116 - Another World

What this episode covers

Creativity. It's like another world. Subscribe: ITUNES | ANDROID | STITCHER | RSS FEED Music and links from this episode Inner Mental Cage (Bitmap Remix) by Controlled Insanity Freejazz by The Unknown Trio Hola Hola Bossa Nova by Juanitos Line-by-line notes INTRO When you’re making things Designing things Drawing things Or just creating things Is a really special thing It’s not like anything else on this planet When you get into the zone... It’s like stepping into another world This is AADA, and I’m Craig Burgess PLAY MID SONG Jazz music is the ultimate place of stepping into another world for me Jazz musicians are some of the most creative people on the planet And once they’ve found their flow Their improvisations are otherworldly When their improvising, they’re in a flow and in another world The idea of flow is not an idea that’s unique to creativity It’s talked about in sports and lots of other places The idea is sometimes referred to as being in the zone It’s a special place where nothing else matters around you You’re completely and utterly immersed in your activity I get like this when I’m designing things And also when I’m coding Once I’m 100% focused on the activity Everything else around me fades away Being in a creative flow is a lot like meditating You’re completely and utterly focused on nothing else In my day to day life Of phone calls, emails and office conversation I don’t get much of a chance to get into this zone It’s hard in a busy lifestyle with lots to do To get focused And to find room inside your busy brain But to produce our best work And to be at our best creatively We need to find ways to achieve it Everybody’s different And part of the challenge of harnessing your other world Is to find when it’s easiest to access for you For some people it’s a morning And there’s been lots of studies to say that mornings are the most productive for a lot of people For me, I love my sleep So mornings aren’t good for me But I really kick into overdrive on an evening Unfortunately the later the better for me I love the feeling of night time peace And that really feels like another world to me I record my podcasts pretty late at night The night time has a different mood for me Everything is at peace And everything is quiet There’s no fast moving people needing to get somewhere And there’s no cars flying around desperate to get to their final destination Everybody is just…relaxed And enjoying themselves And whilst this time is going on I feel at my most creative and productive To succeed as a designer or any creative You’ve got to learn about your other world And how to get into it Savour it And create stuff in it Not only will you become a better creative You’ll enjoy yourself too A win win creative situation OUTRO This was AADA. I’m Craig Burgess. Music featured in this episode was Inner Mental Cage (Bitmap Remix) by Controlled Insanity Freejazz by The Unknown Trio Hola Hola Bossa Nova by Juanitos For a line-by-line run down of this episode, go to askadesignernaything.com/ep116 I’m back tomorrow for another episode of AADA Support Ask a Designer Anything Ask a Designer Anything Website Twitter (@craigburgess) Ask a Designer Anything on Facebook Leave me a review on iTunes