The word “creativity” often conjures up the image of an artist hard at work—a painter splashing colour onto a blank canvas to create the next masterpiece or a writer churning out a great novel. While these images do represent a certain kind of creative expression, “creativity” as a process, shouldn’t be restricted to artistic fields alone.
As American author and photographer, James Clear, explains, “The creative process is the act of making new connections between old ideas or recognising relationships between concepts.” This definition opens up the concept that everyone, regardless of their profession, has the potential to be creative. Recent research shows there’s a significant gap between the value we place on creative thinking and how often we flex our creative muscles. It’s time we learn how to close that gap and focus on cultivating creativity as part of our daily routines.
Even though planning your day around your creative peaks and troughs would be ideal, most of us do not have that luxury with our nine to five jobs. We all experience tight deadlines, gruelling setbacks, creative blocks and occasional breakthroughs; but it all comes down to how we solve complex challenges as efficiently as possible, with as much creativity as we can muster. But how do we keep the creativity momentum going? Check out Wordsmith’s top three pointers to get your creative juices flowing.
1. Apply constraints
Every writer has faced the agonising hurdle of the blank page… being paralysed by the innumerable opportunities of how to start.
Sometimes eliminating the “paradox of choice” and putting constraints on yourself may actually spur creativity. When people face scarcity or limitations, they give themselves the freedom to use resources at their disposal in less conventional ways because they have to. It’s situations like these that demand a mental license that would otherwise remain untapped, and allow us to think creatively.
In a recent study, Ravi Mehta at the University of Illinois and Meng Zhu at Johns Hopkins University found that a general sense of scarcity activates a constraint mindset that leads to novel thinking and enhanced creativity, whereas, “an abundance of resources may actually have a negative effect on creativity. When you have fewer resources, you use them more creatively.”
Obstacles such as a general sense of scarcity, can broaden your perception and effectively open up your thinking processes. If you put constraints on yourself as a writer or creative thinker, you may find it will help you improve at connecting unrelated ideas and concepts.
For example, Bennett Cerf, founder of American publishing firm, Random House, bet one of his authors, Theodor Seuss Geisel, that he couldn’t write a children’s book with just 50 words. The result? Geisel ended up winning that risky wager with Green Eggs and Ham.
Ever since, writers have been taking constraints to a whole new level to spur on their creativity, for instance with the book – Not Quite What I Was Planning. This quirky collection of memoirs written by famous and not-so-famous writers, aims to capture their lives in exactly six words. Understandably, it’s a bit harder than it looks, but these are a couple of our personal favourites:
“Well, I thought it was funny.” — Stephen Colbert
“Grumpy old soundman needs love, too.” — Lennie Rosengard
“Couldn’t cope so I wrote songs.” — Aimee Mann
“Painful nerd kid, happy nerd adult.” — Linda Williamson
So, there you have it. One of the ways to cultivate creativity and think outside the box, (strangely) comes from stepping into shackles of constraint. Trust us – you’ll be surprised what comes out.
2. Let your mind wander
From physical and mental constraints to encourage creativity, we flip the creative switch to daydreaming. Far from being counter-intuitive, recent studies into Positive Constructive Daydreaming uncovers the benefits of intentional mind wandering - including surges in creativity during heightened concentration when problem solving, to enhanced learning through dishabituation (allowing short breaks from daily tasks).
In today’s productivity-obsessed culture, it’s important to remember that creative jobs, such as writing, require a good amount of volitional daydreaming (daydreaming on purpose). This is something we at Wordsmith like to call the “writer’s meditative state.” Tapping into the unconscious mind allows us to explore new creative connections that our focused minds may easily dismiss.
Writers shouldn’t disregard day dreaming as a mere productivity killer, as it is now being recognized as a scientifically proven method to improve creativity, solve problems and even improve memory retention.
Some of the best inventions were conjured during the act of daydreaming – like Paul McCartney’s hit Beatles melody, "Yesterday". Known for being the most-covered song in music history, the song itself came to McCartney in a dream-like state in 1964. When he snapped out of his dream, he was sure that he’d heard of the melody before, and worried he was simply replicating someone else’s work: "For about a month, I went ‘round to people in the music business and asked them whether they had ever heard it before. Eventually it became like handing something in to the police. I thought if no-one claimed it after a few weeks then I could have it." We’re not claiming everyone has the potential to be the next McCartney with a bit of day dreaming, but the next time you feel the urge to put your brain on autopilot and stare at the wall – don’t hold back. You just might thank yourself later.
3. Look Elsewhere for Inspiration
Sometimes imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. In its creative form, mimetic creativity, refers to an often-overlooked form of creativity that explains the process of simply taking an idea from one area or discipline and applying it to another. In certain situations, comparing seemingly disconnected ideas can deepen understanding and spark your creativity.
The late co-founder and CEO of Apple, Steve Jobs, believed in the power of mimetic creativity and its ability to help you move across boundaries to adapt ideas: “Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things.”
Steve Job’s inspiration came from Edwin Land, the inventor of instant photography and founder of Polaroid. What the two men had in common was that they both believed that business should be at the intersection of art and science, a concept that was ingrained into everything from how they crafted their products to advertising and corporate culture.
In a rare meeting with Steve Jobs and Edwin Land, American businessman and entrepreneur John Sculley recalled that Land mentioned products like the Polaroid instant camera aren’t really invented by anyone; they’ve always existed right in front of the consumer’s nose, waiting to be discovered. Steve Jobs immediately concurred, explaining that he himself was an avid believer in not conducting market research, but instead trusted his own instincts to determine what products were needed –consumers just didn’t know it yet.
These simple, yet not so obvious practices to cultivate creativity will free your mind to think more laterally, connect-the-dots and generate novel solutions to the problem at hand. We’d recommend not to shun logic entirely, but instead to pick up these approaches and combine the two. Who knows? It may lead to your own awe-inspiring eureka moment.