How To Get Into A Creative Mindset & Develop Creativity
As a writer, Mason Currey struggled with how to get into a creative mindset for the tasks at hand. In a bid to avoid work, he chose to research the creative rituals of some of history's famous names. Currey's bout of procrastination provided the material for his book, Daily Rituals: How Artists Work. This book will be a source of several examples in this article.
Many people struggle with getting into a creative mindset when required. This problem isn't limited to those in the field of arts. If your daily life or work requires you to combine two or more elements to form something new, then you are creative. This, by the way, means that everyone is a creative person to some degree. We've all created something new, whether it was cooking a meal or rearranging a space to fit our style.
However, there are some cases where we need to apply creativity using a structure or within a timeframe: an assignment, a literary piece, a design, a software problem requiring a solution—or coming up with ideas to solve a social issue or innovation within your social enterprise. These are examples of times when we may need to be creative and exercise creative thinking.
Except our minds aren't always willing to do that work. We may suffer from a lack of creative energy or thought. Or we may be interested in creating something other than the task at hand (like Mason Currey). In such cases, we can benefit from improving our ability to enter a creative mindset to apply ourselves to the task at hand.
What is Creativity?
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Creativity is a fluid phenomenon that cannot be given one definition. It is seen as originality (a novel creation) and appropriateness (adapting something already existing).
Mindset simply refers to a person's way of thinking and opinion. If we put these concepts together, we can conclude that a creative mindset is a state where you have the freedom to think and act with the intent to create and recreate.
The book Daily Rituals (on Amazon) reveals something pertinent to us. There's no strict set of rules for entering a creative mindset. We cannot achieve this mindset by copying the exact routine of someone who has found success in their creative process. Every individual has unique requirements to get into a creative mindset. This is because of the differences in our personalities, thought processes, goals, the things we value, and everything else that makes us unique.
While there's no definitive list of rules for the creative mindset, there are personal changes you can make to help achieve creativity. Everyone can make these changes, adapting the improvements that work for you.
Finding and exploring your creativity will be a unique journey and one that is personal to you. Creative solutions and innovative thinking come easier to some than others, yet we can work to create the conditions and mindset to allow the ideas to flow.
Also, have a read of some of the best creativity quotes to get inspired by what other people have to say about creativity and the creative process.
How to get into a Creative Mindset
Develop your self-awareness
Recognizing what works for you and what doesn't is important to your creative process. Everyone can benefit from understanding who they are and their self-systems. Some motivational speakers may convince you to start your day at 5 am and laser-focus on work till noon. But you may have commitments that make that process hard for you. Or it simply might not work for you at all. Following a controlled system will not necessarily help your creative process or make innovation happen.
Carl Jung, the founder of analytical psychology, practiced, lectured, and wrote books throughout his career. He managed all these on 8-9 hours of work per day.
His method was to take non-negotiable time off work once in a while. During that time, he would meditate, cook his own meals, and write for two hours daily. He recognized that his self-system needed a slow but steady pattern. By adapting his personal routine in the context of his self-awareness, he found a way to create that suited him.
Choose a growth mindset
Creativity is possible when there's room for growth and change. A growth mindset allows you to see possibilities for improvement in your talents and abilities. It is a belief that you can get better at anything through hard work, commitment, practice, counsel from others, and benefit from a positive attitude. We can aid our creativity by breaking the barriers limiting what we can achieve to give a better result every time.
Consume relevant information
Creativity is not unidirectional. It involves combining elements that we know of to make something new. It can be pretty tricky to create something new without a variety of information and references to draw on. Nicholson Baker, an award-winning novelist, admits in Daily Rituals that reading is integral to his writing process. He would read widely in preparation to get his mind "revved up" for the work at hand.
Books, blogs, research papers, shows, movies, and podcasts are some examples of content you can seek out. Try not to limit your preferences to your field. Learn about things that are beyond your area of expertise. Expand your horizons. New inputs may prompt the creative spark you're seeking.
