13 Unexpected Ways to Boost Your Creativity at Work
Creativity is an important attribute that solopreneurs should possess. Sometimes you come up with creative ideas when you need them, and sometimes they just don't pop up. But you know you need to be creative in order to solve problems and advance your business. What should one do to get it working?
Let’s explore some less-known ways to get that bulb glowing.
1. Daydream
Creative ideas sometimes pop-out of nowhere when our minds are wandering off. So instead of pressuring yourself to create something new with a deadline, zone out for a while.
2. Drop inhibitions
When your brain is too efficient, thinking logically would usually end up as a bad idea. Get yourself into a state where you can’t function at your best and rely on intuition or associate two completely unrelated ideas.
3. Look at something blue or green
Looking at both of these colors tend to enhance the performance of cognitive tasks. Isaac Newton discovered gravity when an apple fell from a tree by observing the forces of nature. So go to the beach, stare at the sky, an open grass field or at a tree.
4. Relax
Similar to dropping your inhibitions and daydreaming, relaxing and relieving yourself from stress can give way for creativity to take over in your head.
5. Engage in a conversation with others
“Wait, what was it you that said a while ago? No, the one before that!” These eureka moments spark the most unexpected solutions and discoveries for problems humans ever faced. Ask for a friend's opinion as well.
6. Overhaul ideas
When the search for new concepts becomes too complicated, it's time you get back to the basics. Explore new combinations and methods by taking apart ideas and techniques then rearrange them in a new order.
7. Consider all alternative scenarios as much as possible
A single and sure solution to a problem is good. But there will always be “What ifs?” Thinking this way boosts your problem-solving as well as your creative thinking skills. It also helps with having a plan B whenever the need arises
8. Snowball your thoughts
Once you discover a new concept, utilize a snowball technique by taking this one great idea into another. Don’t stop until you run out of fresh ideas or when you come to a thinking halt.
9. Tickle yourself
Have a good laugh from time to time. Positive mood can foster creative thinking because it boosts activity in the prefrontal cortex and anterior cingulate cortex. These areas of the brain associated with complex cognition, decision-making, and emotion!
10. The six hats technique
The six hats technique makes you solve problems from six different perspectives. Red hat for what your emotions tell you. White hat for facts and objectives. Yellow hat for positivity. Black hat for the negative - which elements of the solution won’t work? Green hat for creativity - what are the alternatives? Blue hat for broadness - what is the best overall solution?
11. Be someone else
When out of ideas, put yourself in someone else’s shoes. For example, if a car full of delivery boxes to different customers is stuck in traffic and there’s a deadline, what would your father do? Will he wait for traffic to ease up or will he get a motorcycle and deliver the first box to the closest customer in location or on a deadline?
12. Put your mind far away
Research suggests that our imaginations and problem-solving skills improve if we put our minds in events and locations far off from the present like the past or the future. So picture something like a month from now in a collaborative business meeting and let your imagination for creativity go.
13. Start and keep going
If relaxing or dozing off isn’t your cup of tea and you feel doing better being busy, start now and keep going. Write down an objective or a draft of an idea then start working on it.
Most of mankind’s greatest discoveries were made possible by thinking out of the box. What’s left for you is to discover which technique gets the gears in your head working. I hope you enjoyed this article.