Create Every Day

I like to think of myself as a creative person. A maker, if you will. I get excited by thinking creatively, and piecing things together new ways, either new to me or new to others as well. Creativity is fuel for me. Fortunately, as much as creativity seems like something one is born with, it’s actually a skill one can learn and practice. My favourite way of practicing creativity is by making.

Over this December/January holiday time I’ve spent a lot of time reading, spending time with friends and family, and doing activities we don’t do as often throughout the year. I’ve also spend a lot of time at my laptop. What is it about time at my laptop which has caused me to choose this way to spend time? And no, it’s not about getting ahead on 2024’s work year. I’ve spent time creating.

I am a big fan of the question “what would this look like if it were easy”. It’s not about “easy” as in “no effort”, it’s about simplifying something down to it’s core components to make it seem less intimidating. While the start of a new year is an arbitrary time of the year, it is also a time for a fresh start and a fresh perspective on the existing, the old, and the potentially new in one’s life.

If you do anything new, the new year is an opportunity to explore ways of making it easier. If it’s something you do every week, you will have 52 weeks to do that thing in a given year. Daily, you’d have 365 opportunities.

One pull request on a code project every week adds up considerably. 52 small pull requests, on the most impactful areas of a code project, adds up when compared to spending 51 weeks working on a single change, and shipping it in the 52nd week. How might that large project you want to work on be split into smaller pieces? If there are only a few pieces, that leaves room for roughly 6 or more other similar sized projects if you ship the work over a few weeks.

Whatever your chosen medium is, the act of creating is about building the habit which you can take with you into other projects. This blog post itself is a creation which I’m using to warm up for whatever comes next in the day. When I go to bed tonight, I’ll know I created something which didn’t yet exist and is now in the world.

Let the act of creating fuel your days. Whatever else you do in your day, having created something from nothing serves as inspiration.