I don’t always remember to take the timeit sometimes gets hidden within the routines
but when I am at my best
it is often in the midst of creativity

Ever since I discovered Maria Popova’s wonderful Brain Pickings site, I have had a lot more reminders regarding how to cultivate creativity. Two that I have particularly enjoyed are on Graham Wallas’ four stages of creativity and John Cleese talking about five factors to make your life more creative. Though creativity is more often an explicit concern for those in the arts than those in the social sciences, all research is ultimately creative. Aspiring to produce creative engagements is not something that should be discipline-specific. So I try to build in time to periodically ponder creativity… and watching John Cleese was a great way to do it.