Are you creative?
You might not think you are? Sometimes when I am talking to clients they think they are not “creative”. For them, creative means – graphic design, or art or music or similar.
The thing is we are all – to a lesser or greater degree – creative in some way. (We will leave aside creative accounting!)
Creative is not the same as artistic (although artistic people are generally creative). We can create things in our lives and our businesses without needed a degree in art.
If we write a blog we are being creative. If we design a new product (even if don’t manufacture “things” you will be making or offering new services to our clients). Even thinking of new ways of doing things – tweaking our business processes – is being “creative”. If we are solving a problem – yep – creative!
So – now that you know you are (or can be) creative – when and where do you find yourself having the best chance of the creative juices flowing!?
Some people find that getting up early in the morning and having an hour to themselves with a notebook and a cup of coffee before the rest of the family appear is a great time for them to come up with new ideas. However, here’s the thing – NOT EVERYONE IS A MORNING PERSON! There are all sorts of reasons for this – not least the fact that for some people, their brains just won’t let them be at their most alert at 5am – no matter “how hard they try”.
I get a bit tired of the whole “if you get up at 5am every morning you will earn a 6 figure sum” brigade! One – as I said, you just may not be wired to be at your peak at that time and two – forcing yourself to perform at that time is doesn’t guarantee success. You need to find what works for you. If that means yoga at 6am that’s fine but don’t stress and try to conform to someone else’s timetable.
I have worked with people who work silly hours. Whilst I do encourage people to ensure they have sleep and family / leisure time, it’s up to them how they arrange those hours in the day (and sometimes people have to fit in with family / childcare time too).
So – your body and your brain have a preference for their daily rhythm. The times when you will feel at your best and the times when it will just be too hard to do some tasks.
In any working day, it can be useful, therefore, to consider when you want to write that blog or work on a new process – or alternatively, when you will do more mundane, repetitive tasks that don’t need a lot of your creative juices!
The best way to start is to start being aware of how you are feeling at different times of day. It’s useful to keep a journal or a diary and note down how each day went – what you achieved and when and see if you can identify patterns. (I also like clients to record their time for a week – to get a sense of WHAT they are actually doing and achieving!);
Sometimes you just need to cogitate and think, and let the ideas come. And sometimes you need to incubate ideas that have already occurred to you. If you’ve got something that is more difficult to work out it will take time – and you can be better letting your unconscious brain work on the problem or the challenge.
Where do you think best?
The other thing to consider is the WHERE. In my experience, very very few people get creative or get inspiration working at their desk!! So even just moving to a more comfortable chair in your office can be helpful. Or if you work from home, a different room. Or the garden.
However, one of the best things to do can be to go for a walk! Most people can get out and walk at some point in the day (if walking is hard for you then you may have your own place and activity which will work for you – many people find that doing something like a jigsaw puzzle, or even knitting or baking can allow their unconscious brain to work on the challenge).
There usually needs to be some kind of physical aspect to it – so even if you can’t walk if you can use your hands to manipulate a crochet hook it will work.
The benefit of walking – or spending time outdoors – is the fresh air, the Vitamin D (even on Scotland in winter there are days when there will be enough sunshine for that) and the movement to drive hydration and nutrients to the brain. I have spoken of the benefits of walking coaching in the past – it is amazing how it works, and the creative solution can be found.
So think about where and when you are at your best to work on problems or come up with new solutions or offerings and let me know! And consider taking some time over the Christmas break to let your mind wander.
Get in touch if you’d like to chat about how I can help.