The Saturday Morning Post: Taking Creativity on the Road

My peak travel year, I boarded 32 airline flights, and spent 73 nights in hotels.  I don't travel that much anymore, but when we do leave home we tend to be gone for longer periods of time.  And while travel exposes me to ideas, and feeds my creativity, my ability to create art is limited when I am on the road.  So how do I take creativity on the road?

I always travel with a camera, really two of cameras, because my phone has a surprisingly great camera with three lenses and a 48 megapixel sensor.  The cameras allow me to be creative on a day to day basis. 

I carry a small notebook, that I can jot down ideas in, or make simple sketches.  These are things I should do more of. I will try this year. 

I take along a tiny computer, that gives me access to blogger and writing software. I try not to take work on the road, but I have edited reports and articles while traveling.  The change of routine of being away from home, often frees my mind to reexamine projects I have been working on in new ways, when this happens, a Chromebook allows me to get thoughts on paper before forgetting them.  

The creative process is different when on the road, and that is probably a good thing. Practice makes perfect, but doing the same thing over and over makes "Jack a dull boy." We can leverage travel to shake up the process, and bring freshness to our creative endeavours.  

I am on a digital detox. This post was written ahead of time and scheduled to appear today. I have not missed posting at least once per day in over a decade. While on this detox, I will not have internet access many days, when I do have access it will be limited. Please continue to leave comments, but I may not reply to comments. I will read comments when I can. Normal service will resume in late May.