“Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties.”—Erich Fromm
You are working in the creative industry and suddenly you find yourself stuck in a mental rut. You are supposed to come up with a creative idea but your brain is struggling to oblige. We all face similar situations on a regular basis, irrespective of whether we work in a creative industry or not. When it comes to creativity, there are two different perspectives. One says that creative people are naturally gifted while other argues that creativity can be learned and improved. Irrespective of which side you are on, you cannot deny the importance of inspiration. In this article, you will learn effective ways of boosting your creativity in no time.
1. Doodle, Doodle, and Doodle some more.
Suni Brown, in his book “The Doodle Revolution” asserts that the most creative people in the world use doodling to kick-start their creativity.
Bill Gates, Henry Ford, Steve Jobs and Mark Twain all doodled to trigger their creativity engines into full throttle.
When you doodle, it stimulates your recalling power and leads your brain unique pathways that you have not ventured into before. This is when you start coming up with unique ideas and shatter the mental block.
This is the sole reason why many companies encourage their employees to doodle during meetings. Jeffrey Murray, chief test manager at Microsoft says that his team starts to think about product features by crafting whiteboard sketches and storyboard illustrations. Facebook is also implementing whiteboards and writable glass on different surfaces to enhance the creativity of their employees.
2. Drink Coffee
When you guzzle upon coffee or any other caffeinated drink, the ingested caffeine content absorbs quickly in your body and acts quickly. It blocks the ability of a chemical known as adenosine. Adenosine kills your energy and makes you drowsy. This is why coffee is an ideal choice if you want to stay alert and keep the nuisance of yawning at bay.
After reviewing more than a hundred studies, we have come to know the real benefits of caffeine. Caffeine bolsters cognitive performance, enhances your short-term memory, decreases mental fatigue and helps you solve complex problems that require reasoning. Moreover, you do not have to wait long to reap all these benefits, just have a cup of coffee and take your creativity to the next level.
3. Learn Something You Have Not Learned Before
If you want to be creative, you will have to come out of your comfort zone and think out-of-the-box. When you push your brain to think differently, your creativity flourishes. Just like any other body part, if you do not venture into untapped horizons, your brain will slowly go into sleep mode and you will eventually hit a mental block that will be hard for you to overcome. Keep your creative cells running by learning something new that you have never learned before. It could be anything from acing a new language, mastering a new instrument or taking classes to learn something new.
4. Listen To Music
“Without Music, life would be a mistake”– Friedrich Nietzsche
Albert Einstein, the greatest scientist to have ever lived, knew it. He listened to Mozart’s compositions and credited it to this creativity. Today, more than six decades later, science has proven that music can spark your creativity. Numerous studies have shown the positive effects of music on our brains.
Some frequencies, known as isochronic tones and binaural beats, can have a positive impact on your cognitive functions and creativity. What type of music should you listen to? From a creativity standpoint, you should listen to classical music or the ones you like most. Just listening to Vivaldi classical concerti Four Seasons can make you feel the difference soon enough.
5. Environment Does Matter
Google knows the importance of providing its employees with an environment that can bring the best out of them as far as creativity is concerned. From T-Rex structures to beach volleyball courts, pink flamingos to LEGO figures, android statues to ball pits, Google headquarters looks more like a fun-filled playground for its employees rather than the headquarters of a tech giant.
When you provide your employees with the creativity-stimulating environment, they start enjoying and feel more relaxed at work. When employees feel right at home at their workplaces, they will start to share their ideas and feelings at liberty. This slowly eliminates the fear of failure and criticism, which paves way for creativity. With no restrictions or boundaries on their thinking, it brings out the best in creativity from your employees.
6. Become a Bookworm
Nothing opens up your mind like reading. Cultivating the habit of reading can help your brain think in new and different directions, which sows the seed of creativity. Researchers at Emory University conducted MRI scans on students who are asked to read Pompeii novels. The results of the scans revealed a substantial boosting brain connectivity and an increased activity in the brain regions responsible for managing receptivity, physical sensation, and controlling movements. Dedicate an hour to reading every day and your creative juices will start to flow.
7. Get Moving
According to a Stanford study, taking a stroll either indoors or outdoors can inspire a dose of creativity. Whether you are running intervals on your treadmill or heading out for a morning walk and relishing the daybreak breeze, your creativity takes an upscale swoop as compared to a person who is sitting down. In fact, Steve Jobs earned a reputation for conducting walking meetings.
His biography also confirms that “Talking a long walk was his preferred way of having a serious conversation.” Although he usually reserved these walking sessions for people whom he was meeting for the first time, he also conducted occasional walking meetings with Apple executives from time to time.
With so much on our plates, our minds are loaded to the brim and you cannot expect a saturated brain to come up with creative ideas. Take a ten minutes break and go for a walk. You never know, you might come up with an exciting idea during the walk. When you return, you will see a positive change in terms of creativity and productivity.
