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10 Ideas For Increasing Your Creativity

June 29, 2022 / Oskar Cymerman

A bowl of cereal with gummy bears in it is creative twist on traditional breakfast. Being open to playing with your food or, on a bigger scale, playing with the traditional ways of doing things helps us become more creative — Photo courtesy of Gratisography

“To be creative means to be in love with life.”

— Osho

I learned today that velociraptors were turkey-sized and T-Rex topped out at ten miles per hour, which means you don’t have to be Usain Bolt to outrun one. Damn you Hollywood, Jurassic Park, and Steven Spielberg for having me think they were cool.

But my dino disillusionment aside, learning these facts while watching Weird But True with my son gave me a creative way to start this article after over a year of blog silence.

Creativity awakens imagination, spurs innovation, and provides inspiration. But for me, creativity makes work fun. It allows me to see things in new ways and create new ways to teach and help my students learn.

In my twenty years of teaching, I learned that everyone is creative and everyone can take deliberate action to increase their creativity.

Here’s a list of 10 things anyone can do every day to up their creativity.

Learn Something New

It doesn’t matter what you learn. Just learn something you did not know before. Even if the new information you put in your brain is unrelated to the work you do, your brain will find a way to use it. 3 days, or 3 months, or 3 years from now, perhaps in a form of a sudden spark of genius or a slow methodical approach - you will apply this learning to something. Consciously or without you knowing, the info you learn today will make something you’re creating in the future a bit more creative; a bit better.

Learn something new every day and you will increase your chances of coming up with new and innovative ways of doing things and creating more impactful and fulfilling work.

Listen To A Podcast

This should be easy if you commute to work. Connect your phone to your car’s stereo or use the phone/headphones combo on your public trans ride to work and voila - instant mobile university! Of course, shock-jock garbage doesn’t count, because garbage in - garbage out.

Good podcasts are not hard to find. Some of my faves are Hidden Brain, Akimbo, The Knowledge Project, Inquiring Minds, TED Radio Hour, and The James Altucher Show. Be ready to pause a podcast, so you can start writing down ideas. You can just use your phone’s note app or carry a small notebook. If driving, dictate the epiphanies and ideas your mind generates while listening into your phone’s note app.

Read

As a kid growing up in Poland, I was great at devouring books. Now, I suck at reading books. I wish I was better, but I’m really bad at books. I own a lot of them. I still buy books and promise myself I will read them. I still may, but for now, I am happy reading bits and pieces of whole books. A chapter here and a chapter there is my usual fare that helps me prepare and keeps me away from brain numbing solitaire.

The books I frequently keep coming back to and extract information from are Brain Rules, Atomic Habits, Ultralearning, and Make It Stick.

I still read though. Every day. It’s just that I mostly read from illuminated screens. And it’s illuminating. It gives me ideas on how to learn faster, teach better, tweak lessons, come up with topics for articles I might write, potential side hustles, and other unexpected things. I read on my phone and laptop. I use Feedly to aggregate new education, teaching, and science blogs and articles. My go tos are NPR, TED Blog, TED Education, John Spencer, The Cult of Pedagogy, and Getting Smart.

If you have close to zero time to read, use Blinkist. The app creators pull the meat out of the best books out there, summarize the gists, and provide the takeaways in less-than-ten-minute text or audio (you choose) packages, designed for the busiest of the busy bees of the world so they can keep learning and get better at creating.

Write

Listen, read, learn, and then write about it. Write it for an audience of one (you) or one hundred - it doesn’t matter. The best thing about writing about what you’re learning is not the passing of what you learned on to others, which is very gratifying, but the slowing down of your thought stream , which in turn allows for deeper reflection and the forming of new understandings. Writing then, is a way to reprocess that which you’re learning, is creative by default, and stimulates new creativity.

Flip The Script

Take a perspective you disagree with and find arguments for it. Look for things or people you disagree with and come up with positive qualities they have. Maybe you hate mosquitos. I mean they suck. Literally… But maybe they are necessary, because geckos eat them. And geckos are cool. Remember the one from the commercials? It’s one cool gecko.

