When you think of your many character traits, is “creative” one of them, or do you need to put in effort to boost creativity? If you don’t identify yourself as a creative person, you may not have found a process for channeling your inner creativity that works best for you.
At Schultz Financial Group (SFG), we believe in maximizing your intellectual engagement, including your ability to think creatively. So, we have compiled a list of techniques and resources for you to consider to help boost your creativity.
Try an App Designed to Boost Creativity
In our rapidly growing digital age, there is an app for nearly everything: including boosting creativity. Downloading a creativity app to your phone or tablet is a fast, easy way to learn techniques and organize your thoughts and ideas.
If you don’t know where to begin with your creative process, try out the Curator app. With a mantra of “Simple, fast, and powerful,” Curator’s tools will help break up your creative process into three easy steps:
- Collect words, photos, or graphics for inspiration and create a virtual vision board
- Organize your items into categories to visualize your ideas
- Present your creative process and ideas
If you struggle with finding inspiration, Brainsparker may be a helpful app for you. This app has over 250 prompts that include words, pictures, and actions that help ignite your creativity. You can even set a time to receive a daily Brainsparker prompt notification. This app also offers brain workouts, creativity courses, and a kids pack for children.
Curator is only for iOS devices, while Brainsparker is available for both iOS and Android. Both apps are free to download and offer separate in-app purchases.
Meditate to Boost Creativity
If digital activities don’t tend to boost creativity for you, try unplugging for a few minutes and meditating. If distractions are what usually block your creativity, meditation can help you focus. According to a Chopra article, meditation can “improve task concentration, learning, and enhance your memory.” If you are new to meditating, try downloading the free app Headspace, which will teach you the techniques, or find a variety of guided meditations on YouTube.
Listen to Music
We’ve all heard of the “Mozart Effect”, the idea that classical music can improve the way you complete mental tasks – such as being creative. However, you don’t have to listen to Symphony No. 9 by Beethoven to be creative.
Music, in general, is scientifically-proven to boost divergent thinking, which is often used to be creative. It is a process of free-thinking that doesn’t include prior decision making or analysis of any kind. In a German study conducted by Goethe-Universitat Frankfurt, they discovered that happy music can ultimately increase divergent thinking. So turn up your favorite song, and start getting creative!
Try the Six Hats Technique
If you’re a more logical thinker, the Six Hats Technique is a way to help you get creative and explore as many ideas as possible. Created by Dr. Edward de Bono, this six-step way of thinking allows you to think from various different perspectives:
Try wearing all six hats when thinking creatively or choose the perspectives that work best for your creative process.
- Blue Hat – Process/Analysis
- Green Hat – Creativity
- Yellow Hat – Benefits/Positivity
- White Hat – Facts
- Red Hat – Feelings
- Black Hat – Cautions/Judgement
While these are just a few ideas, there are many techniques and resources to help boost creativity and strengthen your creative thinking process. Do some research, try some different methods out, and before you know it, you’ll be thinking creatively without even trying!