After a personal event upset my routine, I struggled to work on my graphic novel. I couldn’t focus, didn’t feel like working, and felt stuck. I needed a new strategy for solving this problem! An idea came up: I could try using deadlines again so that I would meet the dates I had set for my milestones. But not the easy kind of deadlines! The ones that would make me feel some real pressure.
So, with my partner’s help, we came up with a plan. Since I’m not great with social stuff and I hate making phone calls, we decided that if I didn’t finish 36 drawings for my graphic novel in a week, my partner would pick someone from my contacts for me to call immediately. You would not believe how stressed out I was just from the thought! But it worked. I met my goals for three weeks straight and never had to make a dreaded phone call. So logically, I would suggest this solution to you. But there is a little problem.
Because for many people, deadlines don’t work. I learned this when I was doing my master’s thesis in design. People have different problems and need different strategies for solutions. Some of the people I talked to for my thesis hated deadlines and could never work under pressure.
Other People’s Problem-Solving Strategies Can Be Dangerous
You may want to do what I did with deadlines and my accountability partner, and it may or may not work. Or maybe you already tried it and are even more disappointed because you were hoping for a solution to your problems. But that is exactly it. You have to try and experiment with different solutions and systems and find out what strategies work for you.
Never take someone else’s approach to a system or solution for granted. Yes, it worked for them, but that is no guarantee that it will work for you. So always keep that in mind, especially when someone tries to sell you something that is the solution to all your problems: What works for someone else won’t necessarily work for you. Everyone is different, everyone needs different things.
How To Figure Out Your Own Strategies For Your Problems
To avoid just copying others without any guarantee that it will help you, I made a simple guide to help you navigate through this.
Research your problem and look for solutions and strategies.
Try them out and tweak them to your liking.
Remember: What works for someone else may not work for you, and that’s okay.
Something kind of works? Focus on it and make it work for you.
When you have found a strategy that works well enough: Use it!
Don’t worry about making things perfect. There will rarely be a perfect system or solution.
It’s okay to try and implement new things, but don’t tinker too much with what’s already working.
Conclusion
In dealing with problems of productivity, I discovered that copying other people’s strategies may not work for everyone. It’s important to find what works best for you. Stay flexible, know yourself, and stick with what helps you!
To learn more about problem-solving in general, the Wikipedia page on this topic has some good information and strategies!
In case you are wondering, I made this problem-solving animation above using Cavalry.
Have you ever looked at someone’s finished art and thought: “This looks awesome! I want to do that too!” You dive in and give it your all, only to find that your attempt is not as good as theirs and that it may take years to reach their level. At this point, you might consider giving up or going back to your comfort zone. But what if I told you that there’s another way? That you could reach their level by improving just a little bit at a time? Small progress of let’s say 1% at a time.
Sure, you might object that it will take years. But consider this: the years will pass anyway! The real question is whether or not you’ll get better every day as the years go by. The trick is to keep trying to get better. How do you do that? By aiming for just 1% improvement at a time.
Small Progress Until You Reach 100%
Start by identifying your weak areas and the things you want to focus on. What do you want to get better at? Here’s a personal example: I wanted to improve my ability to draw backgrounds. What was I doing? Whenever I drew a character, I spent extra time researching and studying what makes a good background. Then I applied that knowledge to my drawings. Was it a perfect background? No, of course not. But it was 1% better than the last one. And the next time I focused on backgrounds, it was 2% better. Then 3%, 4%, 5%, until I was 100% better than before.
Improvement Becomes Inevitable
The key is to keep doing your creative work and keep aiming for that 1% improvement. It doesn’t have to be perfect. It doesn’t even have to look good. But every time you try, you’ll learn far more than you would by simply repeating what you’ve always done. Improvement becomes inevitable. There is no need for specific goals or rigid habits. Just keep doing what you are doing and ask yourself: “How can I get 1% better?”
I can promise you this: as the years go by, you will reach a moment where you realize, “Wow, I’m actually good at this”. And someone will look at your art and say: “This looks awesome! I want to do that too!” So take this mindset and try it!
