Ignite Your Everyday Creativity: Week One

I just started a class on Coursera called Ignite Your Everyday Creativity.  Week one was a bunch of introduction stuff, but I wanted to share a quote that they shared that I really enjoyed:

"You can't use up creativity.  The more you use, the more you have."  Maya Angelou

On a side note, I was reading Oprah Magazine yesterday and there was a small picture of Oprah in Maya Angelou's library, which she left to Oprah when she passed away.  What an extraordinary gift to leave someone - the books you read, your notes in the margins, the words that shaped your life.  

It makes me think about my curated book collection and what it would say about me it I were to leave it to someone.  What does your book collection say about you?

Vacation and Increased Productivity

I love books on increasing personal productivity.  I have tried Bullet Journals, Outlook functions, one-note, extensive task lists, spreadsheets, etc.  If someone recommends it, I will try it.

One consistent feature in all of the business book reading on productivity, however, is that they all recommend the use of downtime to refocus and get your brain working again.  I am the WORST at this. 

I am currently on my first full week of vacation since I started my new job more than a year ago.  A year.  Trying to decompress has been hard, however.

I want to check my phone.  I want to take calls.  It may take the whole seven days of vacation to break the work habit and get into the vacation habit.

I am an e-mail addict.  I need to confess.

I am on vacation with my family, which in some ways still entails a good bit of work, but I am trying to take some time for me.  

To kick that off- I have been going on a relaxing morning walk.  I am still waking up at 6:30 every morning, but sleeping in is asking too much.  I am on Day 3 of vacation and I have also already read a whole book.  For pleasure.  That wasn't a business book.  We will see if I can maintain the gains on vacation relaxation.

I will keep you posted.

Quote of the Day: Carolin Ghosn

"The different between skill and talent: A skill is something you learn. Talent is what you can't help doing."  Carolin Ghosn, CEO and Founder, Levo

Wellness and Creativity

This summer, since I was taking a sabbatical from work, I decided to take two online classes.  One was on Leadership and Emotional Intelligence, offered through Coursera, and the other one was Thrive, an Oprah O Course.

These were, of course, two totally different classes, but had one common theme- to a certain degree, as a leader and a person, you need to be mentally well in order to have successful relationships- either at work or at home.

Corporate wellness is a huge topic right now.  Companies are sponsoring fun runs, buying Fitbits, taking blood pressure and cholesterol levels in the cafeteria, and charging you more for health insurance if you smoke.  The US Department of Labor released a study stating that 92 percent of companies with 200 employees or more have wellness programs.  Further, it is estimated that companies are spending between 3 and 8 billion dollars per year on wellness programs.

All is not sunshine and roses, however.  As part of the DoL report, it is revealed that only about 20 percent of the people who have access to wellness programs actually use them.  Further, Andre Spicer, of the Cass Business School in London, conducted a study that stated that the wellness programs not only provide a poor return, but they also make many employees less healthy and more anxious about their jobs.

Interestingly, he also suggests in his research that while most companies now embrace all forms of diversity, at least on paper, wellness programs are creating a situation where there is a less-healthy underclass, that is assumed to perform less well at their actual jobs.

But, some forms of wellness not only reduce health care costs for your company, but also increases your creativity, ability to innovate, and emotional intelligence.

Ariana Huffington, in her book Thrive, talks about how she got the idea for the Huffington Post while taking a walk.  She also has a daily meditation routine to help her mentally reset during stressful days so that she isn't letting the stress of the day accumulate on her overstimulated brain.  Al Sharpton starts every day with a morning run and recitation of two poems to put him in the right mindset for his day.

Last year Marily Oppezzo and Daniel Schwartz of Stanford released one of the first studies on creativity and walking.  On average students who were walking came up with 4-6 more creative ideas for uses of a common object and 95 percent were able to create equivalent metaphors after walking compared to 50 percent who never stood up. 

And now corporations are investing in treadmill desks as part of their wellness programs. (Although the research is still out on whether this works, there are marked differences in creativity based on where you are walking- i.e. green space vs. city vs. indoors).

As with most things, we will struggle to find the balance in corporate wellness programs at the institutional level.  No one likes Big Brother telling them they have to have 10,451 steps in a day to achieve a full paycheck/incentives.  But, at the end of the day, getting up and moving, achieving a healthy weight, and stopping smoking is good for you and it is good for your brain.

Quote of the Day: Yancey Strickler

"I don't have any social media on my phone.  The more time you spend in the stream of other people's thoughts, the more impossible it is for you to have your own. You need space for yourself."