• Constrain Yourself, Your Time, and Your Tools

    by Alexander Becker on June 06, 2007 | Link

    Some concepts keep recurring, again and again, less is more, for example.

    Of Ririan Project's 33 New Ways To Overclock Your Brain, one is particularly powerful --

    Constrain yourself.

    You need structure in your life. And by constraining yourself -- say giving yourself deadlines, limiting your time on an idea in some manner, or limiting the tools you are working with -- you can often accomplish more in less time.

    Use deadlines and short time frames. What do you do with your time and sharply defined increments?

    Let's take a look at relativity -- what do you accomplish within an hour?

    Exercises, for example
    100 bodyweight squats: 3 minutes.
    10 intervals of 15 seconds all out sprinting and 45 seconds recovery jogging: 10 minutes.
    Four ridiculous minutes of dumbbell thrusting.
    Full body workout using free weights: 30 minutes.
    Writing
    One such article: 20 minutes.
    Food preparation
    A big omelette with vegetables and some chicken, all freshly chopped: 15 minutes.

    Now, what is it, what single activity takes a full hour? Is there anything taking one full hour? Sure, but cramming those activities within the available 30 minutes makes them even more intense, more dense, and more fun to begin with.

    On the other hand, try to limit tools and get your ideas out, with whatever's at hand.

    Pencil and a notebook instead of the computer anyone? The medium makes the message. Leave the notebook at home and write your million-dollar-idea down, on the next best surface. Do not let the medium or the brand of your beautiful sketchbook dictate your message.

    In other words, do you need a certain, specific, tool to get the job done, a piano made out of glass, for example? One of my favorite quotes from Hugh MacLeod's How to be Creative, is about pillar management, and the props used to hide behind --

    There's no correlation between creativity and equipment ownership. None. Zilch. Nada.

    There you have it, etc.

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