9 Ways to Effectively Boost Your Creativity
Creativity is not something you either have or you don’t. Think of it as a muscle in our body. You need to stretch, challenge, and push it out of its comfort zone from time to time.
In this blog, we will discuss how you can boost your creativity effectively. Let’s dive into the details.
- Learn via collaboration
Curiosity will inspire your creativity.
Whenever people are stuck between what they should do next, they tend to go out, seek information, read a lot, and talk to experts. That’s how the human brain naturally works. Curiosity can encourage you to go above and beyond, unlike anything else. It’s magical!
With enough inputs, information, and knowledge from experts, new innovative ideas start popping up in mind. So indeed, collaborating with others will help you learn, and maybe that’s exactly what you need to boost your creativity.
- Do what you love
Running out of ideas? Don’t know what to do? You need to maintain some balance in your life to make sure your creativity is not suffering.
You learn the most and the best when you do something you love with such pleasure that you barely notice when the time passes.
Creativity and love are entwined. A hobby like playing guitar, dancing, painting, collecting things, etc. can promote relaxation, help fight stress, and give your creativity a much-needed boost.
- Take inspiration from other industries
There’s nothing creative or unique about copying what a competitor has done already. For your next idea, you should search for innovation in separate niches and industries.
Analyze what companies are dominating the market, and why? What companies are you most loyal to and why?
So how are you going to bring what worked for other businesses outside your industry to your domestic market? By improving these ideas! Gaining inspiration from other industries is an excellent way to give your creativity a boost.
- Unplug for a while
At times the best of your ideas will pop up when you are not tormenting your brain to propose the next unique idea.
It might happen when you are sleeping. A good night’s sleep will help you be more creative and productive the whole day.
A lot of people agree that the best ideas come to them while their mind is wandering in the shower.
So, it is possible that your next great idea might pop up in your mind while you are painting, writing, listening to music, exercising, driving, or even watching sunrise or sunset.
If you think your creativity needs a boost, give your mind a rest. Unplug, do nothing, and let your brain do its voodoo.
- Take a walk
On average, people spend almost 6.5 to 10 hours sitting per day. Crazy, isn’t it?
However, sitting more than that can be harmful not only for your health and mood but also for your creativity.
Many studies show that walking enhances your creative thinking. Moreover, studies also indicate that people who participate in walking meetings are more engaged and creative. The majority of entrepreneurs and business leaders organize walking meetings regularly.
Although this won’t fix our national sitting crisis, it will definitely boost your creativity and improve your health.
- Set the right mood
Running out of ideas or not being able to fix a problem can be incredibly infuriating.
Unless you appreciate absolute silence, music can be just what you need to uplift your mood and give your creativity a boost.
Many successful leaders have used music to shift their moods and stay creative. It might as well work for you.
- Use the six thinking hats technique
At times all you need to do is start from scratch. Forget everything and get back to square one – divide it using six different color hats.
This technique will help you look at things from multiple perspectives. For example, use the white hat to look at data/things you have, a black hat for where things can go wrong, a green hat for creativity, a yellow hat for an optimistic point of view, a red hat to look at problems using your intuition or gut, etc.
Looking at problems from multiple points of view might be just what you need to resolve an issue.
- Ask for feedback or advice
At times you are just too close to a problem to find out a creative solution on your own.
Asking for help doesn’t mean you are weak. Seek help or advice from family, friends, and peers whom you truly respect and trust. Everyone has their own knowledge, experience, and skillsets.
A new and fresh point of view from two, four, or even better, six people might be exactly what you need.
Even if you choose not to implement their advice completely, it can help spark a new creative idea that will lead you in the right direction.
- Pick your terrible ideas
Keep aside whatever idea you have been stuck on for the last couple of minutes.
Now think about the most useless ideas you can possibly imagine. Make a list of all those terrible ideas you can come up with.
Now it’s time to challenge and stretch your creativity. Pinpoint the best features of each of these worst ideas.
Analyzing these ideas will probably trigger one of your creative ideas that you can employ on that great idea you were initially stuck on.
Conclusion
Ideas can pop up in your mind anytime, anywhere. Being a creative person, you need to keep these tips in mind to keep boosting your creativity from time to time. Connect with people from different backgrounds, industries, locations, experiences, etc. Interacting with them will help you learn new things, which is essential, needless to say.
Practice writing down whenever you get a new idea. Browse the internet, look for innovative images, download the ones you like. You can use Pinterest to create your own gallery of beautiful pictures you like. Perhaps they can spark a creative idea. Start spending more time with yourself doing nothing. Relaxing is just as important as working. Observe your surroundings and take note of little things. These are the best ways to boost your creativity.