Making the Most of your Creative Output

Tips for Increasing Your Creative Output

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This means that to some extent, creativity is situational, and can be cultivated. If you ask that architect to design that house within a budget, and according to some high-end green building specifications, chances are excellent that the design they produce will present you with a number of creative solutions—and probably a better design.

Apply this in your own work by setting the bar high enough to really be a challenge and constrain you enough to produce better results—but not so high that you shut down the creative process. Creativity loves the right neurochemical balance. To get your creative productivity flow going, you need serotonin and dopamine. So how do you optimize this neurochemical balance? One must is reducing stress. Stress hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol chase away the creativity-enhancing effects of serotonin.

As your body and mind divert energy and reserves into more vital areas, things like creative expression and production can suffer. When we are stressed, we prefer the familiar.

Maximize those times when you experience elevated levels of serotonin, whenever they are, by choosing high-protein, healthful foods to support brain function. If you are an anxious, hot mess, avoid that java, please. One last thing to remember is to get up and move, as aerobic exercise boosts creative potential.

For more traditional thinkers, A always leads right to B, and then C, and so on. For creative thinkers, A might lead to B, and a host of other ideas, or it might not lead to B at all, and just hit that forest of alternative concepts instead. If this is the way you think, you need to be able to work with tools that let you process things in ways that make sense to you. For example, mind mapping is a great tool for creative thinkers.

One of the best ways to overcome this is just to take a break.

Have a Process

So having a working atmosphere around you where this is understood and respected, as well as a dedicated space for you to take this break, is essential to improve creativity. So what about your creative space? The place you go to be creative, whether it be an office, your garage or a corner in your bedroom. Science has revealed that there are a number of things we can do in the space in which we are trying to be creative that can maximise our potential.

Some people are able to work with their headphones in and music blasting so loud that everyone else can hear it too, others struggle to work unless they are in absolute silence. In terms of the best for creativity, according to science, ambient noise levels are best. Music stimulates the brain, but when it is too loud it distracts. A moderate noise level is the sweet spot; it gets your creative juices flowing due to processing becoming difficult - difficult enough that it promotes abstract processing.

When your brain is forced to process abstractly, it resorts to creative alternatives.

The Big List of 51 Hacks to Boost Your Creativity

Are you always either cold or hot at work? If so, this could be stinting your creativity massively. This is creative energy wasted.

Adding a layer in the morning or turning the heating up in the office could make a whole world of difference. Low lighting is the optimum for creativity; it makes us feel less constrained and encourages us to explore. Perfect for content idea generation and brainstorming. Not so much however, for when it comes to actually writing or designing the content once the idea has been agreed — so turn the lights back up when you have a specific idea to concentrate on. Sensory experiences are also great at clearing the haze that is a creative block.

So hanging thought-provoking abstract paintings on the walls or playing unusual music is great for a break area in a creative environment. Okay, so you've got your creative working atmosphere and environment spot on.

Improving Creative Output - The Real World Guide

Use the internet to improve your creativity - and no, this is not cheating. Research is an intelligent but obvious way of improving creativity, but so many in the industry simply overlook or forget to do it. What incredible inspiration and stimulation you're missing out on if you simply ignore this mass of ideas right at your fingertips thank you, world wide web! So, here is a list of five places to look, just to get you going:.

The Global Creative Design Advertising Association celebrate the finest examples from the design and advertising community, aiming to inspire the next generation of creative talent in the creative industry. They showcase incredible campaigns that demonstrate their ability to take a simple brief and transform it into absolute magic.

Design gallery showcasing the best single page website designs from around the web. Covers the intersection of technology, science, art and culture. Divulging in-depth reports, long-form feature stories, breaking news coverage, product information and community content. A web extension for Chrome that transforms your default browser page into a curated gallery of hand-picked design inspiration.

So now what about the actual processes you have in place and use daily when being creative? What are the best ways to literally pull the creativity out of you?

So why do you expect a marathon of creativity from your brain without warming that up? Try a brain warm up at the start of each of your working days — there are so many of these online! Counting backwards from really quickly, finding a noun for each of the letters of the alphabet or creating a mental list of names for both males and females are just a few, simple examples. This all sounds rather silly, I know, but there is method in the madness.

By Michael Greer

Doing exercises like this creates a neurological connection in your brain by getting those three all important networks mentioned earlier, working together. They improve memory and practice keeping track of where you are in a sequence. They teach you to focus and how to get in tune with your brain. Our brains might be lazy, but just like our muscles, they can be trained to perform well at anything, including creative thinking. Everyone hits roadblocks, but those who condition and train their minds will naturally have an upper mind in tearing them down.

Besides helping us to live longer lives, scientists have discovered that exercise also helps us to perform better cognitively, improving creative thought. We think that creativity only strikes at appointed times, like an apple on the head or a moment in the bathtub. You might have noticed that some of the advice here contradict each other. It really depends on your unique situation — if all the knowledge in your head is becoming a crutch you lean on, for example, then you should be reading less and doing more.

Mix and match these creativity hacks as suits your circumstances. Did you try any of these, and did they work for you? Are there any creativity hacks I might have missed out?

The Real World Guide to Improving Creative Output

Share them with us in the comments below! As the founder of With Content, Daniel helps companies create quality content that resonates with their audience of choice. With over 5 years of experience in content strategy and marketing, his writing can be found on Hubspot, Search Engine Journal, and Tech in Asia. Ebooks started out as electronic versions of printed books. But plenty of free ebooks today are made Building a solid resume starts with its foundations.

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The power of visual Something like the iPhone, that only strikes us as common sense after it was made? Take a hot shower.

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