Matias Corea is a designer, entrepreneur, and an adventurer. He's the co-founder of Behance, where he lead design for 9 years, and Satellite Labs, which makes crazy-amazing image technology for filmmakers. He's currently advising a handful of startups and at work on a book about his 7-month motorcycle journey from Brooklyn to Patagonia.

How do you structure your day? Your week?

I keep it fluid, over time I figured out that I can't be truly creative under very rigid structure. There needs to be space for exploration and ultimately time to think. We've inherited a 9 to 5 factory structure that we have applied to everything, including creativity. I believe that creatives cannot produce 8 hours of actual good work a day, every day. Accepting this has changed my perception of what it is to feel productive.

The gist is that every day I figure out how much work I need to get done to move a specific project forward, I schedule 3-4 hours of REAL work for the day. This is truly focused work time, but not continuous always, I need breaks.

Then I either I start working if I feel I have ideas or I work on some other personal project. For me personal projects make me feel energized and  frees me from the anxiety of having to work on client work.

What’s a piece of advice regarding work that’s stuck with you?

Don’t get desperate of anxious if you don’t come up with good ideas immediately, it takes time. To me, creativity is about process, not just inspiration. In some ways I work my way to inspiration. I have to spew out a lot of really really bad work before anything good comes out, it’s like this 100% of the time.

What’s one tip you’d like to share with aspiring creatives?

Show your work, but edit yourself. Showing ‘everything i’ve done’ is not the best way to make the right impression. Think about your portfolio as an average of quality.

You can show ten projects ranging in quality like this:

4 + 5 + 5 + 5 + 5 + 6 +7 + 8 + 9 = Average 5.4

Or you can edit and show:

5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 = Average 7

Every time you add a new project consider removing one, always trying to bring the average up. Less, but better. Always wins.

Brainstorm on the go like Matias Corea. We recommend: Action Book Mini