How to do more by doing less?

How to do more by doing less? This is something that I’ve been trying to get my head around for the past couple of weeks…

Weirdly enough I’ve seen quite a few articles on it and yet I feel none the wiser. 

Fellow SCA-ers know me as the bookworm, constantly looking for more information to devour, retain and then apply to my work. It has been a week of dot collecting; collecting references as we build case studies and begin to chip away at new briefs leading up to award season. 

Honestly, it’s all getting quite real, looking at the competition briefs. 

If I take a step back and a hot second to reflect on where I am now and how far I’ve come, I feel flabbergasted. 

Before coming to SCA, I had just finished my degree in 3D Design, choosing to specialise in Product Design. Weirdly enough what had attracted me to product design was completely the opposite of that which attracted me to SCA. 

Product design, in my experience is full of rules. Lots and lots and lots and lots of rules. 

Maybe that’s because I studied it in more of a traditional sense? 

Nevertheless, what attracted me to study it was the structure, the rules and guidelines that needed to be followed to fulfil the brief. 

Yet, SCA feels so far from that a lot of the time. 

Yes, there are rules, but here we are encouraged to break them and bend them. Push the boundaries. 

One of my favourite lines frequently used by Pete Cain is ‘Find out what you can’t do, because what you can’t defines what you can do’. Hopefully that’s not too badly misquoted. In essence, find out what the client doesn’t want you to do and see what you can do with it. Show them what they’ve asked for and then show them something that pushes it even further. Something a bit left field, unexpected and sticky. 

I’m still really trying to crack this whole thing of doing less and achieving more. So, if anyone has any tips on that, hit me up! 

One of the tips I remember reading in a SCAB before starting the course was to read Dave Birss’s book ‘A Users Guide to the Creative Mind’. At 105 pages long, it’s a quick read even for those who don’t particularly enjoy reading. 

I cannot recommend this book enough, in fact stop reading this SCAB right now and go read it. 

Or don’t. 

I’m sure Mr Birss’s great insights can wait a few moments longer…

A couple of his tips to get to the good ideas were actually to stop working and go have a nap, or go to the pub, do a sudoku, do something else. Read a book? 

In essence, to get your subconscious working, read the brief and then go do something else, then maybe have another look at the brief and do something else!

Go make a sandwich, a really good one that takes ages to get just right. 

 But make sure theres some paper, a napkin, a wall, a fridge or a hand to write on, just in case, so that when the ideas do start to come…

You are ready.