Creativity--Take Breaks to Recharge Your Mind

If you find yourself at a standstill in coming up with creative ideas, you can often inspire your creativity by allowing your mind to relax. Give yourself permission to stop thinking about the problem.

For example, when working on a cross-word puzzle, most people will start with the easy words first and then move on to the more difficult ones. When they reach a point when they’re stumped, put the puzzle away and go on to something else, such as reading a book. If you go back to the puzzle later, you’re more likely to be able to identify all the words that eluded you hours earlier.

How can you get around this brick in the wall? Don’t force a solution. Put the problem aside for a while and turn to a simpler task.

When trying to creatively develop strategies for personal or business plans, put work aside and focus on a different project. Most times you’ll come up with ideas for the plans, ideas for business process improvement, etc., even though you were not thinking about them. You can then return to the problem with renewed “freshness”, because you allow your subconscious mind the time it needed to work.

When your conscious mind is busy with something that doesn’t require deep concentration (like watching a movie), the subconscious mind is free to solve problems. While the conscious mind is busy, the creative juices flow and ideas seem to come out of nowhere.

Be open to new perspectives. Attend lectures or go to places where you will be associating with non-work-related people who embrace a different way of thinking than you. Gaining a new “slant” can often be the key to coming up with a new idea or solving a problem and help lead you to business success.