Creative Ways to Boost Your Innovative Juices
Posted April 28th, 2014
Innovation has become a watchword in the business world. It goes by different names – creativity, thinking outside the box. Companies are always looking for people who can come up with new ideas, new ways of looking at old problems to make businesses more productive and more profitable. But being creative is more than just a natural or instinctual talent. It is something that all of us can cultivate.
In fact, psychologists have devised various exercises that people can do to improve their creativity. Here are a few simple ones that could help to improve your innovative thinking.
One exercise involves thinking creatively about words. Think of a word with at least six letters and picture it in your mind. Then, try to rearrange the letters alphabetically. As an example, take the word tackle. Putting the letters in alphabetical order, they would be a, c, e, k, l, t. This gives your mind practice in taking a mass of information and completely transforming it, looking at it in a completely different way. Psychologists recommend doing this several minutes a day for several days a week. After a while, they say, you will be coming up with ideas you’ve never had before.
Another simple but effective exercise is to have a conversation with someone without using a word that has the letter E in it. But you have to try and make the conversation as natural and coherent as possible, not just a string of gibberish. This workout forces your mind to work like a thesaurus, hunting for words that fit what you want to say without the E. You can also try this exercise while avoiding the use of other letters.
A third exercise is adding up a series of numbers mentally. For example, 5+8+4+7+2+9+5. This practice is effective because it forces your mind to focus and concentrate while the information it uses is constantly changing – the total as you add more numbers. Your mind has to constantly retain important details while discarding others.
Each of these exercises is quick and can be done almost anytime and anywhere to help you increase your creativity.
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