In the LINKS section, you’ll find a lot of great references to books on creativity. I highly recommend asking for one or two of these for Christmas (or for whatever you celebrate). Alternatively, see if your local library has them. Even if the library doesn’t have a copy, they often have a process by which patrons can request basically any book they want, and the library will get it for them (if you’re in the U.S.). These are fun books that don’t take a huge amount of brain power but which can help you along in many ways:

• If you need some new business ideas
• If you want to take your mapping to the next level
• If you want to be one of those “big idea people” at work
• If your current analytical processes need updating

Even if you don’t know how creativity science might help you I still recommend learning a little bit about it. The main thing for folks who are analysts and programmers, especially (but even cartographers sometimes), is that there are exercises that don’t take long, that anyone can do, that allow the brain to come up with novel approaches to the problems it’s mulling over.

The other day I was trying to solve a little analysis problem: how to construct a variable-width buffer that is dependent on elevation? I googled it and searched the Esri forums and got some ideas, but a solution was still elusive. I printed out some graph paper (here’s a site to print out graph paper) and tried to take a look at the problem visually. That got me a bit closer but still without a complete answer. Then I tried a creativity trick that I often employ – change of scenery. So, getting out from behind my desk and standing by the fireplace, I had the solution in about 5 minutes of thinking it through.

I’m a big reader, so I never feel like just one book is enough, but if there’s just one that you want to look at, I’d highly recommend this one:

Innovation, and particularly Innovation Management, is a common buzzword these days. A recent article on the subject asserted that innovation is something that can’t be put into formal processes. While it makes sense that you can’t say, “we need 50% more innovation by the next quarter” it does not follow that it isn’t part of goal-setting exercises.

Goals aren’t usually innovative but the means to achieve them certainly have lots of room for novel processes. For example, the first people who thought about using twitter to get the word out about their product or service would have done so as an action-item set to achieve a goal such as “increase awareness of product by 10%” or “sell 100 more widgets this month.”

When I started blogging and tweeting I thought about what my main messages would be. I wanted to get the word out about my books, primarily, but to achieve that goal I figured I had better follow a lot of the advice I had written about in the book. A big part of GIS Cartography: A Guide to Effective Map Design centers on creative approaches to map-making, so I figured I had better have some creative things to say and show. One of those attempts to show creativity was the geoglitter map I made a few days ago. So, while that was an innovation that certainly wasn’t put into a management plan for my business, it helped to meet the goal of illustrating creative map ideas that fits in with the goal of promoting the ideas set forth in the book.

To be honest, I am extremely happy that creativity was a big part of the book and that I now have to “prove” that I can be innovative within the context of GIS and cartography. Being innovative and creative makes for a happy work day. I hope it is part of yours.

For many artists, the ability to work without constraints is necessary for the creative process. One of the things that often holds people back is their inability to make a mess. Maybe those childhood memories of parents being upset by a spilled glass of milk or a messy room manifest into a perfectionist attitude that impedes artistic disarray in adulthood. However, if you can overcome that and allow yourself to use trial and error, make mistakes, and create disorder, the end result can be a freeing of the mind and a corresponding heightening of creativity.

Take Dale Chihuly, the famous glassblower who injected the world of glass art with dramatic pieces, humongous installations, and massive doses of color. Ever since a dislocated shoulder prevented him from directly working the glass, he has communicated his visions to his team via paintings. And it is in a picture of him working on some paintings that you’ll see the messiness connection come in:

The ability to make a mess in order to create a higher level of finished product is great. The lesson for those in the map-making profession is that it is okay to start off a project however it works best for you.

Maybe you need to throw a lot of elements on to the page and move them around until you get the right look. Maybe you need to sketch out your vision on paper before using the computer. Maybe you need to make a painting that gets at the essence of the finished map you desire. Who knows, with this kind of up-front creative work maybe you’ll make as large a difference in the cartography world as Chihuly has made in the art world.

In the news lately we’ve been hearing about the importance of taking mental and physical breaks throughout the day. Recent inactivity studies show that sitting all day increases weight and increases potential for heart disease. One thing that has been shown to make a difference is making small movements throughout the day.

If these studies prompt you to begin taking frequent breaks from sitting down then you should definitely try to combine these breaks with creativity boosters. While you are engaging your muscles you can also be engaging the creative side of your brain. Your breaks can be anything from pacing the floor, which allows your mind to wander and sets the stage for creative inferences, to standing at the whiteboard doodling, to stretching*. All of these serve the dual purpose of making you healthier and more mentally present.

Injecting these kinds of breaks into the workday at perhaps a rate of one per hour (Tony Schwartz, productivity guru, recommends 90 minutes) thus serves the dual purpose of enabling more creative and effective solutions to emerge from the brain while also providing the body with more energy.

“Mindless” activities like playing catch with a coworker, shooting hoops, or catching a ball as it bounces off the wall are all good options for mental and physical combination breaks.** However, there’s no reason why the break has to take more than a minute or two if you can’t spare more time than that. Even shifting from foot to foot while staring at the wall is an option. Because GIS so often involves the use of the creative side of the brain it is absolutely worthwhile to try and combine both of these types of breaks together as it should increase your efficiency in your day to day work as well as up the chances that you will think of breakthrough strategic maneuvers for your business or business processes.

*Walking around and pestering coworkers doesn’t count. Putting on a wig and walking around waiting for someone to notice might.
**Shooting slingshot penguins at unsuspecting coworkers probably doesn’t count, but might be worth the effort as well.

When Mark Twain was in his mid thirties he published a map on the front page of the Buffalo Express – a newspaper that he was part owner and editor of. He had to carve this map into a wooden printer’s block with a knife, giving it a certain coarseness that added to the mood he was trying to strike with it.

The map, titled “Fortifications of Paris” is a parody of other maps that were published around that time concerning the Franco-Prussian War. The map was a big hit – being reprinted many times even though it turned out to be printed backward. Twain would have had to carve it backward in order to have it print correctly.*

The Fortifications of Paris map is, then, a satirical war map with labels such as Erie Canal, Omaha, and Jersey City where the Erie Canal is apparently a big Parisian river and Jersey City is lying near the Seine. It’s also nice to note the farm house in the southern portion. Apparently some people considered the amount of information being published about the war to be over-the-top, while this seems absurd given today’s standards of information needs. It was published on September 17, 1870.

*Note: Am glad not to have to make maps backwards.

An interesting article on daily routines, How Mundane Routines Produce Creative Magic got me going on this subject again. I love the idea of routines. I have ever since realizing that having routines was going to be a virtually impossible feat for me considering the daily juggling act that I have undertaken for the past 9 years, which has been almost the entire time that I’ve been in business for myself.

I think that, for people who can’t have routines for one reason or another (mine is for the reason of the chaos that is family life with young children), we enjoy and appreciate learning about how we could maybe possibly some day have a routine in our lives as well. Until that day comes I will continue to learn how I will maximize my routine to gain the greatest productivity and creativity so that the minute I have a chance to enact one it’ll be perfection from the start. I only say that somewhat tongue-in-cheek. I really am a fan of routines and do want to start one at some point.

In the meantime, I’ll console myself with the quick 30 second type of routines that I always do before a big meeting or big project design session. Things like reading a couple pages of a tough book, doodling, and the like.

Do you have a routine? What is it or what would it be if you could have one?