Humans have the unique ability to create the improbable, to seek out originality for its own sake, to derive elegant solutions from complex problems, and to even find new problems where none were thought to exist. Creativity is at the heart of that matter. It is both a foundation and the pinnacle of human evolution because making progress towards solving a difficult issue requires that we take a new perspective.
So, what is creativity? Is it an ability to generate brand-new ideas? It is rather the transformation of common ingredients of the world into new ideas. All we will ever imagine, innovate, and experience is made possible by the reorganization of tools and resources, and usually, it is just two items, two ideas or just two phrases. “Apple” products are a great example of creativity. Not so long ago, Steve Wozniak has created very first computer – “the Apple 1”, using the typewriter like a keyboard that could hook up to a TV screen. This article pulls together all the essential information about creativity.
Skilled writers from writingpaper.org will share how to boost creativity in a couple of days.
How Does Creativity Work?
There are tons of techniques for producing ideas as well as activities to boost creativity. However, all of them come down to a similar process. It is time to tell you about five simple steps to creativity.
Step 1. Collection of new data. It all starts with learning. You gather specific materials that are directly related to your task. Then, you focus on something that both fascinates and makes you wonder.
Step 2. The processing of the data in your mind. After gathering the information, you examine what you have learned by taking a close look at the data from different perspectives and experimenting with putting various (sometimes similar) ideas together.
Step 3. You need to step back from the problem. The next step is to get your idea, problem, or solution completely out of your mind, stop thinking about it at all, and get carried away with something that energizes you.
Step 4. Let your idea go back to you. Be sure, after a while, your idea (or two ideas combined) will return to you with a stroke of insight and renewed energy.
Step 5. Shape your idea. Develop your unique piece of thinking and release it out into the world.
Experiment on Ways to Increase Creativity
First of all, forget the whole idea that our right hemisphere is creative and the left one is logical. It has long been argued that lots of different structures across the entire brain are used in the process of creating a new idea. So, it is rather the interaction of three brain networks (affective, recognition, and strategic one) influences your creative thinking. What else do we know about creativity?
In the 1940s, researchers have made an experiment and noted that the creative process of the majority of musicians and writers involved habits of motion. As evidence, they provided the following examples. Mark Twain paced, Charles Dickens walked and thought, Goethe and Mozart composed on horseback. So, they concluded, “that state of mind is most favorable to the birth of ideas.” However, being in motion is not the only thing you should try to be creative.
Creativity Exercises to Boost the Brain Activity
The majority of people, especially students, are actually sabotaging themselves. Sabotaging their ability to come up with ideas that are going to help them in their lives. Today, we will fix it. So, how students can boost their creativity?
Exercise #1. The Box Statement
They say: “try to think outside the box”, but we claim that you should think inside the box to get your creative juices flowing. Let us give you an example to understand what we mean. One of the teachers in elementary school gave a task to kids: “Imagine a round clock. I take that second hand off the clock. Now, I want you to replace it with something unique.” Go ahead, think about it. Do not read the text below until you come up with a couple of examples by yourself. What would you replace the second hand with?
A lot of you might say something like a toothpick, a needle, something are the same size and dimension as an actual second hand. If you think a little bit outside the box, you will say: “toothbrushes”, “spoon”, “oar,” “TV remote,” etc. The teacher was rating the kinds’ answers from a scale of one to five. All the answers mentioned above got 2 or 3. But the teacher needed to get a way to get the kids answers that were 5 points every single time. Saying “think outside the box” or “be different” did not help. He had to give them something they could rely on every single time. So, he started making limitations for them.
“Now, you have to replace a second hand, and it has to be green”. So, what would you replace the second hand with? Kids came up with ideas such as dinosaur’s tail, spaghetti with spinach, shamrock, etc. Now, the teacher said: “Let’s make a second hand alive”. “Angelina Jolie’s right leg” was a brilliant answer. All of a sudden, they started thinking more creatively because they had a limitation. Kids used these limitations to fuel and make a guideline for them to reach a more creative response.
When you are looking at a blank sheet of paper, when you are given too much freedom to create, the first thing that comes to your mind is the most cliché statement or idea. You want to think inside the box, you want to think with limitations because they provide you a guideline to get to that creative response. Twitter is a great example of the box strategy in action. You are only allowed 140 characters. The limited amount of space is a creative limitation. By the way, because of that, the “hashtag” was born. Place creative limitations on yourself. Make challenges more challenging.
Exercise #2. Continuous Practice
That is something you can do every day. Look at the toothbrush and think of three random words, quickly. Then, try to analyze how random those words really are. Maybe it was words like dog, bicycle, travel, or something you have seen within the last couple of hours? Or were they related to what you are looking right now? From the start, we came up with “straight,” “fluffy,” and “white.” Challenge yourself to think of random words that are actually random to boost your brain activity.
Exercise #3. Use Your Sleep as a Creative Technique
In your dreams, you do not apply too many rules. Now, you can be in Italy, after a couple of seconds, you can take a step and walk into Spain. However, we can manage to use our sleep to be creative. How do you prime your sleep? One of our favorite studies did an experiment with Tetris. They have asked people to play Tetris right before they fell asleep. Once they have woken them up and asked to tell about their dreams, almost every participant had some element of Tetris in their sleep (family members fall into place like Tetris blocks or they were a part of the game).
The way you can use this to try to be more creative is simple. Before you fall asleep, think about the problem you want to solve (but do not try to solve! Just think about it). The chance of you dreaming about this issue improves. Take notes about anything related to your problem. No matter how far-fetched it seems, note it down because it will give you some new thoughts about whatever issue you are working on.
Tips on How to Unlock Your Creativity Genius
The number one rule is to give yourself permission to create trash. And it applies to any area of your life. When you are working on a killer essay, you can write two awful pages just to discover one great sentence in the fifth paragraph of the second page that will change the whole paper and the way of your thoughts. Being creative is like being a gold miner. You should sift through pounds of dirt to find a speck of gold at the end. The pieces of creative ideas will find their way to you, only if you give yourself permission to create junk.
Try something new. Studies have shown that your creativity increases when you are outside your comfort zone. Some examples include taking a shadow puppet class at college, dancing, or drawing. Capture all your ideas. Do you remember this quote from “The Success Principles” by Jack Canfield: “any new idea not captured within 37 seconds is likely never to be recalled”? So, do not make this mistake. Force yourself to create consistently or at least practice these three exercises that are mentioned above every day.
Creativity is everywhere, and it is in everyone. So, to unlock your creative genius, follow these five simple steps: do your work, finish it, get the feedback, improve your work, repeat.