racoma.com.phJ. Angelo Racoma on technology, economics, writing, problogging, and getting things done

Problogging—and the non-income generating kind of blogging, for that matter—is like writing a book or painting, or sculpting. You need to get yourself in that state where you feel most creative. You need to be in the zone. You need to get into the flow. Get your head in the game.

Here’s something I wrote about the creative environment on Blogging Pro. When I quit my day job, I started to write and blog for a living full-time. I stayed at home most of the time, but I found that stifling to my creativity, since I did not have a space of my own for me to work on my creative endeavors.

I realized, however, that staying at home everyday proved to be as stifling to creativity as well. So at times I went out to cafés, parks and malls to write to experience the outdoors for a change. It worked quite well–again, the stimulus provided to be helpful in gearing my mind towards writing interesting stuff (stuff that gets people’s nod, judging from how some of my articles had been DUGG to front page). Still, I realized I can’t just go out all the time. There had to be a sense of regularity and familiarity. There had to be that sweet spot wherein I would feel most energized and excited. And considering that I worked best at nights up to the wee hours of the morning, I couldn’t just wander around at will.

Probably the best thing I did recently was move my family out from our previous apartment to a relatively bigger place. The old place was getting cramped, and I could already feel the strain of not having a creative environment to work in. This time I have a room all to myself as my home-office, which I try to keep free from distractions and the un-creative stuff. Okay, the kids sometimes watch DVDs and play on the computers (yes, several of them here, all online, all energy-consuming), but I still get to have a space of my own. And having this space that I can control and derive inspiration from is essential in creativity.

One of the best things about problogging and writing freelance is the the freedom of not having to clock in at the office each morning and out each afternoon/evening. This was one of the things I hated when I worked the corporate grind. If you’re the creative type, you simply cannot work this way.

Still, some routine and familiarity are helpful in getting into the flow of things. You’ve heard of writers and artists having strange habits that help them get in their creative moods, whether it’s drinking (does alcohol boost creativity?), typing on manual typewriters, sharpening dozens of pencils before writing, and the like. In this digital age, this still holds true. If you want to be good at what you do, you have to look for the environment that best helps you get creative.

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