I’ve been off work for the last two months or so. I decided to try to use that time productively, with lofty ambitions of writing a book, or a play, or making a game. Needless to say, I’m lazy and didn’t accomplish much.

But, what I did learn was the power of daily routines. By making new tasks into a habit, you can build powerful rituals that actually get stuff done. For me, that was getting up, doing exercise, doing a short writing exercise, and then checking the @OneMinuteBriefs Twitter account.

@OneMinuteBriefs is run by the Bank of Creativity agency, and every weekday it delivers a single, simple creative brief. Anyone is free to pitch a response to it, the scrappier, the better. Ideally, you’d spend no longer than a minute on it, but nobody’s really keeping score. At the end of the day, everybody gets to vote for their favourites. And a few picked are picked as the winners.

It’s good fun, and some days they work with big brands to offer generous cash prizes. It’s a win for the brands too, as they get a whole bunch of cheap creative, primed for viral success.

The community itself is super supportive, made up of dozens of self-proclaimed OMBLEs. Everyone gives each other a lot of support, and it’s generally all lovely and wholesome.

While furloughed, I did about 35 briefs. And I’m pleased to say I was one of the winners for 7 of them. That’s great. And it certainly beats my Newsjack success rate.

Let’s take a look at some of my favourites!!!

#EARTHDAY

#FROGS

I sort of took a different direction here. Inspired by the world’s greatest Twitter account: @dasharez0ne

#FAVOURITESONGS

#SLOWCOOKERS

This was a fun one. I made a pretty basic ad but scheduled it in Buffer to post to my Twitter a month later. GET IT?!

#MUGS

I can’t tell you how long this took. And it still looks like garbage.

#BRINGBACKTHESHAVE

A brief for King of Shaves, who wanted to encourage us to get shaving again.

#UNDERPRESSURE (for SES Water)

I’ll be proud of this wordplay till the day I die.


Anyone can give it a go. Can’t write? Just draw a picture! Can’t draw? Just jot something down on a napkin! Seriously, OMB is a hyper-accessible way to dip your toe into creative work. And you can do it every single day!

Let me know if you do, and I’ll chuck you a RT too.