John Cleese, in his wonderful [lecture][1] on creativity: > So, you’ve arranged to take no calls, you’ve closed your door, you’ve sat down somewhere comfortabl

John Cleese, in his wonderful [lecture][1] on creativity: > So, you’ve arranged to take no calls, you’ve closed your door, you’ve sat down somewhere comfortable, take a couple of deep breaths and if you’re anything like me, after you’ve pondered some problem that you want to turn into an opportunity for about 90 seconds, you find yourself thinking “Oh I forgot I’ve got to call Jim… oh, and I must tell Tina that I need the report on Wednesday and not Thursday which means I must move my lunch with Joe and Damn! I haven’t called St. Paul’s about getting Joe’s daughter an interview and I must pop out this afternoon to get Will’s birthday present and those plants need watering and none of my pencils are sharpened and Right! I’ve got too much to do, so I’m going to start by sorting out my paper clips and then I shall make 27 phone calls and I’ll do some thinking tomorrow when I’ve got everything out of the way.” > Because, as we all know, it’s easier to do trivial things that are urgent than it is to do important things that are not urgent, like thinking. > And it’s also easier to do little things we know we can do, than to start on big things that we’re not so sure about. > So when I say create an oasis of quiet know that when you have, your mind will pretty soon start racing again. But you’re not going to take that very seriously, you just sit there (for a bit) tolerating the racing and the slight anxiety that comes with that, and after a time your mind will quiet down again. > Now, because it takes some time for your mind to quiet down it’s absolutely no use arranging a “space/time oasis” lasting 30 minutes, because just as you’re getting quieter and getting into the open mode you have to stop and that is very deeply frustrating. So you must allow yourself a good chunk of time. I’d suggest about an hour and a half. Then after you’ve gotten to the open mode, you’ll have about an hour left for something to happen, if you’re lucky. > But don’t put a whole morning aside. My experience is that after about an hour-and-a-half you need a break. So it’s far better to do an hour-and-a-half now and then an hour-and-a-half next Thursday and maybe an hour-and-a-half the week after that, than to fix one four-and-a-half hour session now. By the way, today is the 500th anniversary of the death of one of the greatest human beings in history at doing a lot by spending time ”doing nothing”, i.e., observing, drawing, and thinking: [Leonardo da vinci][2]! Have not seen a Google Doodle, or anything on Apple’s homepage, marking the occasion, which makes me think we need more creative people in charge in the world, to counter-balance the business suits. [1]: https://youtu.be/Pb5oIIPO62g?t=977 https://youtu.be/Pb5oIIPO62g?t=977 [2]: https://www.simongriffee.com/notebook/leonardo-da-vinci-500-years/ https://www.simongriffee.com/notebook/leonardo-da-vinci-500-...