This By Keri Smith

Getting Started With Keri Smith's Creative Work

I picked up This By Keri Smith back in 2014 when someone at work mentioned it in passing during a creative block discussion. The premise is straightforward enough: you get a blank work book full of simple prompts designed to disrupt your normal thinking patterns. The idea isn't to produce something polished but to practice paying attention without judgment. Most people treat it like a journal, which works but misses half the point if you aren't careful about it. The book contains exercises like "Keep a treasure bag," "Collect 500 rocks," and "Explore a new place on your way home." There is no correct way to complete any of the prompts. Some pages have instructions, others are mostly blank with a single question or directive. The format is intentionally loose, which is both its greatest strength and the reason people abandon it quickly. You can find digital versions floating around, though the official print edition is widely available through major booksellers. The workbook is roughly 256 pages. It fits in a standard tote bag, which matters because one of the core exercises involves carrying a bag where you collect random things you find during the day. I kept one in my trunk for about six months and eventually filled it with bottle caps, dried leaves, receipts I couldn't throw away, and a single earring I found behind a bus stop. Not everything I collected was meaningful. That was the point.

How To Use It Without Wasting Your Time

The biggest mistake people make is treating each prompt as a checklist item to complete and move on from. That defeats the purpose entirely. When the book asks you to explore a new place, the instruction isn't "go somewhere new once" but rather to reorient yourself toward noticing things you normally walk past. I spent three weeks on the "worry page" exercise, writing the same anxious thought over and over until it lost its emotional charge. That took longer than any other exercise in the book and was the one that actually stuck with me. Here is the practical method I ended up using after burning through the first three exercises in about a week. I keep the book on my nightstand. I do one prompt per morning, before checking my phone. Some mornings I skip it and the book doesn't demand anything from me. The prompt I keep returning to is the one about photographing something ordinary until it becomes strange. You take the same object or space repeatedly over several days from slightly different angles. On day four you start seeing it differently. I did this with my kitchen sink for two weeks. It sounds ridiculous. It worked exactly as intended.

What Beginners Miss About The Process

The book assumes you already understand that the output doesn't matter. Most people I know who try it get stuck on the question of what they're supposed to produce. The answer is nothing specific. The practice itself is the product. When I first tried the "write a thank you note to something you never appreciated" exercise, I wrote a solid paragraph and then immediately crossed it out because it felt too neat. The crossed-out version was the actual exercise. Perfectionism is the primary blocker here, not lack of inspiration or time. Another thing nobody warns you about: the prompts are deliberately vague on purpose. Vague prompts force you to make decisions instead of following instructions, and that decision-making is where the creative flexibility comes from. If you find yourself waiting for clearer guidance from the book, you're doing it wrong. The book won't tell you what to do next. You decide that, and the discomfort you feel in that moment is the exercise working.

Limitations And When It Won't Help

This approach doesn't work for everyone and it absolutely has bottlenecks. If you are dealing with genuine creative burnout rather than a temporary block, the open-ended nature of these prompts can make things worse because they require executive function you may not have. People in that state often need structured creative tasks with clear endpoints, not a blank page asking them to "collect 100 things." The book also doesn't scale well if you're trying to use it as a daily productivity tool. It's a practice tool, not a productivity system, and treating it like one will frustrate you within a few days. There is also the question of whether the results are durable. Most people report feeling shifted after completing a few exercises but then revert to old habits within a month. I found that the prompts only create lasting change if you continue doing variations of them independently after finishing the book. The exercises themselves are short. The habit they build needs ongoing reinforcement. If you want something more structured as an alternative, I'd suggest pairing this with a dedicated observation practice like keeping a daily field notes page, or working through Viktor Schaefer's methods for systematic visual attention training. Those are more rigorous but less emotionally resonant. This By Keri Smith is better for the people who need permission to slow down and look rather than a systematic training regimen.

Where To Get It

The current edition is published by Chronicle Books. It is available in most major bookstores and online retailers. The Kindle version exists but the experience is significantly different because the prompts rely on physical interaction with the pages. I would strongly recommend the physical copy unless you have a strong preference for digital reading. The tactile element matters more than you might expect when the exercise is about collecting physical objects from your environment. If you're looking for the free PDF versions that circulate on various file-sharing sites, I won't recommend them. They are usually incomplete scans, the formatting is broken on many pages, and using pirated copies of a book this small undermines the creator directly. The book is reasonably priced. The effort to find a free version takes more time than the savings are worth. I still have my copy. I don't go through it cover to cover anymore. I pull it out when I notice my thinking has gone rigid and do one or two prompts just to remind myself that looking at things differently is a skill you can practice, not just something that happens occasionally. That's probably the most honest summary I can give about what this book actually does long term.