Still not convinced? Here’s a small list of the pros of the 1% improvement mindset:
I have updated all of my Creative Work Problems Comics Posts on this blog!
I uploaded them for a while to Instagram and my blog as solo posts. When I did them, I mostly just posted the comic itself, and rarely some more information about it. Well, now I’ve updated them all and added additional help and knowledge for almost every topic. I’ve also updated the name of the post so that it’s no longer named after the comic. Each topic is now more easily identifiable by the title of the post. You can now search the hell out of this site if you are looking for a topic you need help with.
I have listed below every post I have made with these comics in it. So if you’re interested in more information about a topic you see at the bottom of the list, don’t hesitate to go there.
Sometimes you are working on something till there comes this point where you can’t move on because you are afraid to destroy your current process. One way to tackle this…
With this method, you can start your creative work with ease. You can begin with no motivation at all, there is almost no resistance you encounter when you start working…
Becoming aware of things is difficult. It is even more difficult to recognize your own problems. But this is often the case in creative work. Problematic things are taken for…
Sometimes you procrastinate because a big task looks intimidating. If this happens break the task up. Do everything one by one and you will be less scared of the task!…
Sometimes we are in a creative lockdown. Maybe because we are in a real lockdown or because we experience a creative block. Then it is time to take a break…
Do you think you are not doing enough? Do you feel behind and everyone is more productive than you? This week’s topic of the Creative Work Problems comic series covers…
This week’s topic of the Creative Work Problems comic series is the difference between Leonardo Da Vinci and you. You probably think that he was the best of all time…
You hear stuff everywhere that you have to do this or that. Criticism of your work or just how you should be creative. Maybe you are not productive enough and…
A big project or something else really big can be overwhelming sometimes. There are so many things to do that the whole project looks like a really big dangerous wave.…
For months I felt numb to what I was doing, there was no fun anymore. I didn’t enjoy my dream job anymore. Maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration because I didn’t hate my job. I just lost the passion for what I was doing and that was a little too much for me.
The problem with not having fun at work is that you automatically get less done and get bored quickly. In other words: I was no longer productive. So I asked myself how I was going to enjoy my creative work again, and actually, I was able to answer that question, and I managed to have fun again. My dream job was saved!
How I did it, and how you can do it too if you’ve become numb to your creative work, is what I’m going to tell you in this short blog post.
Things that are fun
One of the reasons I wasn’t having a good time wasn’t because of a boring work process or a stressful client. In those moments, it can be normal not to have fun, even when you have your dream job. My place of numbness was in doing things I used to enjoy a lot. Working on things I wanted to make, sketching wildly, and creating new creatures and worlds, to name just a few. None of it was as fun as it used to be. As a result, my own deadlines on all my projects were clearly dying.
How did I start to enjoy it again? And how do you get the fun back? By doing these three things today:
Thing 1: Make an effort.
Sometimes we do work that we can’t identify with. Less so when we are doing our own work, and more so when we are doing work for others. But even when we do it for ourselves, we may feel that it’s not our work. This happens when we put less effort into it.
According to Yu-Kai Chou in Actionable Gamification, it is important to own your work in order to enjoy it. We need to be in control of everything we do. When we put less effort into something, we own it less. Therefore, we enjoy it less. I have noticed this with my own work. This insight has helped me tremendously, and it is such a simple trick.
Practical action: Put more effort into your creative work and you’ll enjoy it more.
Thing 2: Telling yourself it’s fun.
Here comes a piece of behavioral therapy. Because we tell ourselves it’s not fun, our brains change (no joke) and we train ourselves not to enjoy it. Even if we don’t believe what we tell ourselves, our brain changes for the better (or worse)! This is another simple trick that has helped me so much.
Just tell yourself: This is fun! I love this work! Or even when it’s difficult: This is difficult work right now, but this is what I want to do and it’s fun. This will change the structure of your brain (I’m really not kidding) and after a while, you will automatically enjoy your creative work more.
Practical action: During a difficult phase of your work, tell yourself that you enjoy it and want to do it.
Thing 3: Create systems that celebrate your accomplishments.
