Cal Newport: Getting Creative Things Done

Cal Newport has written this very interesting post on The 99% Percent about getting creative things done amidst a busy schedule of meetings and distraction. I've only included a snippet here because it's quite long, but it's well worth a read and may be an interesting solution to ensuring we get more good quality creative time outside of meetings, emails, and phonecalls.

" This situation is common for to-do list creatives – workers who have the juggle creative work – like writing or devising strategy – with logistical work – like prompt email replies and meetings. I'm a to-do list creative: as a theoretical computer scientist, I must switch between solving mathematical proofs – one of the most purely creative endeavors – and the logistics of reviewing papers and meeting with grant managers. To keep things interesting, I also sometimes write.

Here's our quandary: To-do list creatives advance in their careers based on the quality of their creative output. Our logistical responsibilities, however, fight against this goal. Most to-do list creatives cannot drop everything to spend days lost in monk-like focus. But the result of instead squeezing creative work into distracted bursts, driven by deadline pressure, is mediocrity. (Exhibit A: the first draft of my research statement).

Fortunately, however, there is hope..." 

Continue reading here.