For those of you who are followers of David Allen’s GTD, Merlin Mann’s 43 Folders, et al., I found this interesting article on some tips in utilizing the GTD philosophy for creative professionals:

From creativepro.com – Getting Design Done
Focus on Creativity
Speaking of focus, another big part of GTD is the idea that you should focus on the tasks at hand and eliminate distractions when possible. I’ve found this same technique can be amazingly effecting to jumpstart creativity.

While many creative people thrive in chaos it’s important to note that even if you are a “right-brain” type, focus can help get you moving. Try removing distractions, even little things that often fuel design, like background music, and see what happens.

I am willing to bet that simply turning off Instant Messenger, your phone, and e-mail will take you straight away to a more creative state of mind.

Creative Context
Related to focus is the notion that contexts are important. It’s important to tackle tasks at the most opportune time and tackle related tasks together. For example, if you find yourself at your desk waiting on a meeting for an hour, pull up and take care of tasks you can do at your desk. If you’re at home and have a free morning with nothing pressing, pull up your @home tasks.

(The @ symbol is an identifier for contexts in your to-do lists. @home means a list where the context is home, @office would be the office, etc.)

The same idea can be applied to being creative. Create a creative time and space for yourself. Make sure it’s free of distraction and get into the habit of going there as often as you can. When there, pull out your @creative lists and get to work. I find this is a great way to tackle smaller creative problems. It’s how I come up with — and get started on — most of my writing. This article is a result of my @creative time.

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The rest of the article is a good read. I am a “light” subscriber to the GTD concepts (some, not all). Most notably the concept of managing & processing all of your various “inboxes” — Email, Telephone, Little Scraps of Paper, etc. I like that someone has tackled lightly tailoring some of these concepts to those of us who are creative and organizationally-challenged.

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