This week I’ve been exploring the topic of Creativity and how to be a more creative blogger (see the previous posts on the creative process and attitudes of creative people). The first part explored methods of creativity, yesterday I shared some attitudes of creative people and today I’d like to get a little more practical and will share a few ways that I one might bring a little extra creativity into their lives.
1. Stimulate Yourself
Most of us know the theory of ‘what goes in determines what comes out’ pretty well when it comes to our physical bodies - however the same principle applies when it comes to our minds.
I find that the more I stimulate myself with a variety of new sounds, sights, ideas, conversations, tastes, people etc the more creative ideas that seem to come out. I’m no scientist but am assured by friends who study this type of thing that stimulating your mind with ‘new’ things is very good for it.
So you hereby have permission to take yourself to see a movie, to read a book, treat yourself to a magazine, to make a new friend, to buy yourself a new CD, to try a new radio station and even to take a trip and visit a new culture!
Regularly stretch and exercise your brain and you’ll be surprised what it can produce when you call on it to perform.
2. Give Yourself Space
When it comes to physical fitness we know that exercise is a good thing - but so is rest.
I once heard of a study that was done on different groups of people to determine how much work they should do each week to be most productive on an hourly basis.
The finding was that six solid days work and one day with complete rest was the best balance for being productive.
If you’re anything like me, life’s pretty busy and the concept of space or rest can be a challenge - however if you want to be a productive and creative person you need to prioritize it.
I find that the best way to have times of relaxation in my week is to schedule them. Grab your diary and block out time to ‘just be’ over the next few weeks.
I give myself hour long breaks each day (at least one), days off each week and longer breaks off every few months.
PS: there are different types of ’space’ that it can be worth giving yourself. The above might just sound like I give myself complete time off - however I also give myself space in my work to be creative.
For example, every week or two I set myself an hour or so to do some brainstorming. I’ll sit down with a notebook or my computer and either just write (free flow) or will sit down with a particular idea or problem that I want to work on and brainstorm around that. While these are ‘work’ times they are always done offline with the phone off and in a place where I know I won’t be interrupted. There is usually a very open agenda and it’s all about letting my mind take me where it takes me. It’s often in these sessions that I get great ideas.
3. Mix Up Your Environment
A few months ago I had a realization that really challenged me.
1. I spend most of my day in front of my computer - online.
2. I rarely have creative ideas when sitting in front of my computer - online.
3. Most of my creative ideas come when I’m out and about interacting with people or in different settings - offline.
My most creative ideas come when I’m not at home sitting in front of my computer - yet that’s where I spend most of my time. Hmmmmm.
Since having this realization I’ve started being intentional about going out more.
Now, if I’ve got a meeting, I schedule it for a cafe, park or bar.
Now, if I have to spend a morning writing posts or training material for b5, I do it offline in a cafe, at a mates place or even in the backyard.
4. Be a People Person
I’m an introvert. In fact some of the personality tests that I’ve done rate me at the most introverted level possible. It’s not that I don’t enjoy the company of people - it’s just that I don’t get my energy from interacting with others - I get it from being alone.
So I’m introverted - however I also know that if I give into my introversion too much that I’m depriving myself of something that I need to sustain myself - both emotionally but also creatively.
People bring new ideas, perspectives, questions and experiences to the problems that you’re attempting to solve in your own work. It’s when these new perspectives come together with your own that the creative sparks often fly and some of the best new ideas come to life.
So this little introvert has been on a bit of a mission lately - to spend more time with people - real people (and not just those virtual friendships that so many of us are used to having). I’m trying to do this both on a friendship/mateship level but also intentionally as a business strategy by finding a handful of creative people who I can regularly hang out with and swap ideas, brainstorm and dream with on a semi-regular basis.
5. Record Your Ideas
Those crazy and zany creative ideas that begin to come when you start stimulating yourself with new things, creating space, mixing up your environment and hanging out with creative people can come at the most unexpected times. The problem is that unless you have a way of capturing and processing them they will only ever remain as a fleeting thought - soon to be forgotten.
