Adopt a Habit of Creativity with Productive Creativity Hack #1: the Banjo in the Room

I’ve been a fan of hacks pretty much all of my life. Starting with my obsession with computers—the primal fountain of hacking—followed by an addiction to the Life Hacker website (back when it was cool) and then various “hacks” purported to help me become a successful writer.

What has stayed in my life are a few very good hacks that help me stay the course and keep writing, lifting the amount of creativity in my life considerably.

The nice thing is they’re pretty simple and, in hindsight, kind of obvious.

First up, an idea from a would-be banjo player. I forget the hacker’s name, but I think of this hack almost every single day. He wanted to learn how to play the banjo but, after months of owning one, and having music lessons at the ready, he couldn’t learn. The problem was that he simply didn’t practice, and the banjo sat quietly in the corner week after week.

The hacker thought about his lifestyle. He had a day job. When he got home each evening, he flipped on the television, grabbed some snacks, and watched TV for an indeterminate amount of time. At some point he’d summon the energy to make dinner, followed by more television, then he’d do something he had to do—like laundry and whatnot—and finally collapse in bed.

One day, he moved his banjo to the middle of his room, directly between the couch and the television. Now when he returned home, he grabbed the banjo and played with it—literally goofing around, having fun—and began practicing his lessons.

Gone was the useless television.

Found was the ability to learn to play banjo.

I’ve implemented this one over and over. I moved my ukuleles into the front room within easy reach, prominently positioned. When I pass through that room, it’s easy to grab one and play (as in have fun). I also have my iPad set up so that I can launch my online ukulele training lessons within seconds. The sheet music is set up on a stand in front of the seat, and I can take a lesson in seconds.

After years of dinking around, I’m finally improving my ukulele playing.

For my journaling, I have designated a comfy chair with a reading lamp, and placed a lap desk and my journal(s) beside the chair. When I get up in the morning, it’s a simple thing to grab a cup of coffee and sit in the comfy chair to journal. I rarely miss a day.

Similarly, for my writing, I set up a dedicated space in a convenient, yet separate, space to write. It’s a nice desk, a supportive chair, a big monitor, my laptop, and a mechanical keyboard I love. It’s trivial to sit down and access my writing tools to work.

This last one is slightly different because you have to balance the need for an easy-to-access space with isolation from the crowd to get work done. You’ll have to balance your own need for privacy against the accessibility. I know of several writers that converted garden sheds into writing studios so they could get away from all distractions for hours at a time. Others drop their laptop in the middle of their family chaos because they have adapted to stealing only minutes, rather than hours, away from their family.

You’ll have to figure this out for yourself.

It’s time for you to think about what you’d like to do more of—be it write, play music, or draw—and how to hack your space and your lifestyle to get more of it.

You may need to move the furniture around to dedicate an area, or stop at a library on the way home, to make it work.

Be aggressive in trying different configurations and to change them later if it’s not working out.

This is your one, precious life. What art are you going to do?