10-Minute Drawings: A Creative Exercise

Originally published on LinkedIn on November 12, 2020

I started this exercise for times when I am creatively stuck. I set a timer for 10 minutes, mute my phone notifications, close my computer, put on music, and draw WHATEVER. The point is that there is no point. Sometimes, the transition from one project to another can be a bit disruptive. I have a tendency to fully melt into whatever I'm working on. This activity is like a bright sorbet intermezzo for the mind.

As a trained designer working mainly in advertising, creativity is so closely aligned with hard goals and objectives. Without focusing on strategy (or anything really), I'm gifting myself certain freedom that is really hard to achieve. Most of the time, these drawings are weird, and perhaps ugly (beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but in my eyes, I'm beholding most of this crap is ugly as sin). However, I leave the exercise energized for the next task at hand. Sometimes, though, these drawings spawn a seed of an idea for something else, and that's just a delightful bonus.

You don't have to work in a traditionally creative position to benefit from this activity. If you've got back-to-back-to-back Zoom calls if you have to pivot between a variety of functions at work if you have to flow between multiple clients or projects – try it. It doesn't matter what it looks like. The point is to take a little mental break (that isn't scrolling social feeds).

The idea for this came during peak quar, when I was having a poor mental health moment. I'm not sure if it was depression, disassociation, or just doom and gloom. You were there, you know. We all felt that. A friend asked, gently, "when was the last time you moved your body?" Not for weight or fitness or heart health or anything other than the fact that exercise makes your mind feel better. I jumped around a bit, flailed my arms, and did feel marginally better. So it makes sense that when I'm feeling stuck creatively, or less than inspired by a task at hand, I need to exercise my creative mind.

Now, if only I could translate this thinking to actual physical exercise, I'd be unstoppable.