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9 ways to get that creative spark

Posted on 04. Apr, 2009 by Tom in education

Looking at your to do list, looking at that blank piece of paper in front of you and looking at the clock ticking away.  How is it possible I wasted so much time today without finding a solution?  Not finding that creative spark is one of the worst things that can happen. 

Keep it small.  A lot of projects look like we can’t do them because they are too big, but if you divide them in smaller, more manageable tasks you immediately feel better when you can scratch one thing after another of your list.

If you had all the money in the world?  What would you do to solve the problem?  Whatever you come up with, there’s probably a cheaper or more acceptable way to get to it.  If your million dollar way is to hire a freelancer, you can talk to other freelancers in your network.

Force passion.  Probably the hardest one in the list, but so good if you get it.  Everything has something interesting, something worth knowing, whether it be a Pucini musical or that latest Spawn comic book.  As an adult we tend to see the total picture and as a result we find it hard to look for that smaller part that sparks our interest.

Keep scrapbooks.  We’ve lost the reflex to save things.  Probably because we buy so much junk we throw away the stuff that’s actually usefull.  Buy loads of empty scrapbooks and fill them with everything you can find.  Treeleaves, a nice wrapper, flyers, a great magazine text, pictures,… use them for reference.  And don’t overorganize.  I know people who spend hours classifying their scrapbooks, while the fun of it all is that you can”t find something you’re looking for and stumble upon something else.

Get nostalgic.  I find it helps when I put myself in a mindset where I get blasted back to when I was younger.  Watching Teenwolf, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off or The Breakfast Club, reading 80ies comic books and I still got a few action figures lying around.

Ask a 14-year old.  He’ll probably annoy you like hell, but accept the fact that kids look at problems differently like grown-ups do.  We’re conditioned to factor in certain restrictions.  They don’t have any, because they don’t know they exist.

Write children stories.  Remember when your teacher asked you to write something about your dog?  He tried to teach you how to creatively think about something you take for granted.  So do the same thing.  Take your problem and reduce it to a basic 4 words.  Use those words and write something Lords of the Rings, Harry Potter,…  With any luck, you subconciously find new ways to look at your problem.  And if none… you probably got a great story.

Get away from it all.  Sometimes you just had enough.  14 hours in a row behind your desk, starting to look very pale,…  Get away from your trusted environment.  Go shopping, go to a monastery for I care… just get out and leave ever gizmo you have behind, just take some paper and a pen with you.

Just go to bed.  Sometimes there really isn’t a solution and you just need the rest to look at it again.  It happens when we get too absorbed into a problem without seeing a way out.  Just go to sleep.

[Originally posted at Who's Reading Anyway?, used with permission]

Tags: creativity, tips