Todd Henry - Daily Creative: A Practical Guide for Staying Prolific, Brilliant, and Healthy

Creativity is problem-solving. This means that if you solve problems every day, youre creative. It doesnt matter if you are a designer, a writer, an entrepreneur, an engineer, or a lion tamer. And if you work with your mind each day to create value for your clients, customers, or organization, then you are a creative professional . This means that you must be creative on demand and likely find that you often need to be brilliant at a moments notice.

The pressures and pitfalls that affect us as creative pros often go undiagnosed. You know that something isnt right , but you cant put your finger on why. One day, youre on top of the world and every word out of our mouth is pure Shakespearean profundity. The next, you find yourself suddenly burned out, lacking insights, and struggling to meet expectations. Youre not doing anything differently, but what seemed effortless the day before just isnt clicking in the same way.

In my decades of working with creative pros of all types, Ive learned that the best way to prepare yourself to be brilliant when it matters most is to build daily practices that grow you, focus you, and help you stay fresh and engaged with your life and work. As Gretchen Rubin so eloquently put it, What you do every day matters more than what you do once in a while. Daily practices prepare you for those occasional moments when you need to shine.

This book is designed to help you build a daily practice around your creativity. Well cover everything from personal passion to idea generation to mindset to collaboration and leadership. If you truly engage with this book, including spending time with the questions at the end of each entry, you will position yourself for creative and professional success for years to come.

How to Use This Book

Daily Creative is designed to be experienced one day at a time. I encourage you to set aside a regular time every day to engage with the daily entry. Each entry is designed to cover one aspect of your life as a creative professional. Youll notice that certain concepts strategically repeat throughout the year because of their centrality to your experience as a creative pro.

Use a journal or notebook to reflect on the days entry and the daily question. You dont need to write War and Peace , but it helps to freewrite a response to the daily prompt. You may be surprised at what you discover about yourself.

Next, plan one action step you will take to help you apply the daily insight.

It can also be helpful to share the daily insight with a peer or friend. In fact, I encourage you to go through Daily Creative with someone else as a way to process the material in community. We grow best when we grow together. If youd like to work through this book with your team, visit DailyCreative.net for a team discussion guide.

I believe that your best work is still ahead of you. We need you to bring yourself fully to what you do every day. I hope you consider Daily Creative your training manual for staying prolific, brilliant, and healthy in life and work. I cant wait to see what you create in your remaining time on this earth.

Lets begin!