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Creativiting

The current mood board in my studio

Dear Reader! How art thou? I am feeling silly and excited and a flurry of activity!

Exciting things lay on the horizon – lots of fabulous feedback from the mens about their undie needs. I heard a lot about “the junk.” But also some really giggly insights like boxer briefs being “not too creepy to cook breakfast in.” And that boxers are “grave danger when biking!”

I’m reading “The Accidental Creative: How to be Brilliant at a Moment’s Notice” and have loved some of Todd Henry’s insights about how to build structure into your schedule to nurture creativity.  He’s got lots of recommendations (which I will now boil down into a neat list of bullet points, but the book is totally worth checking out!):

  • Focus – reframing challenges by asking questions (helpful list in the book) and scheduling time to deeply explore ideas/situation (without being a slave to the next task on your list or email in your inbox- so hard!)
  • Relationships – carefully choosing who you spend time with, and surrounding yourself with mentors and others to bounce ideas off of and energy with (ideas about how to structure this too…)
  • Energy – Planning for how the demands on your energy will be affected by the projects you’re working on; recognizing that compartmentalizing (“work/life balance”) isn’t too realistic when you think for a living (this is a huge one for me)
  • Stimuli - He recommends scheduling time to study things that interest you and paying close attention to the stimuli (news, books, tv, blogs, etc) you take in. Looking for diverse perspectives and dissenting opinions to challenge you in new ways
  • Hours – Giving yourself time to just sit and come up with ideas. About anything. And taking time to create for the sake of creating. For yourself.

I’ve been reading lots of books about business lately (most of the recommendations from Making a Living Without a Job) and visiting lots of museums, but some of the topics Henry explored were challenging.  I sometimes use sewing time to keep up with pop culture and watch terrible tv.  Jersey Shore?  One episode was enough, thankyouverymuch. Toddlers and Tiaras?  Same. Only a little bit of shame… :)

Some of his suggestions were really exciting:  like the importance of exploring topics that are personally intriguing even if you can’t see a connection- I’m planning on reading some of the classics I’ve always neglected.  And maybe studying modern dance.

One quote he cited that really got me was, “We say we waste time, but that is impossible.  We waste ourselves.”  -Alice Bloch. Alice! That hurts! But so true.

So I’m curious about what you do. Do you study or spend time exploring anything completely unrelated to your day job or side hustle? How do you nurture your curiosity and your creativity?  Please comment below!  (Feel free to include any recommendations for classics or dance anything…  :))

xoxo

Is that a story in your underpants?

There's definitely a story here! :)

How do you tell your story?  How do you choose what to leave in or out, what to emphasize?

We all have stories we fall back on, ones we love to tell because they get a great laugh (My best friend and I once got pulled over twice in one night for smoking cigars), or because of their shock factor or uniqueness (The toes on my right foot all died and came back to life.  For real.  Zombie toes.)

So now I’m working on telling my new stories, the ones about my business (why underwear?), my motivations (why tshirts?).  What I do and why, and why people should care (Thank you for caring!  Thank you for reading!).

Yesterday I met Christian from Boomba Chicken.  He’s a kind of professional story teller, a great communicator that helps business people tell their stories.  I’m really looking forward to bringing him into my journey and refining my stories and sharing my experiences.  With you :)

What about you?  What are your favorite stories?  Comment below to share :)

xoxo

How much do you want to work?

So in the spirit of getting organized in the New Years and keeping up with resolutions, this week I thought I’d share the way I keep track of all that’s going on with La Vie en Orange. It helps me manage priorities and keep from feeling overwhelmed with all there is to do and all I could be doing. Check out the video below, or read on for a more detailed written explanation with photos :) I learned this great project management system from Jeremy Lightsmith at dotORG Weekend, a Seattle volunteer event where tech professionals, grant writers and attorneys donate 30 hours over a 3 day weekend to support participating non-profits’ needs. You can use it to break down big projects (like we did during the 30 hours we spent with our 6 person team), or keep track of lots of different things over a longer period of time, like I do for my creative business, or like we do at the office where I’m a fundraiser for a non-profit law firm.

Where the Agile Planning magic happens

Essentially, each project (or task) gets a card, and a rating for its size/difficulty. I like to rate mine according to tshirt sizes S-XXL or even bigger (I haven’t met a task that big yet :)).  Then, you move your cards left and right through various categories (I’ll start with the furthest right first…):

  • Accomplished – where all the cards eventually go :)
  • In Progress - what you’re working on right now
  • Pre-flight – tasks/projects coming up, that will soon move into In Progress
  • Ongoing – a category I created specifically because there were so many things going on that I needed to keep in mind, keep visible, and remain accountable for
  • Parking Lot – great ideas that aren’t yet ready for pre-flight, or that aren’t a huge priority wait here for their time in the lime light.

My Pre-Flight, In Progress, Ongoing & Accomplished projects

You can also put your tasks/projects/cards in priority order and move them up and down under their headings appropriately. I also keep a column for my overarching goals (both doing goals and being goals), and at work, we have columns to help keep our constituencies at the front of our consciousness.

I find this system to be very flexible, and I love how dynamic it is. I get lots of pleasure from moving things into the Accomplished category, and when I have a great idea that I want to revisit later, I love putting it in the Parking Lot, because I know it won’t get lost or forgotten.

I think this form of project management could also be super effective in a spreadsheet, but I’m a little bit more old-school :)

What do you think?  Would you adopt something like this? What systems or tricks do you already use and love?  Please comment below or email me at koriel [dot] jock [at] gmail [dot] com. :)  xoxo

Worldwide Underwear Domination

Sent my first international shipment today!  So exciting!  It seemed like it might be fun too to start a map of worldwide underwear domination!  See where Upitees have gone.  Where would you like Upitees to go?  Where have you worn yours?  Edit the map and make your mark!  :)

[googlemaps http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=215767998283086648122.0004a1ca16c4f01e2e6c6&ll=42.072251,-87.722838&spn=36.452734,79.013672&output=embed&w=425&h=350]

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