Over the years I’ve been endlessly asked about having a ‘creative process’ or a ‘writing process’, and plenty of other people write and talk about this, and good for them if they’ve figured this out like some sort of brain engineer, but in all honesty I’ve never really had one that I could articulate in such a mechanical sense. But there are certain things I’ve noticed along the way that seem to help. And one of those is the act of noticing itself.

I recently discovered Kel Rakowski, who has interestingly built a platform around ‘taste cultivation’. Taste is one of those sort of ethereal, organic, indefinable things, and she’s approaching it through a lens of fostering the innate. What a cool thing to really lean into.

As someone with an unrelenting mind, wheels that constantly spin, ears that constantly ring, with responsibilities and demands in constant flux, being able to remain present and focus is a day-by-day, minute-by-minute, second-by-second battle. But, the chaos in our heads is as much a source of power as it is a burden, and it’s a lifelong journey trying to understand how to effectively harness it.

I’ve reached various stages of burnout over the years which has made me pause and reassess things, often re-prioritising a slower approach to navigating each moment. We were never meant to live in big, noisy, bright cities, spending days in artificially-lit offices surrounded by devices that aggressively clamour for our attention, perceiving things like e-mails, meetings, deadlines, and feedback as immediate threats to our existence. It’s no wonder we’re all being diagnosed with ‘attention’ related conditions. You’d have to be a fucking android to not be at this point.

A few people over the years have mentioned how I have an ability to ‘reference’ in order to convey insight, ideas, and executions. A lot of this has been subconscious, but over the years I’ve tried to more consciously fill this well.

Recently, in Kel’s newsletter, she mentioned ten tips for curation. And one of them stood out:

THE ONLY RULE IS: NOTICE SOMETHING TODAY.
Spend time looking at the happenings around you, the moments on Subway. What people are wearing on their feet, shades of lipsticks, trees blowing in the wind.

I noticed it because I had this very post on ‘noticing’ sitting in my drafts.

We’ve grown so uncomfortable with our own thoughts, feelings, and environments that we actively avoid sitting with them for longer than a few seconds. Waiting for a train, standing in a lift, and, ridiculously, even sitting in traffic (or worse) we reach for the distraction of the screen. The dreaded comfort of the doomscroll.

This act is probably more a draining of the well than a renewal. Maybe, sometimes, we might find some good in there, but more than likely not. There’s more creative energy to harness all around you than inside that rectangle of death.

Try to be more present with each moment and just notice a few things. It can be as simple as Kel’s suggestions - see if someone’s outfit catches your eye. The way they carry themselves. A conversation on the train. A cat deftly walking across a fence. The crunch of leaves under your shoe.

It’s a slow burn. Start small, and then try to keep building. Then carry that into everything else you absorb. Notice the emotion in the voice of the singer in your headphones. The direction of lighting in the frame of the film your watching. The foreground. The background. What’s in the frame, what isn’t. The way the camera moves, or doesn’t. The way in which the author of the book you’re reading leads you on, misdirects you, surprises you. The feelings in your body that arise when looking at a provocative piece of artwork. Where are they? Your head? Your stomach? There’s no wrong answers to any of this. It’s all just information. I’m not saying you need to sit there intensely analysing things, just notice what your attention naturally gravitates to.

My Alexander Technique teacher, Brendan Bond, gave me a little trick to help with this. Use a word. It probably helps to just invent one so as to not confuse it with the real meaning of an existing word, pick something that means something only to you. I used ‘shazam’. So if I’ve been living in autopilot, like we all do, sometimes I still go days, weeks at a time, and then suddenly realise I haven’t been very present. So I remind myself ‘Shazam, so that…’. The ‘so that’ can be whatever you want it to be. So that I can be present and in the moment. So that I can see the leaves fluttering in the tree. So that I can notice the pauses and the inflections in the actor’s delivery. It might sound a little weird and silly at first, but it helps having a reminder to just slow down for a tick and notice rather than barge through life like a bulldozer.

So that’s my writing tip for today. Which has nothing to do with the act of expressing the ink from the pen, but more so as a way of filling the well.

See what you notice today, even if it's just one thing.

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^{Writing tip #1} 

^{DON’T CHAIN YOURSELF TO A WHEEL}

^{Writing tip #2} 

^{READ YOUR SHIT OUT LOUD}

^{Writing tip #3} 

^{WRITERS DON’T NEED TO READ} 

^{Writing tip #4} 

^{MANIFESTOS MAKE MILLIONS} 

^{Writing tip #5} 

^{STRAIGHT HEADLINE, TWISTED VISUAL ISN’T JUST FOR PRINT}

^{Writing tip #6}

^{PUT SOME ORDER AROUND YOUR CHAOS}

^{Writing tip #7}

^{BECOME THE BEST PRESENTER IN THE AGENCY}

^{Writing tip #8}

^{CRAFT YOUR SCRIPTS AS YOU WOULD SHARPEN A BLADE}

^{Writing tip #9}

^{CAN YOU BE MORE SPECIFIC?}

^{Writing tip #10}

^{15 SECONDS IS STILL 15 SECONDS}

^{Writing tip #11}

^{NEVER BE CONTENT}

^{Writing tip #12}

^{THINK THE OPPOSITE}

^{Writing tip #13}

^{SEE YOUR SCRIPTS FIRST, THEN WRITE}

^{Writing tip #14}

^{MISIDRECTION AND HOW TO PASS LIKE MAGIC}

^{Writing tip #15}

^{TURN A PHRASE INTO YOUR OWN}

^{Writing tip #16}

^{HUMANISE THE PRODUCT}

^{Writing tip #17}

^{IF THERE’S NO TENSION, IT’S NOT INTERESTING}

^{Writing tip #18}

^{BE MORE LIKE BATMAN}

^{Writing tip #19}

^{PAY ATTENTION TO THOSE YOU PAY ATTENTION TO}