Creative thinking: How To Develop Creative Skills?
By Julia Cavalheiro
Managing life with creativity is a very valued quality in our modern society. Therefore don’t worry anymore if you think that you were not “born with” creative skills. What if I told you that there are things you can do to train your creative skills?
An article in the Business Daily News, explains what the concept of creativity means:
“At the core, creativity is the ability to look at problems from different angles, connect and combine concepts, and challenge traditional assumptions. These are skills that require practice to master.”
Business News Daily
With this idea in mind, we can associate creativity with something that can be trainable, and therefore mastered.
Here are some tips to help you boost your creativity and eventually master these skills for your daily life. Because being creative doesn’t only bring benefits for work-life, but also brings joy and can help you deal with stress.
Pattern recognicion
If we start paying attention to situations around us, we can realize how most of them have similarities with each other. Training to perceive patterns is a way of understanding how things work, and therefore even predicting outcomes.
You might be asking yourself: “How do I increase my pattern recognition?”
The answer is by studying math, nature, art, mind games, or anything that will train your brain. Even playing Sudoku once a week can already help you develop this skill.
Make time for creative ativities
Schedule some time for creative activities can help you focus on them and change your mindset, from normal work to an activity that will inspire you.
Take risks and overcome a negative feeling
Starting a new activity or hobby can be exciting but at the same time challenging. Especially if you are the type of person who likes to be the best in what you do.
Start breaking this barrier, be willing to take risks with new things, that may or may not need you to be consistent to master this new activity. Try to also eliminate a negative feeling or self-criticism, that might block you from going further. Enjoy the process and try to have fun.
Brainstorm new ideas
Brainstorming can be a great tool because it organizes your ideas while developing your creativity.
Start by writing down your ideas and possible solutions to a problem. The main goal here is to generate as many ideas as possible in a short amount of time, after that try to refine your thoughts on paper in order to bring clarification and the best solution possible for your situation.
Keep a creative journal
It can be quite beneficial to start journaling. Because it will help you follow your creative process and track the ideas that might come during the day.
Journaling can also help you go back to your ideas and reflect on them, serving as an inspiration for your next projects.
Six Hats Technique
The “Six Hats” is a technique used to try to make a person look at a problem from six different perspectives, by directing six specific questions. The questions are as followed:
- The Black Hat: Use a negative perspective “Which elements of the solution won’t work?”
- The Blue Hat: Think broadly “What is the overall solution?”
- The Green Hat: Think creatively “What are some alternative ideas?”
- The Red Hat: Think emotionally “What do your feelings tell you?”
- The White Hat: Think objectively “What are the facts?”
- The Yellow Hat: think possivetelly “Which elements of the solution will work?”
Final Thoughts
By trying some of these tips, you can boost your creative skills and improve your problem-solving techniques.
Of course, always, try to look for the things that work the best for you. Creative thinking is something that can be trained, but each and every one of us learn in different ways.