Think of a recent argument you had with someone. Perhaps it did not come to blows, but you vehemently disagreed. Think back to some of the arguments your counterpart had and try to find a few pros for the views you so passionately disagreed with. I’m not telling you to start agreeing. I’m telling you to see what you have not been able to before. Flipping the script and doing it often is the essence of creativity.

Converse

Talk to the woman standing behind you in the insanely long REI line.

Ask the kid next to you if he knows what happened to all the missing Jersey Mike’s sandwich numbers. I mean, how the hell do you go from three to eighty three? Does big Mike have a love-hate relationship with middle numbers?

Ask the guy browsing the same Trader Joe’s beer aisle if he also wanted an instant refund after buying and trying that awful seasonal pumpkin gourd ale beer impostor thingy. I bought six. Big mistake. It’s Halloween special suckiness still haunts me.

But do not talk about the weather. Fuck weather. There’s too much weather talk. Just don’t. Pick a different topic and go.

Create

I love John Spencer’s creativity. But I hate him for this intro:

My goal is simple. I want to make something each day. Sometimes I make things. Sometimes I make a difference. On a good day, I get to do both. - John Spencer

I hate how perfect it is. I know, I know - perfect is the enemy of good, but still… This should be my bio and I hate that I did not come up with it before he did. I guess I just hate myself. Wait… I don’t! I’m inspired.

Seriously, to be creative, one must create. To become more creative, one must keep creating. Creating something every day, will continue increasing your creativity.

You hate that popcorn ceiling in your basement? Watch some YouTube and remove that shit yourself.

Your kid is bored? Find a PBS Kids project and do it with them.

Create an infographic flyer using Google Draw/Slides or Piktochart for that b-day, holiday, or grad party. It is easier than you think and helluva lot more satisfying than Evite.

Write a poem or rap to explain something to someone. Start small. A few lines, that’s all. If it rhymes, cool. If it don’t, you’re no fool. School others or get schooled.

Or, make up a story.

Make Up Stories

Huh? Am I asking you to lie? You damn straight I am. But it will not make you a bad person. It will make you a more creative one. Just hear me out.

People love stories. From very little, we have been learning how to be good and kind and not assholes from stories. Why stop now? Why not use storytelling to teach our coworkers or help older kids (even the forty-something ones like me) learn?

I recently told my chemistry students that I spent one college summer hitchhiking through Europe performing magic tricks dressed as a clown. Then, I poured water into a clear plastic cup, put an index card over it, and flipped it. Boom! The magic (or pressure) of the underlying air kept the card stuck to the mouth of the cup, which kept the water in the cup and not pouring on the victim’s, I mean student volunteer’s head.

Johnny’s head was about two inches below the card. A few students were sad the magic trick didn’t fail…

Then, we talked briefly about gases and gas pressure before proceeding to students performing a bunch of simple experiments that involve gases. There was energy in the room. It was fun telling the story and seeing the students engaged in the activity.

Of course, I hitchhiked through Europe at 19 years old, but I never owned a clown costume or performed street tricks. To spice up the story and the learning build up, I also claimed I made money making balloon animals. Total lie. Clowns scare the crap out of me and I’m too much of an anxious freak to be a street performer. Still, I was glad to muster enough courage to create this learning experience for my students.

Making up stories to represent a concept or to prove a point is far from evil. It’s creative and fun and necessary.

Do Something New

“Do something that scares you every day” has become a cliche line promoted by self help gurus and leadership experts. It’s true that stepping out of your comfort zone can help you level up, but you need not to subject yourself to PTSD inducing experiences to become more creative. You can do simple stuff like ordering a different-than-usual Starbucks drink or taking an alternative route back from work tomorrow - something to change things up.

If you typically eat lunch at your work desk, check out the cafeteria on Monday. If you always take the elevator, take the stairs on Tuesday. Wake up 10 minutes earlier on Wednesday and enjoy the view from your kitchen window while paying attention to every detail you have failed to see before. Wear two different socks to work on Thursday and see if anyone notices and points it out, because if they do, you can explain why and ask what they think about it. If they don’t, smirk every time your mind reminds you of your dirty little secret. And on Friday? Friday’s all you, but you get the idea. Keep it creative.

