Many things are written about creativity and productivity, or more precise, what you can to to improve it. Even if we may learn something from what others have to say about this, I think that most must be gained from your own self insight. Even if what you come up with is the same as everyone else, you still have to realize that it applies to you. It may be the simplest thing, but unless you recognize it as an obstacle, you won’t get passed it.
I do spend time both to identify my own obstacles, and to find ways around them, both in my professional life as an electronics designer, and for my personal projects. I started doing this because I felt unmotivated at work a couple of years ago, and it really helped. I don’t read books about “How can YOU become more ……”, I just try out different small things. Small variations on how I do my everyday tasks, how I organize them. I try out different methods for preserving my ideas. Some of the things I try, I just come up with myself, while others I read about somewhere and try it out. And if it doesn’t work, I just let it go and try something else. And it does make a difference. Most helpful are the techniques and methods I device for myself, or something I adapt.
In photography, the things that has helped me most is the blogging. It creates an illusion of a big audience (which in fact is very small, but don’t tell anyone), and I feel committed to post something to please the crowd.
My most recent project, The monthly folio, is another attempt at pushing myself to produce some finished work. I’m still curious how that will work.
But these are the big things. There are the small techniques and ideas that has given me even more. When I started doing digital, I felt compelled to archive all my digital negatives with a stringent system of keywords and ratings and all that. Then at one point I realized; I’m not a stock photographer, nor a wedding photographer. All the work involved in keeping this kind of archive took up so much time that it prevented me from going out and take pictures, and I never used it for anything. I actually find it quite pleasing to browse to my old archive and rediscover old treasures. If I had done all the rating and classification just after each shoot, I would probably not have looked at all the photos that didn’t quite make it in the first round. So I stopped this. Now I use a simple archive method that stores each shoot in a separate folder named with the date of the shoot and a short description. I use a simple color scheme to separate the files I have started to work on, and a simple rating scheme to track which ones I have finished and published.
Another small “big one”, was the realization that spending $30 for a good plugin that did hours of boring work in just a mouse click was worth every penny. I can mention Photokit Sharpener, Akvis Enhancer and Noise Ninja. I know a lot of people spend very much time doing fairly brain dead work just to prove that they can do it, or they take some pride in doing things the hardest possible way. Why not spend that time and energy on something that only you can do, and let software and plugins do all the boring stuff.
The most important realization for me is that I have to figure out what works for me, and that in itself takes some effort and time. If you just blindly try out the methods that work for others, and think they will do wonders for you, you’re probably in for a disappointment. The daily photo posting was one that didn’t work at all for me. I know others have had great success with it, but for me it was the opposite. It was just discouraging.
And to end this post. When I figure out ways of working that helps me, I tend to get stuck at them. The best way I have found to move on and figure out new ways is to write down everything that works. It kind of establishes them as working tools that can be put in the background and used when necessary. And it frees my mind to think up new ways of improving. So if you think this is all just obvious stuff, or plain nonsense, it is first of all for myself.
