"You know, Hitler wanted to be an artist. At eighteen he took his inheritance, seven hundred kronen, and moved to Vienna to live and study. He applied to the Academy of Fine Arts and later to the School of Architecture. Ever see one of his paintings? Neither have I. Resistance beat him. Call it overstatement but I'll say it anyway: it was easier for Hitler to start World War II than it was for him to face a blank square of canvas." - Steven Pressfield, The War of Art

I have to admit to being a bit of a Steven Pressfield fan. I loved The Virtues of War - images from that book stay with me still - so much so, that when I saw 'Tides of War' in the bookstore, I bought it without even glancing at the cover blurb. I'd coveted 'The War of Art' for some time, and it was well worth the wait. Some readers might not enjoy Pressfield's opinionated style, but I liked his directness. I don't agree with all of his views (such as that the origin of creativity is external to self) but that's the beauty of a book. You can take the ideas that are useful to you and leave those that aren't.

There are some surprises here too. Take 'support'. Support is fundamental, right? We're all in this together. But Pressfield looks at the flipside, and it makes sense. 'Support' so often manifests as endless group meetings, rehashing the ‘same-old same-old’ and making excuses. In ' Resistance and Fundamentalism', Steven Pressfield comments that human beings are not wired to be alone: we are wired for community. Hence the extreme discomfort we feel when we decide to be free, to live according to conscience rather than prescribed rules. For a small book, he covers a lot of ground, referencing western culture from Socrates to Tiger Woods.

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The paradox of choice seems to spill over into every aspect of our lives. When I was little, if I wanted to make art, it was simple - a pad of paper, a box of colored pencils. There wasn't really any choice. Now, if I feel creative, I first have to decide on medium - pencil drawing? Colored pencil? watercolor? Or maybe collage? Should I use the watercolor pencils, or the Derwents, or the Prismacolors? Or maybe I should use the pastels.... or maybe I should have another go at finding my way around Adobe Photoshop? And spending time learning each of these mediums means that I've never fully mastered any of them.

I also like to knit, but rarely do, as I always think I should spend the time doing 'real' art. So it occurred to me that if I just knitted one kind of thing - just socks, for instance, which I perversely enjoy working on - it would make the hobby far more manageable - limiting the yarn stash and the range of needles. I'm applying the idea to other activities too, paring down hobbies to low-maintenance versions. One of my favorite blogs, Zen Habits, posted an excellent article on this idea a while back, labeling the concept 'Haiku Productivity'.

If you find that you are often juggling too many things, with never have enough time for good quality work - whether it is a rushed concept sketch or storyboard, lack of preparatory drawings making a design or painting weak, or wishing you could learn to draw but never putting pencil on paper - the 'Haiku' approach might help. Limiting your choices can save you time setting up to work, and help you focus more quickly on the task at hand, and help you maintain the technical skills that you need.

Some limits to try:
• Stick to one medium: use only charcoal, or only graphite, or only Graphitint or pastel.
• Use only black-and-white for a while
• Limit your scale or format: trim some paper to a uniform size, and work on compositions to fit that page.
• Explore a single subject
• Group projects by theme or medium, and focus on one
• Push one project to completion - no multitasking
• Put all the 'someday/maybe' sketches and notes in a box, and focus on what you're doing right now.
• Organize materials so that irrelevant stuff doesn't spill into your workspace.