Do this sort of thing frequently to create many new experiences, because no matter how small, new experiences will lead to new outlooks and these in turn will lead to newfound creativity. It’ll sneak up on you out of nowhere; rattlesnake-in-a-desert-like.

Reinvent The Wheel, But…

Don’t take a wheel and use it as a wheel. Use it as something else. Create a new game in which players roll a wheel down the hill to kill Bill (the human-shaped wooden tower). But make sure Quentin T. is cool with it before you name it that or else you might get sued.

Take an idea from one field and use it in yours. Maybe you saw someone from a different department in your school or place of work use a neat strategy to do something? Could you repurpose it and use in yours? Could you reinvent it?

Whenever you see something neat, something seemingly unrelated, think How can I use it?

Then, use it.

Reflect and remake

Failures increase creativity if you reflect on them, learn from them, apply this learning to improve upon the original ideas, and try again. Mr. Dennis, the most epic teacher ever who happened to be my 10th grade history teacher, always talked about the first Toyota coming off the boat in the 70s, not making it up the first hill it encountered, and going right back to Japan with that whole first shipment of US-bound Toyotas.

I did zero fact checking on this and maybe Mr. D was straight up lying, but the moral of the story was that when the Toyota came back much improved the next year, it proceeded to grab a major share of the US market it still holds today. So while failure may be embarrassing, it forces new solutions, which require creativity and lead to success.

So fail, because mistakes is what it takes. Then, reflect and remake your failures.

Up your creativity through this iterative process.

Move Toward Creativity

If sitting seems wrong to you sometimes, you’re right. The insidious act of sitting restricts blood circulation and reduces the flow of the beautiful, beneficial, and creativity-inducing oxygen to your brain.

So take fluffy for a longer walk. Opt for the stairs not the mall escalator. Get an adjustable standing desk and alternate between sitting and standing while working. Take your kid to the park and swing on the swings or kick/throw/hit a ball. If you despise exercise, biking is easier. Don’t drive to the nearby grocery store. Put on a backpack and walk.

Body movement increases blood movement, which increases oxygen movement, which increases the movement of creative out-of-the-blue thoughts in your noggin. This is called divergent thinking and science proves divergent creativity is where it’s at.

Oops… This was 12. Oh well. Hope you found them swell.

Key Takeaways

Creativity is a skill we can continue getting better at.
Becoming more creative involves deliberate daily practice. Learning, reflecting, and remaking are a few ways to stimulate creativity.
Being open to new experiences, forcing yourself to look at things from multiple view points, incorporating more physical movement, and creating new things will make you more creative faster.

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Hi! I'm Oskar.

I teach, write, and create to make teaching easier and learning simpler.

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tags / teaching teens, deeper learning, lifelong learning, learning, active learning, teacher resources, instructional resources, classroom strategies, in-person learning, distance learning, remote learning, teaching strategies, teaching methods, creativity, increasing creativity

More Open-Minded in 3 Steps: Examine, Exercise, Experience

July 02, 2018 / Oskar Cymerman

Doesn't it drive you nuts when someone just gets stuck in their way of doing something and wants nothing to do with a new, often better approach?

A child who refuses to try that healthy meal defaulting to chicken nuggets and french fries. A partner who won't take you up on your offer to go to the theater, because he says he hates musicals. A coworker who will not give the new faster approach a chance because she has been doing it the old way for 12 years and she's content. The list goes on.

You could call it being conservative or narrow-minded or close-minded but there's a reason ALL OF US are (at least sometimes) this way. I will get more into Why We Resist Change in a future post but it's important to mention that it's natural.

We are wired to resist change because our brain has evolved to protect itself and our body. Because conscious thought requires more energy, our basal ganglia, the part of the brain that controls habits and routines, creates neural networks that automate certain behaviors so they can be done unconsciously, freeing up mental capacity to perform the actions we're aware of.

We can develop new habits but it's hard. And once we do, unlearning and replacing existing habits is difficult as well. In a way, each time we try to change routines we are fighting our own nature.

However, natural isn't always beneficial. If we always stay as we are now and never take risks, opportunities to learn and improve our lives and impact those of others will pass us by. Thus, it is important to develop and practice our open-mindedness.

