Get in the habit of drawing

• Drawing is a problem-solving visual tool. It helps us think better and provides clarity to a cluttered mind.

• Authentic pen and paper drawing help us break free from the limiting domains of technology which digital tools like Google image search or drawing software provide, indirectly hindering our creativity.

• Drawing also makes us slow down, observe and pay attention.

• Drawing promotes close observation, analytical thinking, patience, and even humility, making it one of the best ways to learn.

Workshops are ‘co-creation’ time with people who have varied disciplines, backgrounds, and perspectives. 

To make these people show up, we need to make the invitations intriguing and something that provides value to the participant. It helps to send the invitations in advance, with follow-ups.

Video Conferencing is a must-have for a remote workshop, while chat tools are not effective. In case there is any audio or video problem, phone in and take everyone into a conference call with your phone.

Collaborative tools: The whiteboards, sharpies, and post-it-notes can be replicated virtually with software like Invision Freehand for example.

We can use this same model to learn new concepts.

“In order to talk to each other, we have to have words, and that’s all right. It’s a good idea to try to see the difference, and it’s a good idea to know when we are teaching the tools of science, such as words, and when we are teaching science itself.” 

Richard Feynman

• Turn your paper 90 degrees so it’s longer than it is tall. 
• Pair images with your own words.
• Arrange them on the page in a way that makes sense to you. 
• The images don’t have to be complicated or artsy. They don’t have to make sense to anybody else. They just have to be meaningful to you.

When we think of 'art' we normally think of a painter, applying the brush on a canvas. But any person, having a creative skill in any activity, can be an artist.

The way a person talks to others, or how one writes, can be a creative expression. The ways a person can express his or her 'art' is infinite.

Find out what you enjoy, what you loved as a kid, or what engages you, and do that. It can be finger painting, baking, cooking, collaging, oil painting, weaving, writing screenplays, anything that doesn't' make you tired while you do it.

The act of creation is itself a reward, and going for what you love doing without any expectations or stress makes the real art come out.

Digital tools are a weak substitute for a physical community. And screens don’t allow for touch, which is a powerful form of communication.

Physical contact, from friends, loved ones, even acquaintances and strangers, has the ability to lower cortisol levels and ease anxiety.

A great way to fight loneliness is to work toward a larger goal, one that is centered around teamwork and collaboration.

Focusing on a shared vision helps disrupt the lonely brain’s destructive loops, allowing us to let our guard down and reintegrate ourselves into the social fold.

Leonardo da Vinci believed you begin by learning how to restructure the problem by looking at it from many different angles.

In order to creatively solve a problem, the thinker should not use the usual approach that is based on past experience. Geniuses use several different perspectives to solve an existing problem and thereby also identify new ones.

_Galileo Galilei revolutionized science by making his idea visible with diagrams, maps, and drawings. Einstein believed that words and numbers as they are spoken did not play a significant role in his thinking process.

Geniuses seem to develop a skill to display information in visual and spatial forms, rather than only mathematical or verbal lines.