In hard times like this, you might find yourself stuck in a creative block but don’t worry, you’re not alone. A lot of us are experiencing a roadblock that seems impossible to pass through. This is because our brains diminish in performance and problem-solving capacity when we’re under chronic stress. But in our current economic climate, the ability to innovate and create creative solutions is more valuable than ever. We are pressured to deliver fresh new solutions promptly. The problem now is how? How can we develop a creative process and tap it whenever we need? Here are 5 creativity exercises to help you jumpstart your creativity and unleash more winning ideas!
- Embrace freewriting
A common roadblock in the creative process is that we’re editing for quality from the start. Our standards are set too high during the idea generation phase. You can avoid this and fully uncensored your thought process by freewriting. This creativity exercise was formally defined by Peter Elbow in 1972 but used by great authors for centuries. It forces you to write continuously and taps into your stream of consciousness which overrides your tendency to censor and filter your ideas.
- Have fun with your productivity tracking
Although there are tons of different schools of thoughts on how you should divide your working time to be productive, there’s no one solution that fits all. You have to find out which productivity method works best for you.
If you thrive in friendly competitions, gamifying your productivity tracking might help you stay productive while working from home. There are a lot of time tracking applications out there to help you find out how fast you can complete your tasks on your to-do list.
- Spend quality time with your thoughts
How many hours do you spend doing nothing other than thinking critically? If this isn’t on your schedule then you need to free up your time to do this activity. critical thinking is the starting point of the creative process.
This creative exercise isn’t to be confused with worrying or overthinking. Critical thinking solves problems whereas worrying compounds problems.
- Reevaluate your workflow
Reevaluating your workflow won’t just keep you sharp while working from home, it will also be beneficial for you and your business in the long run. Take the time to reevaluate your workflow regularly to avoid unnecessary stress and disputes in your business workflow.
If you find yourself spending more time on administrative work than getting in front of more clients, you need to go through the 4Ds of effective time management; Do, delegate, defer, do it. To keep yourself working efficiently, you need to be able to love what you do but how do you do that when you have administrative tasks on your way to do so? Outsource.
Outsourcing your low-value tasks is a cost-efficient way to bring back your focus on growing and scaling your business, and continue doing what you love.
