Introduction
Some people have remarkable creative skills. If you don’t have the gift of creativity, then it doesn’t mean that you can’t learn this skill. Creativity is a learned skill and you can develop it in yourself by practice. Today, we’ll discuss how to improve your creativity.
The important thing to keep in mind is that developing creativity is an active process. You can’t just sit back, relax, and wait for the inspiration to move your spirit and motivation level. Instead, you have to go out and look for ways that could boost your spirit and energy.
How to Improve your Creativity
Having said earlier that creativity is a learned art, here’s how to improve your creativity; some of the main tricks are as follows;
Walk
A study in 2014 has found that the creativity of people is active and high when they’re walking rather than just sitting around. However, if your mind is stuck on something, then go out for a walk. It would give you a new perspective to look at things.
Daydreaming
Technology has provided us a lot of distractions to occupy our minds. Like social media, email, notification, chatting, and other applications on the smartphone. Instead, you should bore yourself with ideas and thoughts.
Many studies have shown that bored people are good in the creative test than distressed and relaxed people. It’s because boredom allows people to let their thoughts go wild and daydream, and it leads them to creativity. However, when you’re bored, then you analyze your environment and focus on things that are missing. Then you think about how to improve and make things better.
Emotional
Research studies have found a great link between creativity and positive emotions. Later studies showed that both positive and negative emotions have a great connection with creativity.
It doesn’t mean that you should put yourself in an emotional state in order to gain motivation and inspiration. However, whenever you’re going through a negative emotional phase, and then keep in mind that you could use the same energy to solve the problem.
Meditation
People have been using meditation for relaxation and peace of mind for centuries. Recent studies have found that meditation has a lot of creative benefits than just relaxation, and it amplifies creativity.
There are different types of meditations. One such type of meditation where you openly perceive all types of thoughts, without particularly concentrating on one thought. This meditation technique has a great impact on creativity and developing new ideas.
Commitment
If you want to boost creativity, then you should have a commitment to the development of creativity. You can start by setting specific goals, allocating time, and putting all of your efforts and energies and into the process.
Professional Expertise
The best strategy to improve creativity is to achieve professional expertise in a certain field. Once you have professional skills and expertise, then you’ll think of new ideas and creative ways to solve a problem.
Rewarding
Curiosity and not knowing is the common roadblock towards creativity. Instead, you should reward yourself when curiosity arises in you because it would allow you to explore new things. However, the reason rewarding is significant is because it gives you motivation. The best reward is the creative process, rather than any product.
Risks
If you want to develop your creative abilities, then you should have the mindset of taking risks in order to amplify your chances. However, every time you take risks, it won’t sell out big. It would definitely polish your creative skill and serve you later in facing the challenges in the future.
Developing Confidence
Doubting your skill and expertise lowers your creative skills; therefore, it’s significant to have confidence. You should record your growth and performance; appreciate and recognize your growth and efforts, and don’t forget to reward your creativity.
Allocating Time
Creativity that you’re seeking won’t happen out of anything. You have to allocate a separate time for the growth and development of creativity. It could be scheduling some time on the creative project.
Stop Negative Thinking
One of the main impediments towards the development of creativity is self-criticism and negative thoughts. Both can jeopardize your creative abilities.
Avoid Failure Fear
The thought of failure would slow down your growth and make you make mistakes. Whenever such thought enters your mind, you should remind yourself that mistakes are part of learning. When you’re working in the creative field, then it would take you to your destination sooner or later.
Brainstorming
Many professionals use the brainstorming technique as a tool to generate new ideas. First of all, you should stop doubts and self-criticism, and then create a list of relevant ideas and their solutions. Next, you should filter and refine your ideas list in order to come up with the best possible solution.
Finding Various Solutions
When you’re dealing with a problem, then approach the problem from multiple angles. Instead of solving the problem with one solution, you should come up with different solutions. It’s a very good activity, and it improves your creative and problem-solving skills.
Creativity Notebook
You should create a creative ideas journal and track the creative ideas that you’re producing. It’s a great way to look at your performance that what you have achieved and check out other possible ideas. It would save your ideas generation time and give you inspiration.
Flow Chart & Mind Mapping
Mind mapping is a very good technique to develop a connection between creative ideas and answer to questions. In the mind mapping technique, you write down the main problem at the center, and then attach relevant ideas to it in the form of branches. It’s a similar technique to brainstorming. However, the visual presentation of branch ideas and the problem would make it easier for you to develop a connection.
Challenges & Opportunities
After developing the creative skill, you should keep on challenging your creative expertise in order to refine your creative skill. You should study and use new approaches and avoid using the same idea solution over and over again. It means that you have to create an opportunity for yourself.
Six Hats Method
The six hats method means that you approach the problem from six different angles. This method allows you to generate more ideas than any other technique where you look at the problem with one approach.
- Black Hat: it means using the negative approach and the other approaches to the solution won’t work.
- Blue Hat: you should outside the box and choose the overall best solution
- Green Hat: creatively thinking by generating alternative ideas
- Red Hat: emotionally studying the situation and decide based on the feelings
- White Hat: objectively analyzing the situation based on the facts
- Yellow Hat: using the positive approach by focusing on such elements that would work
Inspiration
As a said earlier that creativity won’t happen out of nowhere. You have to look for new fresh ideas to find a source of inspiration and motivation. However, you should engage in a friendly discussion, listen to music, visiting new places, or reading a book. You should follow the strategy whatever is best for you.
Alternate Scenario
You should follow the “what if” approach. It means if you follow a certain approach, what the outcome would be. If you apply this approach before, then you can develop a better solution.
Snowball Method
Perhaps you would have noticed that usually, one idea leads to another. The Snowball method means that you should generate ideas for the project. If an idea solution doesn’t work out, keep it aside, find it another, or implement it in the future.
Conclusion: How to Improve your Creativity
After an in-depth study of how to improve your creativity, we’ve concluded that creativity is a great skill that helps you to develop new ideas. If you want to develop and establish your creativity, then you should follow and practice the abovementioned suggestions and tricks.
Ahsan Ali Shaw is an accomplished Business Writer, Analyst, and Public Speaker. Other than that, he’s a fun loving person.