This blog, is the fourth and final one on the creative competencies - SURROUNDINGS. How do you make your surroundings more conducive to being creative?
I suppose we should start with what we mean by surroundings:
- Your workspace
- Your thinking space
- The people you spend time with
So how can we be more creative in all of these areas? Here are just a few suggestions:
Your workspace - this does not need radical rethinking all the time, but maybe a few subtle changes like:
- Some inspirational quotations on your wall
- New stationery
- Rearrange the desk items
- Rearranging the room
- Move your workspace somewhere else for the day - I sometimes go to my local pub for a coffee and a lounge on their sofas
Your thinking space - this may be the same as your workspace, so try something new and different!
- Walk and talk with a colleague in the countryside, bounce ideas off each other
- Visit an art gallery or museum and take a notebook for any ideas that emerge
- Take a bus journey and record your new thoughts
- Keep a notebook or your smartphone by your bed to record any new ideas
The people you spend time with - do the people you spend most time with inspire you? NO? So what can you do?
- Limit the time you spend with those "mood hoovers"
- Increase the time you spend with enthusiastic and creative people
- Join a new group - like the Brain Friendly Learning Group where you will be able to bounce ideas off like-minded people
- Join a new social group to start a new hobby
If this has whetted your appetite for all things creative, then why not join us on the 24th of January in Leeds for the Creativity Olympics?
©Krystyna Gadd 2014
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