Maximise Your Creativity Using These Simple Techniques
Start today and within a week, you’ll be churning out ideas.
Have you ever struggled to come up with an idea to write about? A business to create? A piece to draw? Let’s be honest we’ve all been there and it’s never a nice place to be. It always seems to be either going really good or really bad — sometimes you can’t write your ideas down fast enough and sometimes the blank page stares back at you. Today we’ll be discussing the tips and techniques I use to maximise my idea phase and minimise my blank phase. These tips are easy to implement and if you stick to them within one week you will generate ideas quicker than ever before. I personally use these techniques every day for my article writing and business ideas.
1 — Before you go to sleep…
This is an important one! Part of the reason humans need sleep to combat the issues dealt with that day to prepare themselves for the next. You can use this to your advantage! Firstly, don’t fall asleep with the TV on — if you do this already then the first night is difficult but it gets easy very quickly and you will thank yourself for it! With no TV on your brain will be forced to follow a train of thought of random things until you drift off into sleep — so you need to stimulate your thoughts with ideas that will prompt you to continue them without effort, deal with them in your sleep and then when you wake up you will have ideas to note down. This works very well, I find that whilst I’m falling asleep I’ll have to note ideas down on my phone before going to sleep because I don’t want to forget them!
2 — Reading, reading and reading.
You need to find what causes you to enter your creative phase and read about it. It will most likely be linked to the topic you’re needing to be creative for. For example, when I’m wanting to come up with innovative business ideas I read business books. Reading does a wonderful thing of calming the mind whilst simultaneously sparking it into action. Keep a notepad handy and just jot down anything that comes to mind while reading. This will soon yield an arson of ideas which you can then go through with a fine comb, improving, rejecting and adjusting those ideas as you go along. Put reading into action, add it to your repertoire — it will help.
3 — Force yourself into brainstorming sessions
In the beginning, this is difficult to do. I recommend starting with the two previous techniques — this one is for the advanced. When you practice the first two it will prime your mind to enter a creative phase with ease. Imagine running — your first run is hard, it takes a while to get into it and there will be lots of stopping. But after a little while, you’ll find that you can just start running instantly with no issue. Creativity acts in much the same way — the first two tips will ease your brain and train it to become more creative. After a few days of focus on that, you can move onto this technique. Like all things, the first session is difficult — it’s deflationary and you probably won’t feel like you’ve achieved much. But stick with it! The best things are hard. When you force yourself into a brainstorming session you need to essentially create a dome around your head (figuratively) — do this by removing distractions, blocking out 30 mins and only having pen and paper in front of you. Then force yourself to write. I can’t discuss anymore on that as it’s an experience you need to have first hand and learn from that way.
4 — Keep note of everything!
This goes without saying and really it has already been mentioned throughout the article but I want to pay special attention nonetheless. Do not allow yourself to be in a position of coming up with an idea, and no ability to write it down — because you will forget it and it’s soul-crushing. Always have your phone/pen and paper handy — especially by your bed and by your desk. No matter how crazy the idea seems write it down. Write everything down! I write ideas down that aren’t mine that I like just so I know the kind of thing I’m striving for, equally, I can try mould that idea into something else and improve upon it. Get into the habit of writing everything down and then at the end of the week combing through it. Honestly? You will throw out 95% of what you write down. But that 5%… is gold. Write it down.
In conclusion — start thinking before you go to sleep, read more on your topic, brainstorm and write down everything! Creativity is a skill — it’s something you can learn and develop with time, practice and focus. After one week of doing this, it will feel like second nature, it’s not difficult, just preserve. Thank you.
