Time is not equal to money. Money can be made, saved, and spent at the discretion of its holder. All time must be spent, but can at least be invested wisely.

People work as a means to provide money for themselves and their dependents. The money earned is traded for goods and services such as housing, food, clothing, transportation, and recreation. Often (but unfortunately not always) money is saved over the course of one’s lifetime to provide similar resources through retirement.

A person is therefore willing to spend their time working to earn money, in order to ultimately spend less time working. We trade our time for money, so that we can trade our money for time; constantly immersed in a struggle to find balance between the two.

Time can be positively invested in two ways: in the betterment of oneself, or in the betterment of others. There are an infinite number of ways to invest it poorly. Money is a means to accelerate any of the above.

Spend wisely.

Design can be many things, but it cannot be all things to all people. The needs of clients vary greatly and are often dictated by a short production timeline or weak bottom line. Few and far between are the clients who offer a comfortable budget with a gracious timeline, but perhaps this can be for the best.

Creativity thrives where there is a challenge to overcome, and clients provide these types of opportunities with nearly every project they request. Creative briefs, guidelines, specs, timelines, budgets, meetings, reviews, revisions… impossibility breeds inspiration.

In the business of design, a fresh approach to otherwise routine situations is necessary in order to keep true creativity alive. A willingness to explore all possible solutions to a problem, to look for additional needles in the haystack, creates openness to inspiration allowing it to flow more freely.

Where we have solved a problem a certain way in the past, we are likely to fall back on the same solution any time we encounter a similar problem in the future. To avoid this, a curious and unconventional approach to problem solving will allow new and unexpected solutions to be found.

Here is a short list of qualities that lend themselves well to creative problem solving and continuous inspiration:

look at problems from all possible angles.
– work sideways, backward, make unconventional connections — find unconventional solutions.

visualize your thought process.
– write… all over everything.

produce constantly.
– the more you make, the more you break, the more you have to help you create.

make novel and / or unusual combinations.
– what about using play-doh to control playback speed?

force relationships between concepts.
– what may appear trivial in one situation may be the perfect solution in another.

think in opposites.
– how can this not, not produce interesting results?

think metaphorically.
– story ultimately trumps fact; weaving an emotional connection reduces logic to rubble.

prepare yourself for chance.
– create your own luck… or at least be ready when luck presents itself.

Going through the process of seeking multiple solutions to the same problem not only creates more to draw from later on, but also forces a more complete end solution. A healthy comfort with failure will allow for a more fluid relationship with success.

Laziness is the driving force behind invention and technological evolution. From the wheel to the world-wide-web, humans have spent a large amount of time devoted to doing more with less, and doing less in general — a constant pursuit of minimalism through complication.

At some point practicality and necessity were overtaken by novelty and profitability, and we are all a product of this shift. Nearly every industry owes its existence to the first ape/human to chuck a sharpened rock at his (or her) intended meal. Apparently our resourceful tendencies have been with us from the start (it’s easier to kill dinner with a rock or stick than with my foot), and have evolved right along with our society (it’s easier to pick up the phone than to walk over to your office).

Whether we are truly better off remains to be seen — perhaps when we can cure medical problems without a knife, transport ourselves without destroying the environment, or resolve worldwide poverty and famine. However we end up, we’ll get there because we are too lazy to do what is necessary today.