John Cleese on Creativity

Ten minutes worth of valuable lessons about creativity from British funny man, John Cleese.

My biggest take from this video is his point on “Sleeping on it”. I remember growing up, when my mom would say to me after studying all night, “If you’re tired, go to bed. Get up early, you’ll study better then”. It’s help me a lot in my creative career, working in advertising agencies, burning the midnight oil. It helps me a lot now too as a strategist, solving problems. A mind can only go so far, when it needs rest, then to wake up refreshed to start again the next day.

A second take from this is his point on interruptions. It’s a killer for the creative process. Sometimes you need to focus for extended periods of time, which means you’d like everyone to just leave you the hell alone 🙂 Sometimes however you also need to work and play together with others. That’s why I’m all for multi-purpose offices, where employees can change location, based on the job or project at hand.