The acronym FRESH was created by Todd Henry to nourish and ferment creativity in everyday life.
Focus - is dampened by two key factors: unhealthy assumptions and the ping. Unhealthy assumptions happen when the brain imagines the outcome of the creative task. Ping happens when the mind becomes distracted by irrelevant activities. To fight the ping, three things must be done. Define and refine the work and cluster tasks. To define work create 4-6 challenges to the work. To refine work is to identify the three most important projects. To cluster similar tasks is to manage time spent doing things like scheduling meetings, messaging teachers, or talking to a coworker. To combat these issues, create trash and eradicate all distractions in the workplace.
Relationships - creative people usually find themselves with a paintbrush, pencil, computer, or instrument with no distractions. This exclusion of people creates less creative inspiration in people and doesn’t give the individual the perspective they need to make their best art. To combat isolation and introversion is to start a circle, head to head, and establish a core team. First, a core team of creative individuals must be gathered. This group can consist of people from different industries, friends, or even colleagues. Next, create one-on-one meetings with the people in the group and create a healthy dose of competition to nurture growth and challenge each other to innovate. Finally, the group requires a long-term student-and-master relationship. Seek the advice and counsel of experts - people outside your company and from different industries and positions. This will broaden your perspective and encourage learning.
Energy - is often the most neglected resource. People mistakingly assume that energy is a resource with a never-ending abyss. The brain takes two percent of the body's mass but uses twenty percent of the bodily functions. Given this fact, it is necessary to maintain and preserve the brain. But charging the batteries isn’t as straightforward. The best way to conserve energy is to have an excellent time and resource management. To scale this analogy to the more grand picture, plan out projects, events, and other future plans by the year. Create plans for weekly, monthly, quarterly, and biannual events. Planning from this perspective prepares the conscious mind and body to complete tasks, promotes confidence, and accountability exercises self-discipline, and creates a mindset shift to proactively control the future.
Stimuli - the phrase “you are what you eat” is in my opinion, one of the most useful ideas. Comparing this to creativity, stimulation is the tool for promoting creativity. To most people, this is seen as taking part in abstract and intellectual conversations, painting, composing music, creating random stuff, etc etc. There also must be daily consumption of sources that are relevant – not only to specific projects and goals but also to the overall, long-term skills that are essential for development. Diversity is also key to creativity. The best way to achieve this is to consider topics and opinions that aren’t usually appealing. Go to an art museum, indulge in unusual activities, and take a walk. An important thing to note is that creativity usually strikes at random moments, but there are certainly ways to increase the probability of that creative inspiration and triggers to unleash it. To help you manage your challenging, relevant and diverse stimuli, there are three things you should do: cultivate, process and experience. Make a quarterly study plan and allocate 25 percent to areas where you lack information needed for your job; 25 percent to what will benefit you in a wider sense, like educational blind spots and deficiencies; and 50 percent to things you’re curious about, like history or gardening, focusing on your passions, not your obligations. Then take notes on your insights, review them and see if a pattern emerges. You can do what Founding Father John Adams did and fill in the margins of books with your notes, as if reading was a conversation and not a monologue.
Hours - time is the most significant non-renewable resource in existence. To increase productivity, become relaxed, and effectively manage time wisely is to aim for quality over quantity. One important ideology many successful people have learned is that everything in life goes in a compound interest pattern. A great way to apply this to creativity is to create a routine that exponentially increases in its value that impacts all aspects of life. The first step is to establish this idea. More specifically, brainstorming. This mental exercise is usually viewed as a group exercise but can also be used as a solo. The sole purpose of this exercise is to generate ideas. As a first step, free up one hour to sit down in front of a whiteboard or with some pencil and paper. The thought of thinking of new ideas can seem daunting but stimuli and exposure to exciting things can surge creativity in a successful session. The second step is to exercise creating for the sake of creating. This action will allow the brain to think with no outcome in mind and will encourage a more curious person.
*Tip: Stimuli and Hours - To help you manage your challenging, relevant and diverse stimuli, there are three things you should do: cultivate, process and experience. Make a quarterly study plan and allocate 25 percent to areas where you lack the information needed for your job; 25 percent to what will benefit you in a wider sense, like educational blind spots and deficiencies; and 50 percent to things you’re curious about, like history or gardening, focusing on your passions, not your obligations. Then take notes on your insights, review them and see if a pattern emerges. You can do what Founding Father John Adams did and fill in the margins of books with your notes as if reading was a conversation and not a monologue.
Assassins of Creativity;
Dissonance - usually arises when a company’s purpose for action – “the why” of the company – is not aligned with the actions it takes – the company’s “what.” Cure: always question why and always follow through and answer why.
Fear - when the outcome of the creative task becomes scary the person is less likely to believe that they could succeed. Cure: create trash. This numbs the way of thinking of always wanting to create the perfect piece of work which inevitably leads to the person not creating anything.
Expectation escalation, when the outcome of the project has been fixated the ability to seek and look at other possibilities is inflated. This approach rewards outcome and not effort creating a safer and less risky environment. This effect forces people to not be bold and try new things. Ergo decreases creativity. Cure: Have an open mind and look for absurd ideas and opportunities.