September 9, 2010

Making Work "Work": Resources for Busy Professionals

Exercise Your Brain for Inspiration

You can’t turn on creativity like a light, but you can’t always sit around and wait for inspiration to strike, either. You have to cultivate creativity on an ongoing basis. Here are some tips to help inspire you!

• Keep a journal. Record ideas as soon as they come to you by keeping a notebook close at hand. A real notebook - not a digital one - is best, because it allows you to make sketches and drawings. However, anything that lets you capture your thoughts will work. When you need to charge up your creativity, search your notebook for ideas and examples.
• Relax your mind. Give your subconscious a chance to work by turning your brain off from time to time. Don’t focus on work or solving problems constantly. Take time to exercise and relax, and give yourself permission to think about other things. A tired mind won’t generate fresh ideas.
• Turn problems around. Switch gears by looking for the opposite of what you want. Exploring how you could make a bad situation worse can sometimes tell you what not to do. Looking for a bad idea may lead you to a good one.
• Combine random elements. Try this exercise: look at two items on your desk right now and figure out a way to put them together. A clock radio and a coffee mug, for instance, could be turned into a coffee mug with a clock on it (maybe at the bottom). This won’t necessarily generate a useful idea, but it will train your mind to see different possibilities.
• Recruit a partner. With another person involved, you’re not limited to your own experience and perspective. Bounce ideas off another person—someone you’re comfortable with, but someone who will challenge you when necessary.