11 Ways to Get Out of a Creative Rut

Is your imagination in a rut? Has your muse gone on vacation without you? If it feels like you haven’t had a fresh idea in months, here are 11 ways to get your creative mind moving again in 2011:

1.  Change your tune.

Music has the power to fire up the brain’s emotion and reward centers, and to form new connections between ideas. When we open our ears to new music, a host of random associations, perspectives and emotions can float up to the surface to help get those creative juices flowing again. Stream other people’s music at Blip.fm,  or play radio routlette – that’s the roadtrip game where you hit the search button repeatedly, surfing through all available radio stations with the commitment to  listen to one complete song before you move on to the next station. (Sure, you’ll hate some of the tunes you hear, but a bad song is, what, three minutes out of your life?)

2. Change media.

If you’re a violinist, pick up a flute.  If you’re a blog writer, make a video. If you’re a painter, write a short story or dig into some modeling clay or build a bookshelf.  If you’re a management consultant, problem-solving for major corps 14 hours a day, take up ikebana or learn to knit socks… well, you get the  general idea. Quite apart from the mental challenge of learning a new skill or medium of expression, changing the physical tasks you’re asking your body to perform can have a remarkable way of changing your thought patterns, too.

3. Quit multitasking.

Without focus, there can be no creative flow. Wall off a chunk of time for doing your creative work, even if it’s just a half-hour on a weekend, and defend that chunk of time tooth-and-nail against all distractions. Really – the laundry can wait a few minutes more, and so can your buddy’s text message.

4. Think laterally.

Lateral thinking puzzles – like these and these – are guaranteed to force your brain out of its accustomed rut.

5. Get a chuckle.

Try watching a stand-up comedy routine before you tackle a puzzle or creative problem. As the New York Times reported recently, researchers at Northwestern University found people are more likely to solve puzzle with “sudden insight” – what we may think of as creative inspiration, rather than dull old left-brain slogging –   when they were amused by a short comedy routine. Makes sense, eh? We already know that creativity and stress don’t play well together, and that laughter is the best medicine for stress and anxiety!

6. Stalk a stranger.

“Don’t discount the joy of discovery that can come by weaving a stranger’s life into your own,” says Joel Johnson, Gizmodo’s much-maligned “hipster tech douche” who chose to follow a random Twitter user as different as possible from himself. The thing is, we tend to build a homogenous community around ourselves, both in social media and in Real Life – a group of like-thinking friends and colleagues with similar backgrounds and similar life experiences. Creativity is spurred when we expand our social horizons and let in “other” perspectives.

7. Expose yourself.

In fact, a growing body of research draws a link between creativity and our exposure to new information and conflicting opinions. Controversy is good for creativity, and simply hearing a dissenting opinion – you don’t need to believe it; you don’t even need to take it seriously! – leads to greater creativity.

8. Be contrary.

On a related note, cast your mind back to high school debate club. (What, you weren’t a member? Never mind – there’s no time like the present to get in on the game.) The point is, in a debate competition, the teams don’t get to choose which side of an issue they’ll argue on. The challenge lies in constructing a cogent argument to support any position. So, think of a topic that’s guaranteed to set you off on a rant, and work out an equally strong case for the opposite side. The more emotional you get about the topic, the tougher this will be – and the harder your creative mind will need to work, carving out a new way of thinking.

9. Be a kid.

Open a book or newspaper or web page at random, take the first statement you eyes fall upon, and challenge it with the traditional maddening question of the inquisitive child: Why? Keep answering the “Why? Why? But, why?” until you run out of logical answers, then throw out all logic and keep rolling, no matter how apparently ridiculous your answers become. Variation: “But what if…?”

10. Borrow a kid.

Armed with nothing more than a baggie of animal crackers, a cardboard box, and a fistful of crayons, spend three hours on a rainy afternoon with a smart pre-schooler. If that doesn’t jazz up your creative problem-solving skills, nothing can!

11. Take a nap.

Sleep makes people 33% more creative, according to Harvard researchers. There may not be a clear-cut “Eureka!” moment for you on waking, but sleep does seem to serve as a kind of “incubation period” in which the brain can process new ideas and make new connections between ideas. Result? New and more creative solutions to problems that can seem insurmountable to the over-tired and over-worried mind. If you can’t manage an extra hour’s sleep at night, no worries – even a 10-minute afternoon nap can have major mental benefits.

What’s your favourite way to get out of a creative rut?

Related posts:

1. Short video on ways to stay creative