What did I do and learn in July 2024?
As a part of my newsletter per month I am going to share what I did and learnt in sketching, productivity and creativity.
Summer is a good season to do anything, and everything you do, including play and rest, will eventually be good for your creativity.
My update
A short trip in Bristol and Margate
Since having my first visit in June, Bristol has become one of my favourite city in the UK. During the second trip I used to plan to stay for a night like last time, but ended up extending one more in a dormitory room of my hostel — last time was already five years ago.
At the end of the month I also spent a whole day in Margate walking in a total of 10km along the coast. Walking while doing nothing can let my brain breathe in more ideas.
Everyone can be more creative with their own ways. For me, it’s travel.
Market and products
I didn’t plan to trade anything because I hope to bring more new products, but ended up participating in small markets in June and this month (Pop Up Gallery) so that I won’t be too stressful in preparing selling in markets and I can create my products in my own pace.
Till July I still have some printing and this is my first tote bag!
Urban sketching again after rest
I stopped most sketching for a while, just did a few for commissions. When I was travelling, if I didn’t want to draw, I didn’t sketch. I no longer participated in sketching events till the end of July. Now I walk and sketch in the city again.
Thoughts/ideas
On Instagram and other kinds of social media
I once engaged in more Instagram Reels. One of the reasons was that making short clips is something I found I was a bit interested in, and I heard people who said Reels could reach more audience than still images.
I got hooked on that idea. I thought I wanted to be seen by more people. But I found it’s a waste of time and energy, and most importantly there is nothing changed except my life is no better and even worse.
In order to create Reels, I have to sacrifice my experience of sketching, as I needed to capture when I am drawing, which can greatly disrupt my optimal psychological peaceful state called flow. I also have to spend hours to edit my clips curating and squeezing many of them into less than a minute.
The statistics? I don’t think there is a great difference. If Reels really reach much more people than other contents like still images, what will that mean? More likes? More money? Better branding in the long run? If these happen, will I be less creative and happy gradually due to contributing more time on motions which heavily interrupt my creative process?
Making art is not easy not because you are not talent. It’s just because we can easily get distracted by external information, so-called advices (especially from social media), social norms as well as internal personal worries. Before making art for money, we need to position ourselves first so that we are open to the world while developing our own self. Our self is our unique currency.
I am on the road of it. One of the ways is to delete social media apps on any of my electronic devices, so that I can only access them on web browsers: login, browse, interact, logout every time. I may still visit them many times a day, but I feel my brain is less wired.
How about having to post something through an app? Okay, download it and upload, and delete it after publishing.
Summer, walking (in the city) and productivity
This summer I did several long walks in a city: like 3 to 6km (1.85 to 3.73miles) crossing a few Tube stations in distance, from Hammersmith to Putney; Finsbury Park to Islington; Southbank to Tottenham Court Road...
The reasons for walking? Aimless except replacing some transport to save costs. However, this kind of saving doesn't involve any sacrifice but benefits. I don't walk as fast as I can, and I just walk for my own pace. A kind of flow activity: forget about the time, forget everything I worry about.
Walking is the best way to unleash your creativity: creativity means how easy you can think of any new ideas and solutions to various problems. This means you can be creative even though you are not an artist or an illustrator, and you don’t need to spend lot of money on courses of how to become more creative. What you should do is to walk, besides sufficient sleep.
Try not to browse web or social media when walking, and not to listen to any music or songs. Bring your paper notebooks or just use a note-taking app / text editor, so that when you suddenly have any idea, you can take note.
On running
I have had my running habit since 2020. Habit here means “at least once per week”. My longest record is 31km (19.26miles) and my usual mileage is from 3 to 21km.
I realized that the numeric goal is always tempting, but it is not really long lasting and painful. Pain comes from my requirement, perfectionism (especially 19.9km vs 20km), shame and the unwillingness to listen to my body’s need. Thus I started telling myself that going out for an early morning run is already great for me — I am enough I am enough! I can stop as I like.
There is still good news that what motivates me to continually run is that I do it to explore a city. I am grateful to experience the changes, like from west to east London, or north to south London. I found a lot of good shops, cafes and natures during the run. Like long distance walking, running can bring me more ideas: you don’t have to effortfully brainstorm them on your desk of your office or home.
On productivity and places
I found that I have difficulties in working at home. I don’t know why. Since January I got my new iPad Pro, I always bring it out even when running, and take it out to do some reading, sketching, writing in cafes I love to visit. I literally don’t work too many hours but I find I am easily focus on doing tasks when being outside especially switching to other environments.
But it doesn’t mean I can do anything every second of my time since leaving home. Not every place is suitable for me, and I already know I cannot do the same thing for more than two hours — I will need to stop, take a rest, have a walk, and switch to other tasks.
I still reserve my right to do nothing sometimes, especially when taking a train or bus I will enjoy the view.
Cal Newport already explained how environment can boost one’s productivity. This is one of the most important factors that apps can’t do. Apps may add functionality to manipulate your psychological state and thus boost your productivity immediately; or remove visual elements to make you less distracted. You are the only one to create an environment for your productivity, creativity and well being. For me, changing environment works and that’s why I choose to travel more.
For most people travel means to increase their footprints on the planet. For me it can be from switching to the coffee shops near my home, to the neighbourhood cities in my country. Environmental switching is the key and I feel some ideas easily come out from my mind when I am traveling even just staying a night.