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Creativity

Video: John Cleese Discusses Innovation

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGt3-fxOvug

The hilariously creative John Cleese shares how interruptions and busyness are the biggest barriers standing in the way of innovation.

If you get into the right mood, then your mode of thinking will become much more creative. But if you’re racing around all day ticking things off your list, looking at your watch, making phone calls, and generally just keeping all the balls in the air, you are not going to have any creative ideas.

His solution? Make boundaries of space and time.

(Source: http://www.youtube.com/)

The Struggles of Creativity

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The painful and inevitable struggle remains to create in a childlike and openhearted manner, but to be un-wistful and cruel when judging one’s creation.

Artist Christoph Niemann writing for the New Yorker about the process of making his first app and the “most important struggle at the center of all creative pursuits: being the artist and the editor at the same time.”

Productivity Secrets: The Best of the Internet

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Get BetterHappy Friday! Catch up with the best of what we’ve shared on the interwebs this week! 

Dare to say “YES, AND”!

Having the audacity to ask (or say “Yes, and”) opens doors. Waiting for permission leaves you hanging.

Harness the Productivity Power of Automation.

Create with an open heart. Edit with a critical eye.

Productivity secrets for startups.

What will our digital etiquette be in the age of Data Darwinism?

imageDundee’s Tip of the Week:   Try using Zapier or IFTTT to automate I Done This updates from lots of apps, including Evernote and Github! Set triggers and zaps to send to today@today.idonethis.com (personal users) and yourteamname@team.idonethis.com (teams). You can find the exact address in the “from” field of your reminder emails.

Dare to Say “Yes, And”

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The skills cultivated in improvisation — communication, creativity, teamwork, taking risks, and resilience — are ones you’d want to see on a résumé. Business schools are taking note and even teaching improv. Robert Kulhan, adjunct professor at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business explains, that at its core, “Improvisation isn’t about comedy, it’s about reacting — being focused and present in the moment at a very high level.”

One of the most fundamental principles of improv which produces that mindful reacting is “Yes, and”. You accept and agree with what someone has said, and you’re not done until you build upon it, which requires listening, understanding, and insight.

That “and” generates possibility, and as Tina Fey writes in Bossypants, responsibility. For her, “Yes, and” means, “[D]on’t be afraid to contribute. It’s your responsibility to contribute. Always make sure you’re adding something to the discussion. Your initiations are worthwhile.”

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Steve Jobs and Customers: The Best of the Internet

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MargeHappy Friday! Catch up with the best of what we’ve shared on the interwebs this week!

How leaders & employees can power up happiness at work.

Luc Levesque, of TravelPod & TripAdvisor, on how to lead your team to excellence and how he uses iDoneThis.

The science of shower creativity.

Why Steve Jobs never listened to his customers.

5 ways to standout performance.

When leaders don’t have time to lead and fear accountability.

imageDundee’s Tip of the Week:  Hey iDT team users, have you noticed that links are now clickable? Include links in your dones to show ALL the things!

 

Charlotte Perkins Gilman on The Yellow Wallpaper

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I … went to work again–work, the normal life of every human being; work, in which is joy and growth and service, without which one is a pauper and a parasite–ultimately recovering some measure of power.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman, on why she wrote The Yellow Wall-paper, after a specialist had told her to refrain from intellectual life, “never to touch pen, brush, or pencil again,” — words which led her to near “mental ruin.” Indeed, it is heartening to remember that there is the possibility of power, joy, growth, and service in work.