One interesting tool I found way back in the early 1990’s was Roger Von Oech’s Creative Whack Pack.  The Whack Pack is a deck of cards based on his popular creativity building books A Whack on the Side of the Head and A Kick in the seat of the Pants.

I happily own a copy of each of these as well. But one problem always plagued me. I never felt like I understood the Whack Pack. They are fun cards to read and all, but I was missing something because I never felt like I was getting answers. Just more questions.

A picture of me “whacking”

Then along comes the iPhone and subsequently The Whack Pack for iPhone . This awesome version has with it a ‘workshop’ mode that guides you through the process.

To do a workshop, you enter a problem you are having. Simple enough. Then you are dealt 4 cards that will predict your future and you live happily ever after (just kidding ). The 4 cards actually are designed to give you a “whack” in each of their focused areas. By their very nature, whacks are designed to stretch your imagination in new ways so you can see your problem from new and different perspectives.

It may sound a little silly – and it is at times. But we all need a little sillyness now and again to keep creativity flowing.

I presented a problem I was having last nonth to the CWP. And overall, after 20 minutes or so of working on my problem I felt much clearer, relaxed, and optimistic.

Below is a recent workshop I did – complete with typos for your convenience.

Your Issue:

Deciding what my highest priority goal should be

Card 28 – Imagine Others

http://creativethink.com/je3

Creative people I respect:

• Edison - he would say, work night and day with stuff you like doing. Your goal will appear.
• David Gilmore – practice and get drunk now and again. You’ll figure it out
• Da Vinci – take chances – explore new worlds.

Card 11 – Use Your Senses

http://creativethink.com/p1b

I look at the idea of honing in on 1 goal today as a dark, pressure filled event. Sort of like since I take on stuff SO ambitious, I can’t help but fail – at least in some respects.

Not focusing let’s me relieve some pressure since I can always move on to something else.

Maybe I can think of a goal that is both fun and low pressure that involves enjoyment of other senses. Like maybe my one and only goal for June is to make extaordinary food for lunches and dinners.

Or maybe a goal to spend 1 hour a day doing nothing. Just sitting at the park taking in the sounds of people and children playing.

Card 12 – Listen to Your Dreams

http://creativethink.com/4sz

What is dreamlike in my current situation? The images of future pressure, failure, disappointment and thoughts of letting me and others down is just an illusion. Rationally, I know it’s fear, emotionally it is confusing. Just like when you wake from a dream you know there isn’t a creature under the bed. But you are still afraid.

Card 23 – Rearrange

http://creativethink.com/0jn

How can I rearrage my issue?

1. Decide for ALL of June I will have no goal or direction

2. Every time I feel pressure to perform, I stop and review #1

3. I start focusing on the objects I want, not the actions. Do I want a boat? A Mac? What?

Have you tried whacking?

I know many of you have either read Von Oech’s books or use the Whack pack, why not post your opinions below.   Maybe you have some tips for getting more from the books or software.

If you like this post, please consider voting for it on del.icio.us or stumbleupon… you’d be helping your fellow whacker! lol

The new TaskBlaze beta is here!

Taskblaze features

What is TaskBlaze?

TaskBlaze is simply the easiest task timer and tracker you’ve ever used.  Plus, it’s the most precise and effective.  It automatically updates your Outlook or Google calendar with the exact time you spent on your task.

So accounting for your time, being more effective, billing, making sure you are spending your time wisely don’t require a MS Project course, just download TaskBlaze 2009 Beta .

Just imagine how easy it is to give a time report to a client.  Think of all the wasted time you can free up.  And picture your jealous partner thinking you are having an affair, all she has to do is look at your calendar and know you were Blazing your time on writing a cost/benefit report – TaskBlaze prevents DIVORCE! Ok, maybe not, but it is still pretty nifty.

Get Started With 2 Simple Steps

There are two simple steps to use it:

1. Enter a name for your task.
2. Hit the Start button

…Thank you and good night!!

– But wait, there’s more –

Use TweetBlaze® to Send Your Tasks to Twitter

Have you ever completed a task and thought a week later “I should have posted that to Twitter”?  Now you don’t have to worry about forgetting.  TaskBlaze will post your tasks to Twitter automatically utilizing a highly classified function I like to call TweetBlaze®.  Start a task and bam, all your friends will know you are working – when before they thought you were just goofing off.

Warning: TweetBlaze® is for external use only.  Do not swallow.

More TaskBlaze Goodness

But you needn’t stop at just naming your task.  You can also set a category.  Good for tracking home projects too.

Plus, creative people can now make their own skins to customize TaskBlaze and make it all your own.

Simple skinning guide – I tried to make skinning easy – especially for people like me who feel using Photoshop is like driving to work every day in a paddleboat.

Here’s a method for creating a skin that is so simple a 27 year old grad student could do it.

1. Find the TaskBlaze folder on your desktop computer (normally C:\Program Files\TaskBlaze)
2. Open the Skins folder
3. Create a new folder with a skin name you like (i.e. Tribute to Brad)
4. Copy and paste the graphics from an existing skin folder to your new folder.
5. Use MS Paint, Adobe Photoshop or your preferred tool to edit the graphics in your skin folder to reflect your own style and individuality.
6. Launch TaskBlaze, go into settings and choose your new skinny-skin-skin.

Sharing and Showing Off

Think you can make a better skin than me?

Well, you’d have to be blind and missing both hands (AND FEET) not to be able to – but that’s not the point.  If you’ve got a great skin to share, please do.  You can .zip it up and email it to me bradisaac at gmail.com. If it’s good I’ll be happy to post it and link to your site until I can get a skins repository set up.

Download TaskBlaze 2009 Beta for Windows

Send Me Your Feedback about the TaskBlaze Beta

As this a Beta version of TaskBlaze your comments are appreciated and will make it better.  Feel free to email me or better post them in the comments below.  I’ll try to resolve them as quickly as possible.

The good news is I’ve finally got an auto updater working so if I post a fix or release you can get it immediately.