Business Book Review: Daily Creative by Todd Henry

The problem-solver’s guide to exercising your creative muscle daily.  It delivers tried and tested, plus unexpected doses of creative spark.

My Rating: ★★★★★

Length: 753 pages

Publisher: Simple Truths

Released: 2022

Key Takeaways for Personal Branding

Todd Henry’s Daily Creative is both a brilliant book and concept. It’s a dose of daily inspiration (accompanied by practical daily tasking) to spark your creativity. With 366 ideas assigned to each day of the calendar year, each is also neatly arranged in key themes for the month.

It’s the perfect book for all creatives - which as Henry points out, so many of us are:

“It doesn’t matter if you are a designer, a writer, an entrepreneur, an engineer, or a lion tamer. And if you work with your mind each day to create value for your clients, customers, or organization, then you are a creative professional."

“Creativity is problem-solving. This means that if you solve problems every day, you’re creative."

Daily Creative proposes it’s the art of daily practices that allow you to shine when you need it.

With 366 standalone concepts to choose from, highlighting the top takeaways is nearly impossible. But, until I re-read this one, here are my five favourites:

Die Empty

Henry tells the story of a meeting he experienced decades ago. Someone in the meeting boldly asked:

“What do you think is the most valuable land in the world?”

Manhattan, oil fields and gold mines were among the answers proposed.

The speaker responded by quoting the late Myles Munroe:

“The most valuable land in the world is the graveyard, because in it are buried all of the unwritten novels, unexecuted ideas, unreconciled relationships, dreams not pursued.” All that value, all those opportunities were buried in the ground with them, making it the most valuable land in the world."

Henry proposes to die empty. Getting as many of your ideas into the world before you leave it:

“Refuse to take your best work to the grave with you. Choose to die empty.”

Later in the book, he says:

“Instead of living each day like it’s your last, I encourage you to live each day like it’s your legacy.”

Art as Protest

Henry proposed to make your art - whatever that means for you - your form of protest for whatever ails you:

“As you consider the events in the world that move you right now, what could you create that expresses your thoughts and feelings? How could you use art as a way to help you not only share your ideas but also invite others to consider your point of view?”

Lists Worth Writing

Henry opens the book by proposing you make a list of all the things that would blow your mind if they came true. Sharing a task someone once made him do. 15 years on, Henry found most had come true:

“Don’t sacrifice what’s possible on the altar of what’s immediately practical.”

Later in the book, Henry also shares another list worth making - a ‘not-to-do’ list. Everything is an opportunity cost. It takes away from your chance to do something else. So, while we are often consumed by to-do lists, we can forget about making ‘not-to-do-‘ lists:

“You have a finite amount of time and energy, so each time you expend any of it, you are choosing not to spend it elsewhere, whether to your benefit or detriment. One effective way to monitor priorities is to keep a “not to do” list."

Henry says these are all the tasks and projects you’re choosing not to focus on during a particular season. This reserves your infinite resources and focus for what’s most important.

Nesting Skills

Henry proposes all new skills are best learned in the context of skills you’ve already mastered:

“Don’t feel the pressure to develop a new, completely foreign skill. Instead, consider learning a new skill that’s an extension of your existing skill set or nests well within your existing experience.”

Nesting skills is the pragmatic approach to pushing your current creative comfort zone to new heights.

Who are you Becoming?

Henry encourages you to not let your past burden the creative possibilities you allow your future self to explore:

“Past successes can become a burden that you carry into all future work. They can cause you to do what’s expected—because of your success—rather than what you think is best for a particular project.”

Peppered with simple personal stories and analogies, Henry’s Daily Creative makes 366 ideas memorable. A must-read for anyone looking to fuel their creative spark.

Favourite Quotes

Creative work is complex work. You must wade into uncertainty, seek patterns, connect dots, and excavate value that others might not even see.

Are you filling your mind with inspiring stimulus that sparks your curiosity and helps you ask new questions? Are you putting new “dots” in your head to connect?

Move in the direction of what’s being called out of you, not away from something that frustrates you.

Today, pour yourself into work that you care about. Choose to build a body of work you will be proud of.

Focus on taking small, incremental, challenging steps toward your goals. Small, daily risks build tolerance for the occasional larger ones.

The brave souls who are willing to share what they see, make, and think, even if it is incomplete and imperfect, are the ones who move us all forward.

Focus is an act of bravery, because to say yes to one thing, you must say no to many, many others.

Are you shaping your work around the opinions of people who don’t even care about what you’re really doing?

Daily Creative by Todd Henry: Available on Amazon.