Three strategies to deliver the best creative possible
Are you on a creative team? Are you passionate about writing and/or design? If so, you probably find yourself brainstorming now and then – but maybe not enough.
Brainstorming is a skill, and practice makes perfect, so here are three longer-term strategies to make brainstorming a more frequent part of your daily schedule … and a more interesting part as well:
1. ABC – Always Be Creative
As we wrote above, brainstorming is a skill and practice makes perfect.
If you’re not “group” brainstorming at least 30 minutes a week, set up a meeting for a session right now. If you don’t have a project to brainstorm about, find some kind of creative exercise (like coming up with new blog post or other content ideas).
Try brainstorming something about your company or department that you want to improve – people always have ideas about that!
2. Spice things up
Variety is the spice of life, so embrace it and incorporate it into your day. Write and draw on white boards, flip charts and napkins. Meet with different groups of people, in different rooms and even in different buildings.
Here’s a fun idea: grab a small group of people who are game, and take a flip chart outside for a brainstorm session. Want to increase the stakes? Take that group to the lobby of your office building in the morning, huddle around the flip board and let the noise and chaos inspire your ideas.
3. Go solo
Sometimes you may simply want to be alone for some peace and quiet.
To boost your creativity, free write for 10 minutes a day. Free writing is simply writing non-stop, without concern about the content/topic, spelling, grammar, etc. Sounds easy – and it will be. But making it a part of your routine takes discipline. We think a brief free writing session at the start of the day is best, although some people have more success at the end of the day.
Looking for more brainstorming tips? Well, we’ve written about brainstorming before – we’ve shared brainstorming tips for project managers and idea-generating tips for financial services professionals. So click those links and keep reading!