How to Increase Creativity at Work

We all are gifted with different levels and styles of creativity. Everyone is creative, just that some of us have tied ourselves to a bit of routine, not wanting to take the risk to see how things could differently.

Understandably, some workplaces practice an overly bureaucratic work culture. What about you pulling your way through by showcasing your creative side? You could probably be the hero that would help pull out the creativity in colleagues and help the organization practice a more productive way of achieving results by giving employees room for suggestions.

To find out ways to be creative at work, kindly read through and practice these steps.

Disclaimer: There are several ways to be creative and they are not limited to the following steps.

Practice Aerobic Exercise

Aerobic exercise protects the health of our brain. Constantly practising this helps boost our mental health and improve balance. Regular exercise helps in “Promoting cardiovascular health, improve blood flow to the brain, reduce inflammation, and lower levels of stress hormone” explains Dr Jackson Bonner. Aside from helping with positive mental health, aerobic exercise keeps us active physically, keeps our immune system awakened and helps us stay socially engaged. The good thing is that some of these exercises can be done at home. Examples of aerobic exercises are rope skipping, jogging or running, Walking (most especially an early morning walk), swimming, biking etc.

Feed your Environment with Life

For some people, the environment plays a big role in their mental health most especially in the creative part of their brain. Surrounding our environment with artworks we admire and keeps us thinking about the possible connections to how the artwork came to be in the first place could stimulate some creative thinking. Beautifying our office or workspace with pictures of our loved ones, pet or funny pictures could also help keep our emotional and mental health alive. Colours also play an important part in either livening or killing one’s creative skills. Fill your workspace with colours that uplift the spirit and keep your brain alive and thinking. Colours like grey, black, beige are not so good colours when it comes to stimulating creativity. Tone up your environment or workspace with bright and interesting colours such as yellow, red, pitch, orange, green, purple, gold etc.

Be Yourself

Each person has a style, a method in which they function best. Learning to be yourself helps you work faster, smarter, and better. It also helps you make confident decisions. These are the reasons why some of the best recruiters and recruiting agencies in Nigeria create a comfortable atmosphere where candidates can feel relaxed and be at their best possible self. This set of recruiters understand the importance of not just hiring people with great hard skills, but they want to be sure the candidate that would be joining their team wouldn’t be a toxic colleague but a great team player who would fit well into the culture of their workplace. You would be doing yourself a lot of good when you are yourself, not minding the funny opinions of others.

Have a Pal

There is always this one person we feel very comfortable with and it is always nice to have discussions with them, especially when trying to figure out a possible way to achieve results or solve a problem. Speaking with your best pal creates open doors to possible ideas on completing a particular task or increasing work productivity. Because you two understand each other well, you two would be able to rub minds well and come out with beautiful suggestions that could be worked on.

Get Some Fresh Air

When the need for fresh creative ideas, leaving our office space to breathe in some fresh air could help open up our creative skills. Go on a lunch break outside the office space, hang out with friends, go on adventures, visit fun places, network, etc. With these, you would be exposing yourself to more creative ideas.

Practice Meditating

Meditating or self-reflection drives us into that silent mode where we engage in a deep reflection with ourselves, helping us connect with great creative ideas we never thought existed. In your silent moments, your sense of consciousness is expanded. You get to feel at peace, creating a space in your spirit for newer experiences. In moments like this, there comes the overflowing of positive thoughts, creative ideas, fresh uncontaminated concepts that could be imbibed in the workplace. No wonder the Hindus practice yoga, a form of spiritual exercise, originating from ancient India, that helps in breath control and self-reflection.

Engage in Something you Enjoy

Do what you love doing best. It could be listening to music while working, taking very short breaks to watch a funny or inspirational video, reading an interesting short fiction, indulging in few seconds to have a lively chat with a friend or loved one etc. Find out what keeps you relaxed and employ it in your work when necessary.

Think Outside the Box

Find out unusual ways to do things. This could involve reaching out to a few customers and seeking feedback from them. You could also run an online survey, with this, you get to garner huge reviews plus opinions from a wider audience. With people’s opinions, streams of possible ways to fulfilling a rewarding task will start to flow. This is a positive way to use people to your good when struggling with coming up with a creative approach to work. You also get to develop great business development strategies.

And last but not least,

Look Good

Studies show that when we are poorly dressed, we tend to feel low in ourself and this also doesn’t give room to help the brain think right or be creative as the mind will be focused on the “bad or wrong” perceptions we think people will have of us. Looking good doesn’t just help boost our self-confidence, it helps us “think” and “act” like we are intelligent, as a result, the creative part of our brain is massaged to think creatively. Feeling beautiful also helps greatly. Feeling beautiful and feeling good is not always necessarily tied to the dress we have on us at the moment. It comes from within and is far from material possessions. People feel good because they have identified their value and can give back to society. They are self-confident in their strength and promote the same in others. They are not arrogant or overly confident, they are just aware of themselves and know for a fact that everyone has a weakness, and this helps them manage their weakness well, making it less obvious. Do what will put you in that beautiful mood. Engage in what makes you happy.

Practice the above steps and Research more ways to be creative and you would be amazed at the magic your brain can perform.