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You are at your desk. This is the last place you would like to be straight away during a crazy busy week, with tons of of unopened emails in your inbox and a nagging headache plaguing your temples. And yet you have an offer deadline. For this to occur, you would like to stimulate your brain and unleash your creativity.
Nowadays, it doesn’t really matter what industry you use in. Creativity is needed no matter whether you are involved in automotive manufacturing, down comforter production, IT or real estate management. Finding creative solutions to challenges. Designing creative sales campaigns. You’re wondering how to creatively present and promote your business that hasn’t been done 1000’s of times before. And after all generating creative content. This is the name of the game in today’s market in almost every sector, and it’s what I often do boutique PR firm.
But sometimes I get stuck, I feel uninspired and I run out of energy. Here’s what I do to rev up my creativity engine when it stops working.
Strategy #1: Eat brain food
When your mind is not working the way you would like it to, it often means your body is lacking energy. How can your engine run without gas, right? So get some gas. I’m not talking about each day supplements that improve memory and cognitive function in the long run; I’m talking about short-term bursts of high-energy foods and drinks that provides you with a little jolt and recharge your dead battery.
I prefer a matcha-infused drink (the more refreshing and delicious the higher), but you possibly can achieve a similar effect by adding a bowl of seasonal berries, hard-boiled eggs, a handful of mixed nuts, avocado toast, a tuna salad sandwich or a nice slice of dark chocolate . It sounds easy (not to mention delicious!) but it really works. First: nourish yourself so you can then nourish your work.
Strategy #2: Listen to your favorite playlist
Whether you allow the office and go for a walk with your headphones on, or you simply get up from your desk and listen to your favorite songs – the ones that at all times make you dance – I promise you that introducing music you’re keen on, down Your brain will help unlock what you are trying to achieve outside your brain.
Switching senses or brain pathways are a long-accepted approach to “unstuck.” It actually works each ways: some practices focus on getting out of the head and into the body (like aroma therapy or a hot bath), while others aim to detach from physical discomfort by moving to the higher self (like meditation and mindfulness exercises). Either way, shifting your focus from an empty gas tank to a revitalizing activity is an effective way to shift gears and get back on track.
Strategy #3: Scroll, read, repeat
Mark Twain said (among others) that there are no recent ideas, there are no recent stories – only renewed ones, built from the same original elements, arranged in infinitely recent mixtures. If we glance way back to Shakespeare, this saying seems to be true: even his timeless and historically praised English Renaissance plays were likely based on and reimagined works of the Italian Renaissance.
The idea is that painters get inspiration from looking at other paintings. Plans develop into ingrained in architects when they appear at other buildings. Graphic designers glance through publications and design boards to generate ideas for recent layouts. So I have no problem admitting that when I run out of sources of creative content, I jump online and start reading every thing interesting I can find on the topic I’m trying to explore. This is my version of research and development in my field. I’m sure this could work in any field and it rarely fails. Find inspiration outside yourself and then give it your own distinctive spin when you internalize it.
Strategy #4: Talk to someone you admire
The approach of talking about it openly will also be a source of inspiration. You don’t necessarily have to “talk” to someone about your dilemma, just talk to someone you discover inspiring. That’s what admiration is all about, right? You admire someone because they encourage something in you.
So when your creative sponge runs dry, pick up the phone and reach out to someone who is a proven resource for problem-solving and decision-making. They will likely have ideas you have not considered; they may naturally say something in conversation that can encourage you. I used to be recently talking to a friend about a recent app she had just downloaded to her phone… and voilà! The purpose of the app led me on a pondering trail that unlocked my brain!
Strategy #5: Write in a journal for free
Yes, you possibly can read what others have written to stimulate your creativity, but you may as well write your own way to productive paths. When I can not think of any recent ideas, I open my online journal and just start writing. Sometimes what comes out is bullshit. Sometimes it makes sense, but not for a specific job.
So when you write down a few thoughts on a piece of paper, just get them out of your head (junk thoughts like: Why the hell cannot I achieve anything with this project today?), keep writing, keep writing. Slowly and freely work towards a barely larger structure until something starts to take shape.
Example: Last month I used to be trying to come up with a slogan for a brand recent promotional campaign for one of my clients. When full listings didn’t work, I simply typed their name at the top of the page and then began writing out the single words that got here to mind for that client, stream of consciousness style. Within 10 minutes, two words caught my eye, fresh and relevant. I squeezed in a noun here, a verb there, and before I knew it, I had a tagline that was ok to anchor the entire campaign. I drank my last sip of matcha smoothie through a straw with complete satisfaction!
With every thing we have on our heads today – with the many hats entrepreneurs wear and the many roles we juggle – it’s no wonder that our brains often don’t have room for creativity and innovation to work on demand. To move it forward, try some of those techniques to stimulate your inner motor and stimulate right-brain pondering. Sometimes I feed my soul, sometimes I boogie to ABBA, and sometimes I borrow from others, but once my engine fires up again, I can go my very own way again.