It was a typical Friday in the office when I shared an important announcement: “Hi team! Quick reminder that I’m signing in at noon on Monday since I’ll be traveling back from San Diego in the morning from a jigsaw puzzle competition. Yes, you read that correctly, it’s a jigsaw puzzle competition.”
Jigsaw puzzles are probably what you’d least expect for a competition and for someone who enjoys content production. For years, I’ve enjoyed jigsaw puzzles as a hobby and spend hours on them during the holidays. From my time in San Diego at the USA National Jigsaw Puzzle Championships, I’ve seen what my hobby provides me as a content creator including:
A new approach that can support you with reaching your goals
As my friend Joanna and I plotted out our strategy for putting together a 500-piece landscape puzzle, we made plans to separate edges and who would sort out pieces for the sky, grass, and hut depicted in the jigsaw puzzle. Next to us, a married couple took a different approach. They quickly took turns changing their location around the puzzle, focusing on colors and shapes.
When Joanna and I struggled with the dark house in the bottom corner, the husband admitted he wasn’t sure of what house we were talking about. It was then that I realized he was looking at patterns, textures, and colors instead of focusing on the final image. His perspective inspired me to think about completing jigsaw puzzles in a different way.
Looking at things in a new way or trying a new approach is not only important for my puzzling but also for my work in content creation. Taking time to go through my personal social media accounts and watch others’ videos helps me with refreshing my approach. Freelancing in other industries and following my passion for other fields has given me countless themes and content ideas for recurring programs and upcoming campaigns.
A view of both the bigger picture and the details
If you want something that can provide you with both an up-close and far away perspective of something, it’s a jigsaw puzzle. Once pieces are sorted by edges, colors, and textures, it’s a matter of taking a closer look at them to figure out how they fit together. Having the box lid handy to look at the final picture is just as important to refresh your mindset and remind you of where you need to go.
The same concept applies with content creation. When reviewing videos, I watch them through three times to view everything from a wide and narrow perspective. Each time I take the opportunity to dig deeper into the themes, messaging, audio, and visuals.
Does the b-roll match what’s being said in the interview? Are there any weird transitions or does everything flow smoothly? Are the audio clips, b-roll, and music set up in a way that helps the storyline or does it distract from the overall messaging? Reviewing multiple times allows me to determine if the content is effective or needs to go in a different direction.
A deeper understanding of teamwork
The famous saying goes: Teamwork makes the dreamwork. Teamwork also means figuring out how you and your teammate can complement one another. Joanna and I had never competed together before, and we quickly had to learn how to use our strengths to complete the jigsaw puzzle. Switching places and working on a different section of the puzzle gave both of us the opportunity to use our strengths to help each other out when we got stuck on a certain section.
Collaborating with a team isn’t only beneficial to my hobby as a puzzler, it’s also good for my work as a content creator. Partnering with photographers, videographers, graphic designers, and copywriters makes content stronger and provides me opportunities to learn from their expertise. Doing it all yourself isn’t always the best way to create content and expecting someone to do it solo means you may not get the best quality. Finding ways to partner with others and build a supportive team makes all the difference.
Like this post? Pin it for later!
Image by congerdesign on Pixabay