I recently watched the TEDxHaarlem Talk by Ricardo Lieuw On How to triple your memory by using this trick, which inspired me to think about my own open-mindedness and how I can help my son and my students practice it.

Turns out, we all can help our kids practice being more open-minded. If we treat it as a skill, we can become more open-minded ourselves.

It's important to mention that all of us are quite open to trying new things in some personal and professional arenas and not so receptive to trying new approaches in other realms of life.

No one is always close-minded or always open-minded but all of us can benefit from becoming more open to new experiences, approaches, and possibilities.

I created the infographic below for my new book Crush School Student Guide: Your Fun, Fast, and Easy Journey to Becoming a Smarter Student which is a series of lessons and activities designed for teens to learn how to learn more effectively scheduled to be published on Amazon on July 27th. The graphic uses a 3-step approach to practicing open-mindedness in any situation.

It entails consciously Examining our thoughts, behaviors, routines, and habits.

It calls for Exercising our minds in observing and considering new ways and approaches.

It requires Experiencing new things and applying new methods to our situations.

More Open-Minded in 3 Steps: Examine, Exercise, Experience

You can grab a printable PDF poster of the above infographic here if you'd like to use it in your home, office, or classroom as a reminder to practice open-mindedness.

Though dictionaries and thesauruses might say otherwise, creativity and narrow-mindedness are antonyms. You can't innovate without an open mind.

Luckily, practicing being more open-minded is possible with awareness - bringing the unconscious to the conscious - and then taking action. It's a skill we can teach our kids. And then they can... who knows?

You have the power to change lives. Use it often so they can change the world.

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And if you're looking for some success tools check out my books on Amazon.

Hi, I'm Oskar. I teach and write about learning for success.

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tags / teaching teens, deeper learning, learning, teaching, open-minded, innovation, creativity, increasing creativity, problem solving, diversity

The Curiosity Web a.k.a. Why Spiders Are Cool

May 06, 2018 / Oskar Cymerman

Are you afraid of spiders?

If you are, why?

Is it the legs? Sure they have a few more than us, but you know what else has 8 legs? Ticks. And ticks suck. So does Lyme disease. But spiders eat ticks. Maybe not enough to exterminate them all but still.

Spiders are helpers. They get the mosquitos and flies too. Both of those insects suck. Now I'm being yelled at by entomologists and arachnologists that theoretically only ticks and mosquitos suck while the flies bite. Oops, sorry, and bite me.

But my point is that spiders are cool even if they're not sexy enough for most of us. I get it. They look scary. But they're cool. Especially the ones you don't have to touch.

Alright, I admit it. I am softening you up for the visual you're about to see. I got this idea to show you the "Curiosity Path" only the path turned out to be a web. But don't blame me. Blame life and the human condition because Curiosity forms a Web of Awesome and spiders make webs. One thing led to another and...

So check out the astonishing spiders and the curiosity web they've weaved below. It'll help you understand why curiosity is so important.

The Curiosity Web: The Advantages of Being Curious.

Curiosity, especially the kind that has you digging deep into a topic, and the ensuing discovery lead to learning more, which leads to deeper knowledge, which leads to better expertise. When we stay curious and dig deeper our life experiences are more meaningful, we become more insightful and aware, which leads to better understanding and interactions with others and the world, which leads to better relationships.

Curiosity is how creativity is built. As you explore and learn you generate more and better ideas, which leads to better problem solving and more informed decisions. All of the above leads to success in school, work, and life.

Curiosity didn't kill the cat. It made it awesome. Don't believe me? Check out my previous post and graphic: How to Reawaken Curiosity (or Remain Curious Forever) here.

And what if you printed this graphic and put it somewhere your kids will find it? Will the spiders catch their eye? Will they be curious? Will they be able to get past the scary spiders and read what each one carries? Will it then be possible to talk about curiosity with your kids?

There's only one way to find out.

You have the power to change lives. Use it often so they can change the world.

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tags / teaching teens, deeper learning, learning, teaching, creativity, increasing creativity, imagination, innovation, futu, success skills, skills, skills for the future, curiosity, curiosity web