Increasing Creativity and its Relation to Productivity

Increasing your creativity can result in more productivity at work and there are many ways to do it. While many consider creative ventures to be restricted to the artists, the reality is that these skills can be incorporated into anyone’s life. Furthermore, having a creative outlet can result in positive outcomes for you at work as you get new ideas and develop methods of addressing occurring challenges.

What is Creativity?

People tend to look at creativity from a linear approach, restricting it to activities relating to art creation alone. However, creativity can be adopted in more ways and does not look like painting alone. Therefore, it should not look like painting, music, and writing alone.

In fact, the most valuable tool you may have is your attempt to incorporate creativity at work may be having a beginner mindset or being open-minded. The reality is that companies also attempt to create creative outlets by having employees from diverse backgrounds. This results in having diverse methods of addressing challenges and creating new ideas.

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In fact, the most valuable tool you may have as your attempt to incorporate creativity at work may be having a beginner mindset or being open minded.

The reality is also that creative approaches can start small. Some of the ways may include:

Incorporating color in your planning process

While thinking through ideas, it could be helpful for you to consider adding color to your book or presentation. One could go to an extent of adding stickers when in the brainstorming process. Funnily enough, projects that have more standing out colors come to memory for me when I think of a project. Therefore, having those different highlighters could be a great idea for you to get ideas flowing at work.

Having an Outlet

Organizations tend to adopt different creative plans for their teams. In some companies, it is normal to have a sports and gaming center. However, this may not be the case in other organizations. Therefore, having a creative outlet could be the solution to keep your mind engaged. When one is affected by a work problem, it is difficult to find the solution when we nitpick. On the other hand, it is more common to find the solution to a problem while we work on something unrelated. Having creative options provides this space for employees and could work well for you. One of the things that is easy to implement is to have a coloring book, and you could start with a monochrome one. Spending between 10-20 min on such a task relieves the brain of any stress, as art or creative work ensures you are fully focused on the subject at hand. Therefore, this could be an ideal initial solution.

Puzzles

Aside from art, puzzles provide an immediate creative engagement for all individuals. Aside from this, the complexity of the piece can be informed by individual preference. I tend to prefer puzzles that require me to take a lot of time to work on them. However, when pressed on time, I appreciate the immediate gratification of having a 30-piece puzzle. Puzzles could also provide a way to engage other employees in the workplace. In addition, since they are solved easily, it enables individuals to overcome any barriers to engage with others, for instance, language barriers. Hence, they could provide a way for you to not only engage creatively, but could be a link between you and your colleagues.

Planning tools

The improvement in technology has provided us with more methods to add creative aspects to our work. Some of the tools that have creative features are notion and excel. On the other hand, individuals who like traditional writing approaches can choose to have bullet journaling as a method of having a creative outlet. Over the past few years I have enjoyed bullet journaling, especially on Sundays. I tend to plan my week on Sunday’s or Monday morning and can have pens and colored markers to add some color to my work. Since I have done this for a while, I appreciate having a place where I can look at projects I was working on during different periods of time. On the other hand, using notion or excel provides an option to create on the online medium and carry that everywhere. Adding color into these options or scribbling amidst your minimalistic layout can provide a good starting point to engage creatively at work.

Benefits of Creative Approach at Work

Increased focus

Taking moments to focus on the creative work allows you to be fully focused on your work due to the increased clarity in thought. In addition, it is easier to solve a challenge through taking the short breaks to consider a different approach in addressing a challenge.

Teamwork

Some creative methods can provide you with a way to engage your colleagues at work. This is possible more so when using games or working on art. It not only provides conversational points but can also be an engaging space.

Overall productivity

One works better when they have their creative juices flowing. It is easier for you to enjoy your day at work rather than wait till 5pm through engaging in small tasks geared towards your work. Hence, having a creative space when working could be the solution to how efficient you are.

Conclusion

Having a creative outlet may have seemed daunting for you initially, however, starting small is always a good point. When I started painting, my pieces didn’t really look amazing but I felt amazing about just painting. In many cases, these creative approaches tend to provide your mind with the break and rest it needs and that’s sufficient when tired. Try it today, I’m sure you will appreciate the process.