Work-from-home challenges can leave us feeling stuck.
Often we go searching for inspiration but keep finding stale ideas.
We don’t have to be together to find inspiration. We already have fantastic ideas, we just have to uncover them. Thankfully it’s actually pretty quick and easy to ignite creativity.
Take a moment to try these exercises that will wake up your right brain and get it thinking:
- Write with your non-dominant hand. Grab a pen and paper and simply write your name in print and cursive. Then try writing it in different ways: upside down, backwards, jumbled, etc. This quick exercise can immediately engage your creative thinking. It stimulates your right brain to think so hard in order to do something counterintuitive.
- Find a new perspective. It isn’t always possible to come up with a fresh idea while sitting in the same chair you sit in every day. Take a brief walk or sit in a different room than usual and try to brainstorm a list of ideas using pen and paper.
- Use new words. Grab a dictionary or thesaurus and open it to a random page. Find a word you don’t know or rarely use and write it down. Then, challenge yourself to use the word in two sentences. Repeat this exercise a couple of times, or until ideas freely start to flow. Stretch yourself to learn and, at times, mentally “walk away” from a project. That practice is often the key to moving forward.
- Make time for rhyme. Think of a word related to your project and list as many possible rhyming words that you can. This activity will force you to pause and to think differently, often leading you in a new direction.
- Color your world. Crayons aren’t just for kids! Gather some coloring supplies and a couple of blank pages. On page one, draw/color patterns, shapes and doodles…try to fill the entire page with whatever comes to mind. On page two, draw/color patterns, shapes and doodles that relate to your project. This artful exercise will help you relax and refresh your thinking.
Now that you’ve taken time to flex your creative muscles, inquiring minds want to know . . .
Where do you create?
The Creative team has been curious to see the environment you’ve created for your day-to-day activities. Invite your coworkers to see your new workspace, whether it’s at home or in a cubicle at the office. Take a photo and share it on the NEW creativity break Slack channel, titled #spark-an-idea. Feel free to share sources of creative inspiration, ideas or links to articles as well!