Creativity is a hot topic in many industries these days. Rightly so, as creativity is at the heart of innovation, and innovation is in turn increasingly essential with increased global competitiveness. In her viral TED Talk on the subject, researcher Brené Brown famously expounded upon the importance of vulnerability to creativity. If you’re looking for a few quick ways to be more creative at work, we highly recommend doing any of these following things:
1) Travel.
Yes, even if it’s for work, travel is a great way to shake up your day to day routine and prompt you into seeing the world in a different way. There’s no telling what these new observations can do for your thinking. Not to mention the kinds of neural connections that will be made subconsciously as you taste new tastes, talk to new people, and climb to new heights.
2) Go on an Art Date.
There’s a reason this classic piece of advice from the canon of creativity, The Artist’s Way, is so effective: taking the time to imbibe other people’s creativity is sure to inspire your own. Again, it’s all about rewiring those neurons and looking at the world in a way you didn’t even know what possible. So take the time every week if you can to head to an art gallery, a concert, or even to go graffiti-spotting to spark your own unexpected inspiration.
3) Get Comfortable.
Working on creative tasks draws on entirely different parts of the brain than analytical tasks or those that require you to just “get ‘er done.” Especially as you transition into this kind of work, being creative can be a lot more mentally tasking, and you can feel yourself distracted by the simplest of things. Pain can be distracting enough as you complete any task, but it’s all the more so when doing creative work. Creativity, after all, requires joy and a willingness to go wherever your ideas take you, whereas pain engenders an attitude that will have you speeding through your tasks so you can move on to something less painful. As such, investing in an ergonomic mouse and keyboard as well as any ergonomic furniture is essential to keeping those big ideas flowing. The more comfortable you are, the more open you’ll be to the thoughts that arise.
For more on this topic, we highly recommend taking a glance at this helpful infographic, entitled Stay Creative in 40 Easy Ways.
How do you stay creative at work? Let us know in the comments below.
