Outdated, clunky, inefficient, expensive and labor intensive

More and more professionals need creativity for their job, but the available options to manage it efficiently are either nonexistent or insufficient.

Clearly, people have been trying to solve this problem for a few decades now. But their repertoire of solutions is outdated, clunky, inefficient, expensive and labor intensive.

Let’s explore the categories of those solutions, including their respective upsides and downsides.

First, there are tools for creativity. This includes brainstorming games, social media, virtual flash cards, bookmarking programs and project management software.

Having used many of these myself, tools like these are quite strong in novelty and digital experience. They’re also low priced or even free.

But unfortunately, their number of features and notifications is overwhelming. The tools often consume more time than they save. They’re all inspiration and organization, but no action. Entrepreneur magazine did an article on these tools, quoting a creative professional who put it this way.

Most of these tools designed to enhance your personal productivity seem to exacerbate the very anxieties they were meant to allay. The better you get at managing time, the less of it you feel that you have.

The second category of current options to help people manage their creativity is called systems. These are software agnostic, since the systems are simply a set of guidelines that work together to help people get things done.

It includes research methodologies, thought leadership empires, publishing concerns, artist communities, professional associations and freelancer platforms.

Having tried many of these systems myself, they’re clearly high in structure and robust in their offering of resources. Plus the ability to connect with other creators is a benefit.

But systems can be cumbersome, complicated and controlling. Some bordering on cult like. They’re either too clinical or too artsy. And in many cases, just propaganda for selling other products, not helping you create more of your own.

Inc magazine’s cover story on these productivity systems summarized it perfectly:

An explosion in technology aimed at helping people manage their time and tasks may actually be making it harder. When you open up a browser window, there are twenty tabs staring at you with stuff you need to get done, fighting for your attention.

Okay, now that we reviewed about tools and systems, the final category of available options for managing creativity is called services. This is the one to one offering, which can include creativity advisors, business consultants, productivity gurus, life coaches and paid mentors.

Having hired people like this myself, I will attest to their strong accountability and high efficacy in enabling habit change. But these services are expensive and labor intensive. They’re often one size fits all solutions that come after the fact, rather than on a preventative basis.

And such services can create an external dependency, robbing that client’s capability to manage their creativity on their own. Here’s a quote from an article on the rise of this category of solutions:

My biggest issue with most coaching programs is they try to make you something you’re not. And you spend a lot of your time trying to put into practice what the coach makes you aware of.

In summary, the current solutions for managing creativity include tools, systems and services. While each of them offer individual upsides, ultimately none of the options miss the mark.

We believe today’s creative professionals need a new alternative to solve this widespread problem. Something different. They need something that has the novelty and affordability of digital tool. With the structure and robustness of system. And the personalization of a one to one service.

But not a costly, cumbersome, exhausting chore.

Rather, a one stop shop that’s there when you need it, and gone when you don’t.

Something purpose built to directly support people in their creative work. And that, my friends, is why we have pioneered Personal Creativity Management (PCM).

Welcome aboard.

Are you ready to abandon the old and embrace the new?