Intentionally introduce gaps in stimulation (e.g., sleep, rest, walks without phones) between periods of intense focus or learning. These gaps are crucial for the brain to process, stabilize, and generate new ideas, enhancing learning and creativity.
Structure your morning routine to be relaxed and free from tactical, externally driven tasks like emails. Prioritize creative or personally fulfilling activities during the first few hours to avoid ‘pollution’ and foster a creative mindset.
When presenting or performing, prioritize connecting with your audience through empathy and genuine interaction, starting with rapport. For public speaking, a good long exhale as you get out there can help relax the audience and foster engagement.
Understand that memory is often a co-authored narrative, heavily influenced by feelings and impressions rather than objective facts. When recalling events, recognize that your emotional experience plays a significant role in shaping your memory.
To help others (or yourself) forget something, clutter the adjacent time with dramatic, impactful, and dense information without gaps. To help others (or yourself) remember something, slow down, feature it, and allow time for it to be processed and stored.
When facing an unsolved problem, allow your mind to process it during sleep, as solutions often become clear upon waking. Sleep plays a crucial role in problem-solving and creative breakthroughs.
Incorporate walking into your routine to enhance creative thinking. The act of movement can help the mind explore novel trajectories and generate new ideas.
Approach your craft with the mindset of a student, as if it’s the very first time you’re engaging with it. This ‘virginity of first time’ helps avoid formulaic approaches, fosters growth, and allows for novel discoveries.
Approach your creative endeavors as an internal offering or expression of what’s inside you, rather than primarily to please an audience. This intrinsic motivation fosters authenticity and deeper satisfaction in your work.
To develop as an artist, consistently engage in three practices: consume art to learn about your own responses and preferences, create art to express yourself, and seek critique (from yourself and trusted others) to refine your work.
Seek to understand the underlying mechanisms or ‘why’ behind processes, not just the ‘what.’ This deeper understanding enriches appreciation, provides flexibility, and enables adaptation when conditions are not ideal.
To remember names, actively care about the person, repeat their name multiple times, and engage in conversation to gather more information about them. Connecting a name to a story or interaction significantly aids retention.
To overcome biases and identify flaws in your work, try viewing it from a ‘reflection’ or an altered perspective (e.g., using a mirror for visual art). This can reveal issues not apparent in your usual mode of perception.
Even when creating something extraordinary or seemingly impossible, restrain exaggeration and ground it in plausibility. This makes the experience more believable and enjoyable for the audience.
Create a clean, minimalist environment for creative work, free from distractions like art or awards. This ‘blank slate’ approach helps ensure that each new project is approached without previous stimuli influencing the creative process.
Seek out experiences that challenge your understanding and ignite your imagination. Engaging with unexplained phenomena can stimulate problem-solving skills and creative thinking.
Approach new experiences with a desire to find beauty and possibility, rather than immediately seeking to debunk or oversimplify. This mindset fosters a more engaged and enriching partnership in the experience.
When presenting challenging or seemingly impossible ideas, frame the experience as a safe space for exploration rather than a challenge to intellect. This helps overcome potential resistance and fosters a more open reception.
Look beyond the immediate ’effect’ or outcome to appreciate the underlying method, ingenuity, and deeper meaning. Sometimes, the process or explanation can be more beautiful and revealing than the final result.
Recognize that knowing the ‘secret’ can diminish the wonder of an experience. Sometimes, preserving mystery allows for continued enjoyment and a deeper appreciation of the impossible.
Engage in experiences where you consensually agree to suspend disbelief and collaborate in a shared narrative, even if it involves ’lies’ or perceived violations of reality. This consensual participation enhances the experience.
Be aware that even knowing the principle of misdirection doesn’t make you immune to it. Information can still be effective in guiding your attention, even when you understand the tactic.
Understand that sometimes withholding information or secrets is done to preserve enjoyment and wonder for the audience, rather than to deceive. This perspective can enhance appreciation for the art.
Engage in complementary creative practices (like painting for a magician) to gain a ‘bird’s eye view’ of your primary craft. This detachment can help overcome biases, foster new perspectives, and reveal insights applicable to your main work.
Cultivate an eye for finding beauty and character in what might conventionally be considered ‘ugly’ or imperfect. These elements often tell compelling stories and offer unique perspectives for creative expression.
When engaging in creative or artistic endeavors, prioritize intuitive responses and what ‘feels right’ initially. Follow this with analytical questioning to understand the underlying reasons and mechanisms, rather than starting with a purely scientific approach.
Cultivate a meticulous attention to detail in your craft, understanding that ’everything counts.’ No detail is too small to consider, as even minor elements contribute significantly to the overall quality and impact of the work.
Be aware that your existing knowledge and tendency to ‘fill in the blanks’ can make you susceptible to manipulation. Critically evaluate information rather than automatically enriching experiences with preconceived notions.
Embrace improvisation and flexibility in your pursuits. Be prepared to make detours and adapt your approach if initial plans don’t go as expected, as this allows for successful outcomes even when things are unpredictable.
Drink Element for proper hydration and electrolyte balance. Dissolve one packet in 16-32 ounces of water first thing in the morning and during physical exercise to support optimal brain and body function and nerve cell activity.
Use the Waking Up app for meditation, yoga nidra, or NSDR. These practices, even in short 10-minute sessions, can restore cognitive and physical energy and help place the brain and body into different states.
When teaching or presenting, convey your own delight and enthusiasm for the material as if experiencing it for the first time. This approach allows you to connect deeply with your audience, acting as both student and teacher.
Recognize the value of engaging with skeptics, as their transformation from doubt to belief can be a powerful and engaging experience for both them and observers.