In this short video (hat tip to Presentation Zen), John Cleese shares some of his ideas about the creative process. Even though this video is only 10 minutes of his presentation, it contains some great lessons. Here are a few of the lessons I took away:
- We don’t know where creative ideas come from, but we know they don’t come from our laptops.
- Interruptions are the enemy of creativity. We need to create boundaries of time and space – what Cleese calls a “tortoise enclosure” or oasis.
- Not thinking about a particular problem (consciously) can be a great way to solve it.
[If you can’t see the video above, click this link]
John’s idea about creating boundaries of space and time reminds me of the advice that we give related to working on your marketing system – namely, that you should schedule appointments with yourself to work on your marketing. I always tell people to treat this time as if it were an appointment with your most important customer. That means no rescheduling at the last minute, no interruptions, no reading email, etc.
Without putting in the effort to create barriers of space, it can be very difficult (impossible?) to concentrate uninterrupted for even 60 minutes. But having this time to work on your marketing plan is essential to the long term success of your business.
How to you create barriers of space in you world? Do you retreat to a quite place? Do you have times when you turn off your email, phone(s), etc.?
Bill Brelsford Small Business Marketing Consultant
