In every job there are times when you need to be more creative. In particular this applies to creative fields. However I think that every single job and role needs a creative streak at times. Just saying “be more creative” might be the single worst way to actually be more creative. It puts your mind into a panicked mindset that you NEED to do this one thing no matter what. Very few people can take that mindset and succeed often it leads to mental blocks or sub part ideas.
I have found the most success from pushing on a task in that way for a few hours, then breaking out of it for a day and doing something else. Giving your mind a short break and a chance to process can be very effective. Letting the subconscious mind mull over the issue can lead to amazing breakthroughs.
That is the perfect world scenario. Sometimes you can just wait a few days for the idea to formulate, you need some actionable steps to get your mind moving. Everyone has their own way to do that could be food, could be just standing up could be chatting with a coworker? I have found a few ways that really help me push past creative blocks, or push the flow I am already in farther.
Go Outside
This is the easiest one for me. If you are stuck on a really hard idea or problem. Get up and move around. It can start with just standing up? Reset your point of view. Go do a lap around the room or office to get your feet moving and blood pumping a little bit. Ideally all the way to just going outside. There are tons of benefits to getting outside and in the sun everyday sparking your creativity is just one of them. For some reason getting the rest of your body moving helps your brain get moving too.
Ask Someone Else
Two heads often are better than one. Or 3, 4, 5 head maybe. The idea of brainstorming sessions is really powerful. When you can gather a group of focused people to tackle one major idea it can concentrate a ton of effort into a small time. Simple things like getting a group and a stack of post it notes and have people put rough ideas on to each post it. Either words or images. Just seeing the other ideas will push and spark you forward. This does assume you have created a positive creative environment.
Yes Pinterest the website. I have found it to be a great way to get tons and tons of visual ideas quickly. It helps to have a starting place. If you are working on a new shoe design you can just put the word shoe in to the search bar and you are off to the races. Scroll forever looking at ideas the other people found valuable enough to save to Pinterest. Now there is an easy trap here that you will start to copy other ideas rather than new shapes and colors. Fighting against that is up to you.
Use Your Hands
Working with your hands is a great way to distract yourself and free up your mind for other ideas. The act of having your hands busy can help with any nervous or anxious energy that you have. Giving space for you to really think about a concept or idea. If you want to do two things at the same time if you can be sketching out ideas or mind maps of what you are working on you can keep your hands moving and be capturing the ideas as you go.
Make A List
Making lists is one of my most powerful creative tools. Just writing out as many ideas as you possibly can. Also make sure that the ideas are held somewhere in the real world and not just in your head. I consider it to be a brain-dump getting all of the half formed or just bad ideas out. So you can stare them down and really see that they are not going to get it done for you. It can just be lists of things that you need to do, can be lists of colors your like, can be lists of shapes that will work for a product. The joy of lists is that they can be anything. I highly suggest making your lists with paper rather than digital. THere is a strong connection between writing with a pen or pencil on paper and information staying with you.
If you need to spark creativity these are 5 ways to push it forward.
1. Go Outside
2. Ask someone else
3. Pinterest
4. Use your hands
5. Make a list
There are infinite other ways to manipulate your mind to get things done but these work great for me. Major keys are to get your body involved with your mind so that you can have them working in concert to keep you going.