There are many ways to record ideas like this. Here are a few that I’ve used lately:
- Idea folder on desktop - for those times that the ideas hit me while I’m in front of my computer - I jot them as a text file and park them in a folder on my desktop.
- Memo’s on phone - I’m increasingly relying upon my phone to keep me organized (it’s synced with my computer’s calendar) but also to help me capture ideas. I’m constantly adding memos to myself.
- SMS yourself - since getting a phone with a better memo function I don’t do this as much but I used to text message myself all the time with ideas
- Leave yourself a voice message - sometimes it’s not practical to write yourself a memo or text message and you need to capture an idea verbally. I do this my calling my mobile phone, from my mobile phone which then diverts me to my voice mail service where I leave myself a message with the idea that’s buzzing around in my head. In a sense this becomes a dictaphone of ideas. In recent times I’ve stopped doing this and have started recording my ideas on my phone in video to replay later.
- Notebooks - yes, very un-webby - but effective. I’m a moleskine fan and try to have one with me when I’m on the road and needing to capture longer ideas but am unable to use my computer.
I’m sure you will have other ways of capturing creative ideas (please share them below). However you do it, the key is not just to get them down - but to work out how to refine them and do something with them. I suspect that most well intentioned creative types have a method of capturing ideas - however if you’re like the challenge is in collating them. Most of us probably have notebooks, phones and computers full of ideas (not to mention the 400 post it notes gathering dust on our desks) however we don’t actually ever go back to them.
I’m attempting to spend a little time at the end of each day going through all my notes and writing them down in an ideas document on my computer that I regularly return to. It seems to be working so far.
By no means do I have a monopoly on this ‘how to be creative’ stuff. Having chatted to many of you I know that ProBlogger readers are some of the most creative people going around and I’d love to hear your ideas on the topic.
When are you at your most creative? How do you get yourself in a creative zone?
译文:
五种提高你写作创造力的方法
