Cal Newport wrote a great post over at the 99percent, “Getting Creative Things Done: How To Fit Hard Thinking Into a Busy Schedule”
Like Cal, I need to balance between getting things done (emails, meetings, eating, etc) and creative brainstorming. He calls us “to-do list creatives”.
To bad “most to-do list creatives cannot drop everything to spend days lost in monk-like focus.” The next best thing is to be proactive and reserve a few blocks of dedicated time through out the week.
Here’s a high level look at Cal’s GCTD system.
- At the beginning of each week, decide on the one (or, at most, two) big creative projects that will receive your attention over the next five days.
- Block out time for these projects on your calendar.
- Set rules for your creative blocks.
- Focus on process, not goals.
It is a great post. Go and read the full article here.