Ran across an interesting article in the Fast Company blog from earlier this year. The premise of the article is simple: it challenges you to actually schedule time to “think, create, and invent.” Meaning physically schedule it as a block of time on your calendar. The 5% refers to scheduling 5% of your work week for this time. For a 40 hour week, that would be 2 hours.

For those of us who are creatives, we obviously spend a good bit of time thinking, designing and creating but, at least in my case lately, that is largely done specifically for existing client work. Now that is a good thing as client work is what keeps my business financially viable and lets me pay the bills. And of course, producing creative, quality results for my clients is one of the main priorities here at tin shed creative.

However, I do believe it is extremely important to feed that creative itch by working on non paying projects. This could be personal projects, pro bono work for non-profit clients, etc. Scheduling these two hours a week to think about and “explore” these types of projects lets me work outside of the normal client project scenario. The creativity flow can be a bit different due to the reduced constraints, especially on personal projects.

I actually have a few of those types of projects slated for early in the coming year and am really looking forward to them.

These days, aside from actually working, people are inundated with email, voicemail, social media, meetings, etc. Now don’t get me wrong, I love technology and collaboration is a great thing, but sometimes we just have to disconnect and take some dedicated time to think without all of the distractions. That is the idea behind this challenge.

Important to note is that this challenge is not limited to any specific industry, job or person. I think it applies well to designers but the article talks about Bill Gates and how he scheduled “Think Weeks” for himself where he would go off in seclusion for a week to “explore his creativity.” Apparently, many of Microsoft’s biggest innovations came as a result of these legendary think sessions.

From my past life in supply chain consulting, I worked with a bunch of very smart and talented people. Some of the project solutions imagined by a few of them after a little dedicated alone time were definitely notable.

No doubt there are an infinite number of examples like these from ALL walks of life. Just imagine the private “thinking sessions” of Apple’s Steve Jobs or Jonathan Ive! How about Martin Luther King? Yvon Chouinard? My 5 year old daughter? You get the point.

Read the full article from Fast Company Blog: The 5% Creativity Challenge