How can workflows be more creative and less operational - but yet productive?
what are workflows and why we’ve learned the wrong way of doing it.
Ok, maybe wrong isn’t the best choice of words, but for sure we are not taught how to create a workflow that suits us. Lots of companies aren’t flexible enough about the employees’ schedules since the industrial workflow where the longest period of time you are there, working, manufacturing, biggest is the production and the profit. We seem to forget that most of the jobs don’t require this mindset anymore.
However, we keep trying to accomplish it. Have you ever feel bored, using your phone during working hours while your co-worker tells you an unimportant story? Yeah, that’s the unfocused and forced workflow passing through us.
That is why when some of us leave our regular jobs to become artists, entrepreneurs, or even to work from home, we find it hard to focus without a countdown for us to leave for the happy hour: we don’t know how to combine discipline and creativity, focus and productivity.
external factors that block our flow of work and our creativity, productivity as consequence.
The lack of a sustainable flow of work is also due to some external factors that keep interrupting us. Sometimes we have already dealt with our home choirs, had our morning routine and we are eager to start a productive day of work. That’s when the doorbell rings. Or the dog barks at us trying to get some attention. Or the kids are fighting for the remote control. Or everything together. And in a few seconds, your workflow is gone.
These interruptions are constantly blocking our flow of work, thoughts, creativity, and productivity. All of these need some concentration from us to go from one idea to the next and start developing advances. Imagine running a marathon stopping every five minutes to eat a snack or play on the phone. Impossible, right?!
That’s why it’s so important to organize our activities and our environment’s routine the best we can to suit us. To serve our needs. We need to start prioritizing ourselves over small interruptions. This is how we begin to understand what we need for our perfect workflow.
how discipline and habits can be allied with creativity to create the perfect workflow - for you.
“You can't suddenly say, 'I want a brand new habit tomorrow,' and expect it to be easy and effortless.” - Charles Duhigg
Habit is something you do as routine, as part of yourself and discipline is what it takes to have the right habits to achieve your goals. That being said, I assume, it’s not very easy to have new habits and all of sudden become a disciplined person. But we must begin, one step at a time.
We are used to hearing things about creativity as if it’s an epiphany that only comes to the blessed souls in a divine mission of being artists or creative people. And it couldn’t be further from the truth. Sometimes great ideas come from nowhere and we need to write them down, that’s true. But it’s impossible to live as a creative professional only hoping for your ideas to download in your brain.
Creativity is a habit too. When you arrange your routine, when you discover the best workflow for you, and you get rid of interruptions, you get to focus. When you develop the discipline of having moments of deep focus, your brain is free to make all the connections it needs to have a new idea or solution. And just like chemical-induced brain magic, creativity comes to you as part of your life.
In conclusion, you have 3 steps to follow:
And also feel free to write to us what you’ve done to change your workflow and be more productive.
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This text, written by the creative and project assistant of the studio Heloisa Vilicic, is part of a series of content that unites art and the process of assuming sensibility, art, and creativity as an occupation.
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Heloísa Vilicic is a storyteller. Tells stories of people, brands and places trough design, writing, photography, and art. She's passionate about off-road adventures, so she designs days that allow her to live like this. She has always worked with communication focused projects, either for companies like the business school Conquer or as a freelancer for companies like OnLine press. As a student, she's been trough Universidade Belas Artes and Melies and is now a student at a graduation course of languages.
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