Whether you consider yourself a creative person or not, being able to tap into your creative side can help you solve problems, come up with new ideas, find a unique perspective, and more. Creativity is a skill you can develop over time and is useful in both business and life. Here are some tips to tap into your creativity you can use the next time you feel stuck:
1. Write Things Down
Creativity is the ability to think of new ideas and to create new things. How you unleash that creativity and use it is up to you and it is sometimes described as a skill you can build or a muscle you can strengthen.
Creativity Tends to Compound
Creativity can also have a compounding effect. As you think, imagine, and ideate, you can often train your brain and your focus to pay attention to those things more. This often results in more ideas and more creativity.
Record Your Ideas
One of the simplest ways to tap into your creativity is to write things down. Not only does this help you keep track of your ideas, but it can also help you clear your mind, find new things, and more. On top of that, clearing your mind is a helpful tool to help you recover from burnout since it helps you work through emotions and stress.
Whether through writing things down in a physical notebook, using digital memos and notes, or some combination of both, recording your ideas can help you generate more of them and also ensure you can reference them later. Plus, writing things down regularly helps you establish a great writing routine.
Write Freely or With Purpose
You can keep a journal where you simply and freely write down your thoughts. You can also keep other journals or things for specific purposes, like an art journal, a small journal or notebook specifically for jotting down ideas on the go, a book journal where you note interesting ideas from what you read, a dream journal, and more. Writing frequently is a great way to exercise, practice, and improve your writing skills while also tapping into your creativity.
2. Draw Something
Another one of the most common tips to tap into your creativity is to draw something. You can draw something specific, start learning how to draw, doodle something, or just engage in mark-making practices.
Even if you are just scribbling lines and shapes with no purpose in mind, you’re still doing something that can help you be more creative. It gets your hands moving and at least part of your brain focused on something else. Sometimes, this is all it takes to trigger a new thought pattern or series of ideas.
3. Change Your Scenery
If you’re always trying to be creative in the same space, changing your environment can help you get out of a rut and generate new ideas. Taking your work outside, going to a coffee shop, or even just moving to somewhere else in your house to break up your routines can make a big difference.
4. Get Yourself Moving
In addition to the boost in endorphins and generally feeling good, moving around and getting some exercise can also help you tap into your creativity. Even something simple and short, like a walk outside, some stretching, dancing for a little bit, and more, can all help you get the blood flowing, get moving, and prime your thoughts for exciting and new ideas.
5. Make Time for Play
Play may be associated most with children, but everyone, of all ages, needs to play. Playing often goes hand-in-hand with creativity. As an adult, you may need to be intentional about making time for play in your life, but it’s worthwhile to do so.
Puzzles, coloring books, clay, and more are tactile ways to integrate some play into your life. Play could also be something like trying a new fitness class, taking an art class, learning a new hobby, playing with a pet, and more.
Revisiting things you enjoy and including them in your life more often, and also trying new things, can all help boost creativity in addition to other benefits.
6. Keep Learning New Things
There are definite advantages to becoming an expert in something. But, it’s also important to keep learning new things within your specialty and across a broad variety of things.
The more you learn and the wider your breadth of knowledge and experiences, the more inspiration you have and the more unique connections you’re able to make. You can listen to podcasts, watch TED talks, watch YouTube videos, read books, take classes, etc.
In-person classes are a resource and offer interesting experiences, but online courses and videos tend to be more flexible and can also help you learn something new. Plus, with more and more online courses available, you have the opportunity to learn pretty much whatever you want.
You can also just freely research and read things online. Start with something you find interesting and then let yourself fall down the rabbit hole and see where it takes you. Many of the ways you can use data to generate content ideas can also be repurposed to help you tap into your creativity in other ways as well.
7. Try Meditation
Stress, overthinking, racing thoughts, and more can all block creativity. Taking some time to meditate and focus on your breathing can help you slow down, de-stress, and clear your mind. In doing so, you free up your focus and mental energy for other things, which can boost your creativity and help you think about things in new ways.
8. Talk to Someone
Talking to someone is a great way to switch up your thought processes and get some creativity flowing. It can be a simple conversation or you can bounce ideas off of them. Often, having someone you can trust and who you feel comfortable around act as a sounding board can help you work through ideas and come up with new things.
Meeting new people and having conversations with them can also help you tap into your creativity. You’re interacting with someone new, hearing their perspectives on things, and learning new things. You could walk away with a new friend, and you never know when these new experiences will spark a new idea.
9. Give Yourself Permission to Think Freely
Self-doubt is limiting and can hamper your creativity. Sometimes, just giving yourself permission to think and create freely is enough to help you find your creative side. Reassure yourself and be okay with coming up with ideas that might not work, especially in brainstorming sessions.
Just get the ideas out and figure out whether they are good, bad, doable, etc. later. Otherwise, you can get stuck in your head and start inhibiting your creativity by placing limitations on what you come up with.
The same is true for actually making stuff. If you’re drawing, painting, writing, sculpting, etc. to try and unlock your creativity, don’t focus on the end result, how you think it’s going, or what other people might think – just do it, enjoy the process, and don’t be afraid to fail. It’s not for other people; it’s for you.
These are just a few tips to tap into your creativity and can also be used as tips to improve brainstorming sessions. Using them can help you get out of a creative rut, find some motivation, get inspired, and more. Who knows? Tapping into your creativity could help you come up with your next great idea!