Creative Exercises for the Quarantined Brain — Part 2

© Nick Bantock

Steve Jobs famously said that “creativity is just connecting things.” But anyone facing a creative block knows it’s a lot harder than grabbing ideas out of thin air. And we sure have a lot of very very thin air these days.

Creativity can be made to seem complex, but it is as easy and natural as it was when we were children, society has merely conditioned the art of PLAY out of us as adults.

And no, KAREN, there’s no “creativity gene” or section of your brain responsible for creative thought. Creativity isn’t for dumbbells or woo-people in tie-dye, or for the professionals. We can’t choose to turn creativity on or off. As the Atlantic reports, many studies have found that creativity happens unconsciously and beyond our control, and I say let it flow, baby...

One’s ability to come up with novel ideas (not merely, “beautiful” or “award-winning” or “conventionally artistic” ideas) is now one of the job market’s most sought-after skills. “Solutions-based thinking” is a buzz phrase bandied about a lot in the corporate world. Well, what are solutions other than creative ideas for conventional problems?

As an artist, however, I rely upon my creativity not only as my livelihood but to keep me pushing forward as a human being, feeling a sense of purpose, drive, expression, and meaning in and with my creative outputs.

Luckily, just like anything, we can get our creativity into better shape simply by engaging with it! And like any skill, practice makes better, and that can only be achieved with some exercises!

Onward.

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1. Keep it Simple

Problems are often obscured by an overload of information. Clarify and isolate the challenge you face by spending time understanding and defining the problem.

Can you simplify it down to 10 words?
5 words?
3?
Or even just 1?

By constricting your language, you have to boil your project/pitch/idea down to its absolute most essential self, identifying the kernel and thus giving yourself a chance to really tackle it with laser-beam focus.

Project: Writer Ernest Hemingway famously laid down a challenge to write a story in six words. One of his is infamously gut-wrenching.

"For sale: baby shoes, never worn."

Try it for yourself— a complete story with a beginning, middle and end in six words. Or perhaps update this to a 21st century Twitter challenge and write an entire story in 140 characters.


2. Complete the Picture

This is quick exercise dubbed “The Doodle Dandy” I found on the (sadly now-defunct) webiste How Design.

Exercise:

- Create a stack of simple one-line phrases on scrap paper

Here is their sample phrase list, though I encourage you to come up with your own.

"Happy as a clam"

“Time and time again“

"Where in the world?"

“Feed your head“

"Human nature"

"The art of noise"

and  "Here comes trouble"

- Next cut up blank scrap paper, and mindlessly draw a few stray lines on each page as a starting point.

- Select one phrase, and one doodle paper from each pile… 

- And draw the phrase using the already-existing lines on the doodle page.


3. Set Tight Deadlines (And Hit Them)

Break your current project up into the tiniest possible increments and set short, strict deadlines for yourself. (This isn’t just helpful for creativity by the way — I do this with household chores too! Instead of “clean apartment” I divide the list into micro tasks and take delicious pleasure in checking them off!)

For example, say you’ll write down five new places to find customers every 10 minutes for an hour, or that you’ll write 250 words of a new blog post every 15 minutes.

Wanna really add some tequila to this here cocktail? Take a tip from lifecoacth and bestselling author Jen Sincero and “make a bet with someone ‘mean.’” Or, fine, someone who will very seriously hold you accountable to your promises and deadlines, who will not let you slide despite any excuse to devise (including, say, GLOBAL PANDEMIC).

Sincero also suggests you bet something painful to lose, like an amount of money you have, but would be painful to see disappear. Fear of failure and fear of losing something you care about can do wonders for your self-discipline. Up the ante? Make the check out to an organization that makes your flesh crawl, and send it to your friend who will send it immediately should you let the deadline slide.

Having an accountability partner is critical to success, but this makes it ya know: spicy.


4. Alternative Uses

“Alternative use” creativity exercises have been around for many years. For example, in 1967 J.P. Guilford developed a creativity test (of sorts) that gave participants two minutes to think of as many possible uses for a common household object. This experiment is now commonly referred to at the “paper-clip test.”

While participants don’t actually have to construct different uses, some ideas are weighted more heavily than others.

Responses are ranked according to the four categories in divergent thinking:     - fluency (how many you named)
    - originality (how common the answers are)
    - flexibility (how many unique subjects you cross)
    - and elaboration (level of detailed response).


Project 1: The Paper clip test
    - Take an ordinary paper clip and place it before you.
    - set a timer for 2 minutes.
    - Write down as many unconventional ideas for the paper clip

Here are some fun options:

• a zipper replacement
• an earring
• a fishhook
• a toilet fixer
• sculpture making material
• a tool to reset the router
• an ear-piercing device
• a lock pick
• an ornament hanger
• a photo holder
• cuticle pusher cleaner,
• a hairpin.

Project 2: Turn trash into treasure—
Collect all the junk mail that comes through your letterbox today and turn it into something of great value.
What else can you do with a newspaper?
A political flyer?
A take out menu?

We see most things—objects, buildings, spaces, materials, technology, and systems—through the lens of habit and familiarity. We take them for granted, overlooking numerous other possibilities. Combat the mind’s tendency to assume that something can only function in a familiar way. Asking yourself “What else can I do with this?” will lead to new discoveries and ideas.