Phil Cooke

The First Step Toward a Creative Life

Today, someone asked me the secret of my creative output. “Phil, how do you come up with your material for writing and speaking?” I answered him by saying that the single most important question for any creative person to ask is: “What time of day am I most creative?” For me, it’s 6am to noon. In the morning, I can write like mad. Everything is sharp, and I’m in a great mood.  But AFTER lunch? Forget it. I can do phone calls, read, conduct interviews, meetings, etc. But if you need creative work from Phil, morning is the time.

So the question becomes – what’s your creative time? Midnight? After lunch? Morning? Whatever it is, focus on that time, and build a wall around it. You might have to start by using just part of that time. Years ago, when I worked for another company full time, I would come into the office at 5am and write until 8am – then go to work.

If necessary, work around things you can’t change. But START. Find the time. Build a wall of protection. Then start being creative.

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 26th, 2012 at 6:56 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.