Sometimes a side project is exactly what you need to feel creative again.
Because, let’s face it, inside of our everyday roles (both professionally and personally), things get stale.
I read an interesting article on firstround.com recently, where Spotify’s Tobias van Schneider was quoted as saying, “Side projects are great because you don’t need to know anything. You get to be a beginner because no one is watching you and there are no expectations. If you don’t have an idea, don’t stress about it, just go do something else. It’s this attitude that it doesn’t matter that allows us to be inspired and to work on only the things we truly want to work on.”
He’s spot-on (pardon the pun), because there’s nothing more liberating than finding time to work on something that you’re into, but doesn’t REALLY matter.
To this day, my interest in and borderline obsession with certain types of music and performers has always been enhanced by the unique, arresting, and irresistible works of art that graced the covers of their LPs. I wanted to find a way to feed this passion, and challenge myself to do it with some constraints (so that I’d actually do it).
Since my personal time is generally limited to what I can get done on my mobile device (I have three kids under the age of 5 who boss all other in-house tech already), I figured that was best tool for doing something interesting and creative – and for myself first.
My other outlet – the most scalable thing most mere mortals can get their hands on – was of course social media. Thus, my mobile-social challenge was born. I created a simple persona called Album Art Daily on Instagram and Twitter – each day (at least once, but generally more) – I jog my musical memory and curate a piece of album art that impresses me and share it with anyone interested in checking it out. All on my iPhone. Some insight about the band or the artist. A few simple hash tags. A few themes here and there. That’s all.
This little side project has already energized me to embrace simplicity in my role as a Consultant at Trellist Marketing and Technology. And it’s inspired me to think of the next small, insignificant and totally enjoyable thing I’d like to tackle.
What side projects are you working on?
Neil Dougherty 