One of the projects that I have been assigned in my graduate school program is a genius hour. In short, it is a time set aside for me to work on a topic skill that I have self selected. The only specific in this case was that it had to be associated with Educational Technology. I chose to learn a skill that I have thought about in the past, but never fully understood. I am learning Adobe Photoshop.
I won’t bore you with the procedural details like how I am learning it, what my end product will be, etc. Instead I wanted to catalog what I am learning and how it applies to future endeavors.
My main takeaway so far with Photoshop is that I can learn the skills but my weakness is my creative mindset. I am enough of a tinkerer that I can figure out most programs relatively quickly. There are some specific quirks to Photoshop that I am learning on the fly and getting frustrated with at times, but those are few and far between. When I struggle the most is when I lack inspiration for what to create or modify. The course that I am walking through suggests some practice exercises. They are trying to leave them general enough to fit anyone’s interests, but I sometimes have a hard time getting started because of no inspiration.
The question for me is how do I build my creative mindset to the point where I do not get frustrated getting started? I am assuming this comes down to practice. So I will endeavor to practice using the creative part of my brain so that I do not get so easily frustrated.