Nearly every job in today’s marketplace requires some sort of creativity. We don’t all need to produce oil paintings or music to make good use of creativity. It comes out in our day to day interactions with customers and peers, in our problem solving, and even in our accounting processes. If we are always giving our best to our work, we’re always looking for ways to improve it. If we’re always looking to improve it, we need to constantly view it from different angles.
As I talked about in my Top 8 Productivity Tips, I am constantly listening to and reading about productivity as well as creativity and how to apply these practices to our work. I’ve accumulated some tips and tricks to help bring the best out in us and they’re listed below. This is a list of practices that will help bring the creative side out of us, allowing us to focus on what message or ‘portrait’ we want to get across to the world. One of my favorite quotes is “A mind stretched by a new idea can never return to it’s original form” by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. Use these creativity tips to begin thinking about projects from all angles and don’t let the excuse, “I’m not creative enough for that” ever hold back!
Before we even sit down to hone in on our work, we need to have varying experiences to pull from if we want to maximize our
creativity. We have all heard of people having ‘ah ha’ moments that lead to breakthroughs or inspiration, right? Many times these don’t come while actually working on the projects that demand our attention and creativity. An example of a new experience for me was last week when I went rock climbing at a local bouldering gym instead of normal gym routine. I got to do something new and fun while still getting a workout in, and it was not time I had to create in my schedule since I already planned on going to the gym. The climbing experience helped me note some great things about climbers as well as pick up some new vocabulary terms so when we put out our “Rock Climbing 101 Guide” with Epic Day, I’ll have some user knowledge. We tend to amaze ourselves when we step out of our comfort zones and try new things.
2.) Good In: Good Out. Bad In: Bad Out
What we intake has an effect on our output, this is well documented. Just as who we surround ourselves with affects our how we act, we are all influence-able. I loathe mindless reality TV shows like The Kardashians and every one of the Housewives shows. If they are even playing in another room as static noise I feel like I’m getting dumber just from the echoes. What we put into our minds does not just sit there, it has to come out in some form. So when we spend our time watching ‘E’ and catching up on gossip, we find our minds wandering to those topics in conversation and slowly that’s what becomes important to us. Fortunately this is easy to fix: stop doing things that don’t bring you value. Instead of playing PS4 for hours on end pick up a book, or watch a documentary about something you’re interested in, go do something interesting that you’ve never experiences before, or maybe try having a conversation with . When we put good in, we push good out. The more we compromise on what kind of materials we put in, the lower of quality we will put out.
3.) Physical Care
This is a simple concept: when we feel bad (i.e. sick, overweight, lacking sleep, etc.) we focus more on how bad we feel rather than what we’re producing. Making time for ourselves is so important and is a topic I’ll soon be tackling, if we don’t take care of ourselves how can ever expect to bring our best to others or our work? Making time to take care of ourselves with physical activity, proper sleep, and diet can help produce a clarity of mind that allows us to focus in on producing our best work. There is no secret to this one, it takes time and it takes effort but it brings up our quality of life in all areas, not just creativity.
When we have alone time we allow ourselves the time necessary to work on or at least think about, what it is that we want to accomplish or what problems we’re trying to solve. It’s good to have influence from the right people at the right time, but working alone on certain things builds confidence and helps us explore our creativity from within. I get some of my alone time while running, some people get it in the cars on a commute to and from work, and still others will make time for it on the weekends when they can unplug from the world completely. These first two are good, but not enough. We need to create time for solo work with no distractions and complete focus. If you’ve never done this, here’s how to start: pick 1 project, turn off all unnecessary forms of distraction (phone, Spotify, TV, etc.), give yourself 1 hour to do nothing but focus on this project, and do not let yourself get up until that hour has passed. You’ll be blown away what happens when you just do the work and don’t let yourself make excuses.
. I liked it, but I don’t agree with every little thing in the book. I am of the opinion, just as with productivity tips, that everyone needs to find their own way and figure out what works for them. The more we learn about the subject, the more of an expert we can become at honing those skills.
I found the Good in:good out concept to be so true in my life. It’s amazing how quickly your brain can get “lazy” or atrophy from lack of stimulating material.
Couldn’t agree more, the challenge then becomes finding new experiences in our day to day lives and always putting ourselves out there. Thanks for the feedback, hope you enjoyed this post!