On my (Todd Henry) office whiteboard you will see “The Big 3” followed by a short list of my current creative priorities. The Big 3 refers to the three things I need to gain creative traction on right now. They aren’t necessarily my biggest projects, though they often are. Rather, the Big 3 is best described as the three most important “open loops” in my life and work. They are the three most important items that I’m still looking for critical insight on.
Your mind is a wonderful servant but a terrible master. If you don’t refine your creative priorities on a regular basis and focus in on a few things at a time, your mind will go into a full retreat, and you will become overwhelmed with all that’s left undone. By choosing what you’re going to focus on, you’re relieving your mind of the pressure to resolve every creative problem simultaneously. You are giving yourself permission to lock in on only three problems at a time rather than the dozen or more that may be on your plate.
This also applies to a team context. Clarifying the top creative problems yet to be solved helps the team know where to put its energy and eliminates the guesswork often required to establish priorities. One of the greatest gifts any creative leader can give to their team is to regularly refine focus by utilizing the practice of establishing the Big 3.
How to Establish Your Big 3
- Begin by listing all the projects in your life, both work and personal.
- Of the remaining candidates, which three are most pressing?
- Keep the list in front of you as much as possible.
- Once you experience a key insight that you were looking for with a project, you can remove the item from the list and add something else.
It’s simply one effective way to keep the conceptual hurdles we still need to jump squarely in front of us as we go throughout our day. It’s a lens through which to process the world. This sets us up for unexpected insights and creative breakthroughs.
* Source: The Accidental Creative by Todd Henry