Everyone wants to be more creative at problem solving and better at using their time. By developing better habits and calendar discipline, it’s easy. Try our 8 tips and go further faster.
1. Declare one “No Meeting” day each week
Make the commitment to preserving one day a week for deep, uninterrupted work—whether that’s writing, designing, strategizing or moving your next big idea into being. A great choice is Monday because it helps cut down on the Sunday Scaries phenomenon and establishes a powerful tone for the rest of the week.
2. Silence the Pavlovian ping
There are no snack rewards for reading emails. Turn off email notifications (and Slack dings, too). Check messages at set intervals—once an hour—instead of reacting like Pavlov's dogs all day long. Without this discipline, checking messages frequently interrupts your momentum. It sucks you into a black hole of lost time and derails you from making progress on more important issues.
3. Know your mental peaks and valleys
Take note of the times of day when you’re most mentally sharp. Use those hours for idea generation, brainstorming meetings or work that requires your deep expertise. Since administrative and rote tasks take less mental energy, schedule those for your natural down times.
4. Make a powerful TO DO list
The most powerful TO DO lists contain three action categories.
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The regular reminder items that take care of clients and colleagues. This is the most familiar way we use TO DO lists. It’s important, but it’s just the beginning.
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The top 3 things you must do today to reach your goals. Know what you need to do to make progress on big issues, break that into smaller steps you can accomplish in a day’s work, put them on your list and do them. Today. Your journey will be smoother and faster.
- A “10 minute” list. This is for things you can accomplish when you have a short time between commitments. When you only have a few minutes, there’s no time to start something new. But that time doesn’t have to be wasted. By having the mini-tasks at your fingertips, you can knock out a number of small things with great efficiency by the end of the day.
5. Trick yourself into eating that frog
Everyone has big assignments that feel daunting. So it can seem like a monumental effort to get started—or to return to the big thing that’s been on hold. So we procrastinate. We find other things to do instead of diving into the work.
One way to overcome this is to tell yourself you’ll give at least 15 minutes to the task and that when the timer goes off, you can stop. Set an actual timer and get the project underway. Most often, you’ll find that when the time is up, you’re on a roll and that you can keep going. You have eaten the frog.
6. Give ideas a parking lot
Keep a running document or voice memo app open to catch spontaneous ideas that occur to you in the midst of the day or in off-hours. When these ideas pop up, get them recorded and off your mind so you can stay focused on what you’d set out to do.
Return to your idea parking lot when you’re brainstorming, working on content or doing other work that requires creative problem solving. This way, you have a plethora of concepts to jumpstart your efforts—instead of starting out staring at a blank sheet of paper.
7. Feed your head
Take a slice of wisdom from Grace Slick. Creativity requires fuel. Block out time to move, listen, look and absorb new stimuli. Get out from behind your desk and engage as many senses as possible:
- Take a brisk walk around the block.
- Spend 10 minutes on a social media channel you don’t typically use.
- Walk into a retail store and consciously notice the smells, lighting, music, displays and the customers. (Bonus points for walking in a different direction than you usually take.)
- Sit on a park bench and feel the air, sun, rain, breeze and note how you react.
- Switch from your favorite beverage to something else.
- Explore a new playlist (ask an AI agent for inspiration).
- Try a retro candy you remember from your childhood. (Pop Rocks, anyone?!)
- Visit that museum you’ve been talking about.
- Call your mother.
You’ll come back refreshed and full of new ideas.
8. Question and reframe the problem
Don’t jump straight to the end. Before diving right into the assignment at hand, ask what you’re really trying to solve. Fall in love with the problem, explore it from different angles and ask “Why?” and “What if?” over and over again.
You might consider how others experience the problem and how they would approach the solution. Of course, research with clients can be very informative. What else might give you insights? Generate ideas with your team by asking:
- What would Bugs Bunny do?
- How would Frank Underwood view it?
- What would Wonder Woman say?
- Would Taylor Swift handle this differently?
You get the idea. By looking at the problem through different lenses, you will see innovative choices you hadn’t previously considered.
For more ways to build innovation and creativity for your brand read our article How honeybees and jackalopes can spur innovation. We’re a marketing firm helping clients bring innovation and strategy. Want to know more? Call Martha direct at 785.969.6203 or
Photo credit from Unsplash: Planet Volumes.
