10 Ways to Increase Your Creativity

Creativity is an extremely valuable asset in the world of business and academia. It is even more important for entrepreneurs or people who have creative ideas, who need to generate new directions and options. This article will show you a few ways of how to convince your brain that it's time to get creative by changing your perspective or taking a break from thinking about the problem.

1. Switch your point of view

It's important to change your perspective from time to time. This can be quite effective and it doesn't necessarily mean that you have to travel across the world. Even going up a flight of stairs can help. Or try looking at the problem from a completely different angle by turning it upside down or in a mirror.

2. Take a break

If you can't think about the problem, you can always stop trying for a little while, for example, after lunch or when working on some other project for few hours. Your brain needs breaks like any other body part does and ignoring this fact will only cause stress and more mistakes and failures in the future.

3. Change your environment

You can change the environment around you to stimulate your brain by adding new things or changing the existing ones. For example, try painting a wall or reading a book or magazine you wouldn't usually read. Or watching a different TV show that is not connected to your daily routine may suddenly give you some amazing ideas and change how you think about something completely unrelated to it.

4. Try thinking in different ways

List all the different ways you can solve the problem. This may be very hard and time consuming, so it's not a good idea to do this when you have too much work to finish or your brain is exhausted. List random ideas that don't make sense, but are worth thinking about and possibly trying out in future. Different approaches help us think outside of our existing box and get a completely new point of view of the problem.

5. Re-organize your ideas

This is a way to give your brain something fresh and new to think about. If you have five or ten different ways of solving the problem, but they all look quite similar, reorganize them in different ways so that you don't know where one ends and the other starts. This will help increase your creativity and make you think along many different possible directions.

6. Find inspiration in everything around you

This is a good idea especially if you are facing a very difficult problem. There is always something that can be seen or heard on any day of the week or maybe even in an hour, which can be used as inspiration for a new idea or creative solution to some problem eventually. Listening to music, watching movies or visiting art galleries are good ways to find inspiration that can ultimately lead to a creative solution.

7. Take frequent breaks

Taking a break when you feel that your energy is running low helps the brain concentrate better on what you want it to do and helps you avoid mistakes. During your break you can do whatever is more interesting at the time. This could be reading, playing a game or doing something else that gives your brain some new stimuli and helps it think about the problem in a different way.

8. Write down what comes into your mind

If certain ideas pop up into your head, don't ignore them. Write them down and think about them later. This is a technique that is used by many people who want to find good ideas for writing books or making films. It's more likely that your idea will be quite valuable and won't just disappear if you write it down.

9. Think about other things

If you really can't think of anything or have no ideas, try thinking about something completely different from your problem. This can be hard to do and sometimes we don't even know where to start, because all we see around us is some kind of a problem itself or all the work that has been done and still needs to be done. If you have a break, think about other things for a little bit and then come back to the problem.

10. Use a more colorful or imaginative way to talk about your problem

If you can't deal with your problem by talking about it in a different and more creative way, stop doing it. Talking in simple, straightforward and dull language won't make your brain work any better, but will only cause you stress and make you frustrated. Try out some new words that evoke different emotions such as beautiful, inspiring, exciting or even amusing. It's not as easy as it may sound but it can make a positive difference.

Finally

The tips discussed above are based on the experience of many successful business managers and authors. Try to apply them to see which one is right for you, which one makes you feel more creative and satisfied with your thoughts. Remember that it's not always possible to solve a very difficult problem on the first try and after many attempts. You should also be aware that being creative isn't only about solving problems, but also about finding different options and ways how to do something right and reach your goals faster.