Vacuum Cleaner, meet Brain. Brain, Vacuum Cleaner!

Since I was very young, I have always spent a lot of time in my own head: reading, day-dreaming, making up stories, plotting glory and conquering the world.

The antidote to all this cerebral activity for me is to DO stuff. Stop talking about it, get out there and make actual things happen.

But there is a chance I have been overdoing it lately.

It’s only just the end of January, and the list of cool and groovy things is getting long!

I am teaching Business English communication skills (like presenting and writing)

I am also giving talks and presenting workshops on the Thinking Skills that lie below innovation, ideation and change.

But I am also writing a lot of poetry, which I publish on Patreon and I am slowly doing more and more live performances of this work.

Somewhere in there I am also keeping fit, raising a family and sleeping.

It’s an eclectic mix, but it feeds me and keeps me sharp and focused on the world out here, and not just the world in here.

Why am I telling you this? Not because I think I am superhuman or that you should also be engaged on multiple fronts, but precisely because I am not.

I keep it all straight and online by using some very simple tools:

• To do lists and status updates
• A digital calendar to schedule time in colour coded blocks and I try to stick with it.
• Push each aspect forward one bit at a time, or one rush at a time when things work out.
• Remind myself WHY I am doing all of this on a regular basis:

The love of writing

The desire to change the world for the better

Creativity is all about change, and I believe the world needs to change. It’s not working out for most of us as it is now. So why persist? Poetry might seem an unlikely vehicle for such ambitions. But art has always been the mirror that society needs to reflect on itself. And Creativity is what will allow us to break the vicious cycles and imagine a future different from the current one.