Creativity: Make a List
It’s easy for daily tasks to become routine: our jobs, our families, our way of life in general. With my job especially I’m sensitive to this, as accepting in-the-box, routine ways of doing things greatly hinders creativity. When I just let myself keep doing the same thing all the time, I get stagnant. I don’t look for new ways, new ideas, some kind of change. And that means I’m losing my edge and not growing forward.
That’s why I really like a recent post at this site (look for “tackle any issue with a list of 100″) that I came across: it gives a specific, tangible way to get your mind thinking creatively. Take a topic–any topic–and make yourself write 100 ways, things, ideas that are related. My pastor’s big on the 100 Things to Be Thankful for List. At my company, I want 100 Ways to Make the Department Better or 100 Ways to Write More Creatively or 100 Ideas for Catching my Editing Mistakes.
What about you? Have you tried this? I’m in the midst of one, and it’s a great exercise. When you start, you think you’ll have all these great ideas… and around 40 or so, you hit a wall. What’s so cool is breaking through that wall and discovering *new* and creative possibilities. Try it!
Filed under 9-5, the everyday, writing |
2 Responses to “Creativity: Make a List”
Leave a Reply
i’m a big fan of lists. my favorite list is the end of the year list- i write everything about myself/my life that i want to say goodbye to in 2007 and what i want to say hello to in 2008. then i crumple it up and burn it in the fireplace
i like the catharsis…
I love this concept. I once took a productivity course at work called “Getting things Done” and they had a similar concept called the MINDSWEEP. You’re supposed to do it whenever you feel stresssed/overwhelmed. The whole point is that anything can come onto the mindsweep (from ‘I need to buy shampoo’ to ‘This would be a much better way to run this report’). You can’t edit anything until the mindsweep is over, just record. It’s very freeing…