Collect and Curate

39. Get it down

40. Sketchnotes, mind-mapping, etc.

41. Voice

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

43. Gamify it

44. Be heroic

45. It Takes Two

46. It Takes Two
• Externalize
• Invite

47. Externalize

49. Genius

51. Genius? (yes.)

52. 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.

53. Genius? (yes!)

54. Muses

55. Who ‘dat?
The muses were thought to be the true
speakers for whom an artist is merely the
mouthpiece. Muses inspire people to do
their best.

56. Memory (Mnene)

57. Voice (Aoide)

58. Practice/occasion (Melete)

59. Ideas

62. We are avatars for ideas

63. Extend an
Invitation

64. Make it clear

65. Engage in a dialogue

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. Be ready for them to show up

69. You’ll get love

70. The Way of
Many

71. The Way of Many
• Collective Ideation
• Learn. Teach. Master.

72. Collective
Ideation

73. Incubate to Generate

74. Ideas are a network

75. The source of great ideas

76. Avoid

77. Diverse environments

78. Invite others to wonder with you

79. In praise of slow…hunches

80. Co-work to collaborate

81. Plus it

82. Reframe #fail

84. Share mistakes

85. Learn. Teach.
Master.

87. Leaning? Always!

88. Learn from the masters

89. Teach what you know

90. Reach Mastery

91. Discipline is Victory

92. What do you get?

93. Expression

94. What you produce is unique

95. Doing you = Awesome
• Singing your song in your voice
• Creating what you want to see/use
• Getting your remix on: gather like an
aficionado; repurposing like an artist

96. Productivity

97. Productivity through little bets
The d.school process:
• observe
• suggest
• tinker
• review
• apply feedback
• reiterate

98. Flow? Found.

99. The stage is set for Flow
• Cleared space – work area, time, head
• Concept in mind: know what you want
to achieve and what it looks like
• Necessary materials on hand
• Distractions eliminated
• Practice in place
• Willingness in place

100. Creative Confidence

101. Was ist das?
“…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

102. It does work

103. Last outcome

106. The end…?

107. Resources
delicious.com/denisejacobs/creativityhabit

108. Further reading
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/reigniting-your-creative-spark/
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/banishing-your-inner-critic/

109. Shameless Self-Promotion #1
The CSS
Detective Guide
CSSDetectiveGuide.com
twitter.com/cssdetective
Get 35% off at
PeachPit.com with the
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110. Shameless Self-Promotion #2
InterAct With
Web Standards:
A Holistic
Approach to Web
Design
InterActWithWebStandards.com
twitter.com/waspinteract

111. How to find me
DeniseJacobs.com
denise@denisejacobs.com
twitter.com/denisejacobs
slideshare.net/denisejacobs

112. Thank you!