Whether it’s checking off to-do items or something else, when you get something done, you should celebrate your accomplishments with systems created specifically for that purpose.
I created a level system where after 30 points I move up a level and get to draw a lottery ticket with rewards. A record system also helps: If you want to paint for an hour every day, keep track of it, and after a while, you can visually see that you have a winning streak. You will automatically try to keep this streak going. That way it’s more fun to stick with it when motivation isn’t there.
Practical action: Create systems for your successes that can make your creative work more fun.
Conclusion
These are my top three things that have put the fun back into my work. They’re so simple, it’s almost silly that I (and maybe you) haven’t done them before. If you’re not having fun, these things can help you put some fun back into your creative work. Give it a try, you’ve got nothing to lose!
Oh, how we know that feeling. We’re working on our creative thing, whether it’s comics, drawings, or something else, and we just can’t come up with any good ideas. Our mind is empty. It seems that only shitty ideas are left in our heads. But it is important, especially in our creative work, that we can generate as many good ideas as possible because the variety of our work is what we need to make good things. Without many different (good) ideas, there will be no good creative work. And this is where we sometimes struggle. Just generating good ideas.
So how do we do that? We have to distinguish between two things: Belief in the process and techniques for generating ideas.
Belief in the Process
Belief in the process is critical to idea generation. Because sometimes we don’t do the right thing to get the right ideas. We sit around and wonder why this creative thing just doesn’t get better. Why does THE idea never come? We have to believe in the process and this is divided into several areas.
Area 1: Trust in Bad Ideas
We have to remember that not every idea we generate is good. We dig and dig and just come up with nothing good. But there may be one good idea among hundreds of bad ones. It doesn’t matter how many there are. The important thing is that we know we just have to keep working on possible ideas so that eventually the good ones we need will come. And they exist. You know they are somewhere because you have had them in the past. Believe in it! Deep under all that crap is something we can use. So let’s keep digging!
Area 2: Belief in Working on the Bad Ideas
Depending on the creative work you do, the process of turning bad ideas into something is important. For example, in drawing, sometimes the ideas come only when you start drawing. The same can happen with any creative work. If you make crap, at some point the idea of how to make something good out of the crap will come. Sometimes, even if you make a mistake, a good idea can come out of it. It’s very similar to when we have a hundred bad ideas in our heads. But if we work on it and use our hands (or feet, if you can work creatively with them), those good ideas will come by themselves. So: Work on your thing! Don’t wait for a good idea, start working on it and the good idea will come.
Area 3: Believing in Pauses
In addition, the creative process sometimes allows us to take a break. This is important because when we’re not working on our projects, an idea can suddenly come to us. So when things aren’t going well, it helps to just work on something else or take a break. Take a short walk outside, which has helped famous scientists to solve problems. Or get the idea in the shower. Over the years I have learned what is really important when taking these breaks: think about the problem every now and then. If you go for a walk without thinking about your project, you may never get an idea. But thinking too much is not good either, so it is important to find a middle ground.
When things aren’t going well, it’s important to remember these areas and not lose your head. Believe in the process! Believe in yourself! It helps you overcome anxiety and the pressure to come up with the perfect idea.
Techniques and Methods for Idea Generation
While it helps to believe in the process and keep working (or walking/showering) accordingly, good techniques for generating ideas are of course important. So here’s a list of my favorites and a few others. I distinguish between techniques where you don’t have an idea yet and techniques where you already have ideas.
Techniques and Methods Without Ideas
Brainstorming
Just about the best-known technique. And one of my favorites. You don’t have to brainstorm in words! You can sketch, paint, make whatever in a tiny size, and do variations to brainstorm. This will trigger area 2 from before because you are already thinking about ideas and making them. And don’t be afraid to make stupid ideas! Even the worst ones go on this list!