Accept rough ideas
Ideas hardly ever come to people fully formed. No successful writer publishes the first draft of anything. Creativity is a process of refinement, adding, and removing elements until you achieve an outcome you're happy with. Therefore, we should embrace rough ideas until their lack of value has been proven.
Joyce Oates, a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer, works for about 8 hours a day. She revealed in Daily Rituals that she writes and writes and writes and rewrites and may only retain a single page of work from her entire day. However, she makes sure to put all her rough ideas down on paper because all those pages eventually add up to some value.
A creative mindset may not always seem like a state of 'flow.' Ideas may come to you in pieces. Regardless, hold on to them and seek to transpose and expand them. Playing around with rough ideas can help you find the creative result you're looking for.
Sketching rough ideas, either literally or metaphorically, is one of those essential creative thinking skills that help people explore a possible creative answer. After all, for many of us, our creativity is an immense untapped resource that just needs some time to emerge and explore.
Enforce self-discipline
Jane Piirto, a teaching artist, and researcher, refers to self-discipline as a core attitude for creativity2. You can foster the ability to overcome your weaknesses and barriers to personal creativity through discipline. The creative process is not an easy one. It could be hours, days, or even a lifetime of what at times can feel like mundane work. At other times intense focus on the seemingly unsolvable might prove the route forward. We should discipline ourselves to start the process if we want to get into a creative mindset, even when we don't want to.
The well-known creatives of our time and the times before us thrived on routine born from self-discipline. Haruki Murakami, a famous Japanese writer, kept the same daily routine without variations. He quit his bad habits (like smoking) and exercised regularly to stay healthy. This allowed Murakami to have 5-6 productive hours daily.
John Adams, an American composer, explained that creativity is very labor-intensive. You must discipline yourself into not-so-glamorous work habits to get the work done. The most innovative organizations that regularly create new ideas and disrupt the status quo exhibit high levels of commitment and cultures of rewarding yet, disciplined hard work.
Manage distractions
Some creative people handle distractions better than others. Chuck Close, an artist, and photographer, liked to paint with the television or radio chattering in the background. Meanwhile, Somerset Maugham, a famous English writer of his era, always had his desk facing a blank wall. He couldn't focus with the smallest view out of a window.
Distraction can also come in the form of other tasks. While a pressing task may seem too much to handle, you may choose to do less important things to avoid priorities. Regardless of your level of tolerance for distraction, manage how much you allow into your creative process.
In Eat That Frog, Brian Tracy refers to tasks as frogs. He advises to 'eat your ugliest frog' first thing every day before moving on to the others. For you, that frog could be applying yourself to the problem or task requiring a creative mindset to conjure creative ideas. Or get the ones that don't out of the way first so that you can focus on a new idea and solve problems creatively with the required attention.
Allow resting periods
Give yourself time to do nothing. Creative work can be stressful for the brain. The brain is also the powerhouse of the body. It works so hard that it consumes 20% of the body's oxygen. Your brain needs time to rest. But rest does not mean a total shutdown. When resting, the brain does a lot of work in what is known as 'unfocused or default mode.'
When your brain isn't being worked so hard, it makes some default repairs such as retrieving memories, linking ideas, and improving self-connection. All these repairs are essential to the process of individual creativity. This is why you can spend the entire day mulling over a problem, go home to sleep, come back to your office desk the next day, and solve that problem in a few minutes. Your brain did some problem-solving while you weren't looking.
Resting periods go beyond sleep hours. Allow yourself to take time off work, go into a different environment, and relax. Avoid your work computer during the weekend, spend time with friends, and take more vacations. On particularly tasking workdays, take a short nap to relieve your mind and improve cognitive function. Your creative thinking skills will thank you for it.
Conclusion
The essence of creativity is in linking a multitude of thoughts, ideas, references, and tasks. And your ability to self-regulate. To get into a creative mindset, you should be willing to incite change and embrace growth. Not just in your work life, but in every other aspect of yourself.
Creativity practiced with a creative mindset can come up with extraordinary things. You will discover your creative process through trial and error. Over time, your self-awareness and ability to recognize the practices that will work for you should improve. The changes you choose to embrace will help you get into a creative mindset when needed.