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A few weeks ago, I sat at my desk job, performing the mind numbing task of editing out Indian English from a slew of participant bios (which can make even someone who is pretty familiar with the language want to bang her head against a wall 70 times). I got up, grabbed a glass of water and my lunch box, chatted with some other interns for 10 minutes, and went back to my desk. I edited some more. When I was confused, I got up and consulted with a few other interns over another particularly tricky bio, and continued to plug away. At 5 pm, I packed up, checked in, and headed out into the glorious fall afternoon.
But as I
muddled around in my work, I kept asking myself If this isn’t what I want,
what is?
For an
internship, my job is great, but possibilities for my post-intern life
percolate in my imagination. I know I want to work to advance the world in an
impactful way. I need to be doing something different every day, or at least I
don’t want my Tuesday’s focus to be my Friday’s focus to be my Wednesday’s
focus. Interaction and movement are a must, but more than anything, I NEED
CREATIVITY IN MY LIFE.
As a
student, my days are filled with school work and work-work, neither of which
leave me time to pursue other endeavors. So where can I find the space to be
creative? And if my future doesn't hold a creative career, how can find
creativity outside of my 9-to-5?
Focusing on the now, here are my favorite three ways to find space for creativity in my life:
1. Find
beautiful places
As I write this post, I’m sitting on a set of concrete steps leading way from one of the apartment building on my street to a bike trail. Before me is a smattering of ivy-laden trees, thorny fairy tale bushes, and low lying bushes, and I already feel more at peace, with my mind gaining its sense of feeling back after the work day. This is a new place for me, and my head is already dreaming up angles to shoot photos from, color palettes possibilities, and I can feel lines of prose jump into my fingers. It’s important to change up your surroundings, not only visually, but tonally as well. What do I mean by that? I’m a coffee shop gal, and I know that’s where I get my most productive work done, creative and otherwise. But smells and sounds of the coffee shop can only inspire you as long as it’s a change from your norm; in order for me to continue to gain inspiration there, I also need to spend time in more isolated places, like this set of steps, where the only sound is the whisper of the breeze through the trees and the murmur of the distant highway.
As I write this post, I’m sitting on a set of concrete steps leading way from one of the apartment building on my street to a bike trail. Before me is a smattering of ivy-laden trees, thorny fairy tale bushes, and low lying bushes, and I already feel more at peace, with my mind gaining its sense of feeling back after the work day. This is a new place for me, and my head is already dreaming up angles to shoot photos from, color palettes possibilities, and I can feel lines of prose jump into my fingers. It’s important to change up your surroundings, not only visually, but tonally as well. What do I mean by that? I’m a coffee shop gal, and I know that’s where I get my most productive work done, creative and otherwise. But smells and sounds of the coffee shop can only inspire you as long as it’s a change from your norm; in order for me to continue to gain inspiration there, I also need to spend time in more isolated places, like this set of steps, where the only sound is the whisper of the breeze through the trees and the murmur of the distant highway.
2. Block time
out for inspiration and creation.
This is goal I have a hard time with making good on, but I aspire to it nonetheless – carving time out of every week, ideally every day, to find inspiration and to actually produce my own work. For me, this often takes the form of targeted Pinterest breaks during slow days at work, and having a project I like to make weekly progress on. While in a perfect world, I wouldn’t want to regiment time to create, as it seems to defeat the purpose of “finding creativity,” it’s better than nothing at all. If you’re someone with the luxury of having more time at your disposal, you could try blocking out “creative time” but alternatively not set an agenda for it, letting things come when and if they do.
This is goal I have a hard time with making good on, but I aspire to it nonetheless – carving time out of every week, ideally every day, to find inspiration and to actually produce my own work. For me, this often takes the form of targeted Pinterest breaks during slow days at work, and having a project I like to make weekly progress on. While in a perfect world, I wouldn’t want to regiment time to create, as it seems to defeat the purpose of “finding creativity,” it’s better than nothing at all. If you’re someone with the luxury of having more time at your disposal, you could try blocking out “creative time” but alternatively not set an agenda for it, letting things come when and if they do.
3. 
Write
often on what whatever nonsense fills your head.
Or paint, draw, strum, sing whatever it is that comes to you. It may not be brilliant, but that never stops it from being good, either for the practice or for the work of another day. The journal I write in currently has bits of creative and memoir writing, alongside classic teenage angst filled diary entries, with the creative work dating as far back as a decade ago (I’m old!). Most of this stuff was probably terrible to my eyes right after writing it, but I’m so thankful it’s there now. There are many torn out pages that I regret, but the overly sentimental poems and chapter babies that fill the pages that remain, all carry inspiration for the (hopefully better) writing of tomorrow. This is also difficult for me personally, because I have a very loud, stubborn inner critic, but just letting go and writing garbage can be very freeing, especially if you’ve been used to writing/creating for school or anyone else.
Write
often on what whatever nonsense fills your head.Or paint, draw, strum, sing whatever it is that comes to you. It may not be brilliant, but that never stops it from being good, either for the practice or for the work of another day. The journal I write in currently has bits of creative and memoir writing, alongside classic teenage angst filled diary entries, with the creative work dating as far back as a decade ago (I’m old!). Most of this stuff was probably terrible to my eyes right after writing it, but I’m so thankful it’s there now. There are many torn out pages that I regret, but the overly sentimental poems and chapter babies that fill the pages that remain, all carry inspiration for the (hopefully better) writing of tomorrow. This is also difficult for me personally, because I have a very loud, stubborn inner critic, but just letting go and writing garbage can be very freeing, especially if you’ve been used to writing/creating for school or anyone else.
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