Mind Mapping / Clustering
So I’ve been reading Writing the Natural Way by Gabriele Rico and came across a technique called “Clustering”. It’s similar to mind mapping but you write down the associations of the word you use. So if you need ideas for a topic about trees, for example, you write down the first thing that comes to mind about the word “tree”. For me it is “green”, “leaves”, “book”, “reading”, “free time”, “walking” … etc. Sometimes these associations give you pretty good ideas that even have a deeper meaning. For example, a few months ago I did a comic called “Catch an Eye“. I asked my partner to give me a word and I’d make a comic out of it. She said “eye” and I used the clustering method to get ideas for the story.
Real-Life Experiences
Sometimes we forget that we have a real life to draw ideas from. So if you have a project that could have some connection to your past, search it for good ideas! Sometimes these are the best ideas because they add a personal touch to your project. The second thing is to go to places in real life where you can experience something similar to your project. For example: If you have to do something related to the Middle Ages, go to a history museum.
Word Ideas
If you can get ideas for your creative project from a few words, you could use random word generators on the Internet to get some ideas. You can even combine them. Sometimes when I draw a creature or character, I use some random words to get ideas of what they might look like. You could even point blindly at a book or newspaper to get those words.
Techniques and Methods with Existing Ideas
SO TAME Method
I used this in a Creative Work Problems comic. If you already have ideas, you can use them to get other ideas. Sometimes the bad idea just needs a different form to become good. The SO TAME method is a mnemonic for this:
S – Slice it up
O – Do the Opposite
T – Take something away
A – Add something
M – Mix it
E – Exaggerate it
Pretty much take your idea and do one or more of these things to it. Sometimes you will come up with some very unique ideas. I use it myself almost every day.
Two into One
Sometimes two things should be one idea. To me, that is what an idea essentially is: A mixture of two thoughts. So if you need a good idea, try to combine two things. Do you need a warrior character design? Why not mix a warrior with a baby and make a big baby warrior? Because warriors are “dumb” and so are newborn babies. Voila, we have a nice idea. Maybe this has already been done, I do not know. You can do this with anything that exists.
The “What if…” Method
Let’s say you have a story. But this story is pretty boring and you have no idea how to make it better. Well, there is a method called “What if …”. This method asks a question about an idea you already have. It lets you think differently and add things that you would never have thought of without it.
So let’s do this quickly: We have a story. Say a whale wants to find his true love. A whale that just swims around might work, but … what if … the whale lives in the sky? Now we have a nice setting that makes the story more interesting. And we go on … what if … the whale falls in love with a cloud that looks like a whale? Well, now we have a bad idea. But remember! You need stupid ideas to get to the good ideas. So just go with the “what if” method and you will find the good stuff. You don’t have to keep everything. Maybe with this method, we’ll find a cool story about the whale finding love, but it’s not going to happen in the sky.
SCAMPER Method
I stumbled upon this method while researching this blog post. I haven’t used it yet, but it sounds promising. It is similar to my SO TAME method. This SCAMPER method allows you to think outside the box. The acronym stands for Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify/Magnify/Minimize, Put to Other Use, Eliminate, and Rearrange/Reverse. The method involves applying these seven strategies to existing ideas to create new ones.
Substitute involves replacing elements in the idea with alternatives. Combine suggests combining two or more ideas. Adapting involves modifying existing ideas to fit new contexts. Modify/Magnify/Minimize involves changing the size or scale of an element. Put to other uses suggests using a concept in a different context. Eliminating involves removing an element or simplifying an idea. Rearrange/Reverse involves changing the order or direction of elements.
Conclusion
Generating good ideas can be a daunting task, but it is essential for success in any creative field. Believing in the process is crucial because it helps you overcome the fear of failure and the pressure to come up with a good idea. You must understand that generating good ideas is a journey, not a destination, and you must be patient with yourself.
In addition, you can use several techniques and methods to generate good ideas. Brainstorming, Mind Mapping / Clustering, and SCAMPER are just a few examples of the many tools available to help you generate new and good ideas. The key is to experiment with different techniques and find what works best for you.
Ultimately, coming up with good ideas requires a combination of creativity, persistence, and hard work. By believing in the process and using effective techniques and methods, you can generate a wealth of new and exciting ideas that will help you achieve your goals and create good stuff for others to enjoy! Now keep on making!