这个星期我在研究有关写作创造力的话题以及怎样成为一个更具有创造力的博客作者（请看以前发表在“创造过程”和“有创造力人们的态度”上的文章）。第一部分研究创造的方法。昨天我与大家分享了我对有创造力的人们的看法，今天我想说的更实际一点，并且介绍几种能给人们的生命中带来一点额外的创造力的方法。
1. 自我激励
我们中的大多数人都知道，对我们的身体来说，吸收什么决定产生什么样的效果——而这个规则对我们的头脑同样适用。
我发现我越用各种不同的新声音、视觉、想法、对话、品位、人物来激发自己，我就越能够得到有创造力的想法。我不是科学家，但是从那些做这方面研究的朋友得到确认，用新的事物刺激你的头脑对它是有好处的。
因此你就获准让自己看一部电影，读一本书，欣赏一本杂志，交一个新朋友，给你自己买一张新CD，试着收听一个新电台的节目，甚至进行一次旅行，体验一种新文化！
定期地舒展和锻炼你的头脑，然后你会惊奇地发现，当你需要的时候，它就能产生出效果。
2．给自己留有空间
当谈到身体健康时，我们知道锻炼是件好事－－但是休息也是好的。
我曾听说过这样一个研究，它对不同的人群进行调查，从而决定人们每周工作多少小时才最有生产力。
研究结果是固定工作六天，有一天完全休息最能够保持生产力平衡。
如果你像我，生活繁忙，很难得到空间和休息——但是如果你想要成为一个有生产力的和创造力的人，你需要按优先次序来划分你要做的事情。
我发现在我一周的生活中，能够得以放松的最好办法是安排好时间。抓起你的日记，设计未来几周的时间。
每天我给自己几小时的休息（至少一小时），每个星期几天，每几个月较长的休假。
注：有很多种“空间”是值得你给予自己的。以上的内容可能听起来像是我给自己太多时间休息了——可是，我也给予自己在工作中的空间，让自己更有创造力。
比如，每一两个星期我会给自己定一个小时来做一些启迪智慧的事情。我会带着笔记本或者是电脑坐下来仅仅记下一些东西（自由流动），或者带着我要解决的具体想法或问题，坐下来进行思考。而进行此类“工作”时，我总是不上网，关掉电话并且找一处我知道不会被打扰的地方。通常，这是个非常开放的议程表．并且全都是让我的思路自由遐想。我经常在这些时候得到了极好的灵感。
3．协调好你的环境
几个月以前我意识到这样的事实，这确实对我是一种挑战。
1. 我花费了一天中的大量时间在我的电脑前－－在线。
2. 当我坐在电脑前的时候，我很少有创意——在线。
3. 我的多数创意在我外出，与人们交往或者在不同的场景下的时候产生。——离线。
我最棒的几个创意不是当我在家坐在电脑前时产生的——然而这正是我花费大量时间的地方。
自从意识到这点之后，我就开始有意的多走出去。
现在，如果我有个会议，我会按排在咖啡馆，公园或酒吧。
现在，如果我不得不花一上午写文章或为b5写训练材料，我会不上线，在咖啡馆、出租房或甚至在后花园把它完成。
4．让自己有亲和力
我是个内向的人。事实上我做过一些性格测试，评价我可能是最内向的人。并不是我喜欢有们陪伴——只不过因为我不能从与别人的交往中得到力量——而我却能在独处中得到力量。
所以我是内向的。但是我也知道如果我太过内向，我就会失去维持自身的一些东西——感情上的和创造力上的。
对于你工作中正试图解决的问题，人们带来了新的主意、看法、疑问和经验。只有当这些新的看法和你的结成在一起时，创意的火花才会迸发，一些绝佳的创意由此产生了。
所以这点内向近来给我带来了一点儿小使命——多花时间和与其他人相处——真正相处（而不是我们中的很多人业已习惯的虚拟友谊）。我试图把它放在友谊或伙伴的层面上，但是也有意识地把它作为一种商业策略，我找到很多有创意的人，我可以经常跟他们在一起，并不时的交流想法、新观念和梦想。
5.记录你的想法
当你开始用新事物激励自己，为自己创造空间，协调好环境并与有创意的人相处时，那些疯狂或有趣的创意就会在不经意间出现。问题是，除非你能够记录并跟进，否则这些创意仅仅是闪念，飞逝而过——马上会被遗忘。
记录这些想法的方法有很多，以下是一些我最近常用的：
桌面上设置一个收集想法的文件夹——当我坐在电脑前，有些想法会突然出现在脑中，我把它们作为文字文件记下来，整理到一个文件夹里放在桌面上
电话备忘录——我越来越依赖电话来保持有条不紊（它和我电脑的日历是同步的），但是也帮助我记录想法。我正在不断地给自己增加备忘录。
给自己发短信——自从我有了一个有更强的备忘录功能的电话之后，我一直用文本信息记录我的想法。
给自己留语音信息——有时给你自己写一个备忘录或者文本信息并不实际，你需要口头记录一个想法。我用手机将萦绕在我脑海中的想法记录下来，再将信息转到我的语音信箱。从某种意义上说，这成了记录想法的口授录音机。近来，我已经不再这么做了，开始用视频记录我的想法，以后还可以重复播放。
笔记本——是的，看似没什么关系，但却很有效。我超喜欢moleskine，当我在路上不方便用电脑的时候，我会试着带一本，以便记录我的想法。
我相信你会有别的记录创意的方法（请在下面与我们分享）。但是不管你如何做，要点不是仅仅把它们记录下来，而是要如何精炼和改进。我怀疑多数有创造力的人都有记录想法的方法——但是记录后，还要面对整理这些想法的挑战。我们中的大多数人可能会在笔记本、电话和电脑中装满了想法，然而我们从不回头整理这些想法。
我试图在每天结束时花一点儿时间看一遍我所有的笔记，并把它们写进我电脑中定期查阅的想法文档中。目前，这看起来还很好用。我绝不是想教导大家“怎样变得有创造力”。在和你们中许多人交谈后，我知道ProBlogger读者都是一些具创造力的人，我原意听听你们对这个话题的意见。
什么时候你最有创造力？你是怎样让自己进入一个有创造力的领域？