Ten minutes worth of valuable lessons about creativity from British funny man, John Cleese.
My biggest take from this video is his point on “Sleeping on it”. I remember growing up, when my mom would say to me after studying all night, “If you’re tired, go to bed. Get up early, you’ll study better then”. It’s help me a lot in my creative career, working in advertising agencies, burning the midnight oil. It helps me a lot now too as a strategist, solving problems. A mind can only go so far, when it needs rest, then to wake up refreshed to start again the next day.
A second take from this is his point on interruptions. It’s a killer for the creative process. Sometimes you need to focus for extended periods of time, which means you’d like everyone to just leave you the hell alone 🙂 Sometimes however you also need to work and play together with others. That’s why I’m all for multi-purpose offices, where employees can change location, based on the job or project at hand.