By:  Paul Lee, Artist, Art Therapist and Consultant
MA (Art Therapy), BA (RMIT)
Copyright, January, 2010, All Rights Reserved

1. Less TV and Internet
2. Capture your ideas freely and immediately
3. Change Some of Your Daily Routines
4. Change Your Perspectives Regularly
5. Engage Your Right Brain Regularly
6. Engage and Enjoy Yourself in creative activities
7. Surround Yourself With Creative People, Things and Environment 
8. Sleep Well and Rest Well
9. Take Mind and Body Breaks Regularly

Time is a factor most people said they do not have enough time for creative activities. We have same amount of time (24 hours a day) but we are different because of our family, works and life. 

We are in a world that fills with exposure from television advertisements and Internet. When we are watching television and surfing internet, then we are usually becoming the receiving station. This is a station that bombarded by constant advertisements and full of information that trying to influence and control us. To prove this point, think about what determine our buying behavior? Do we buy things rationally? Do we buy things subconsciously because of influences from the media. Do not underestimate the possible psychologically influence that media from the TV and Internet. Beside psychological, it is also physical. What are we doing when we are watching television or over Internet? We are usually seated and maybe surrounded with some tip-bits, food, and drinks that filling our stomach even we are not hungry. If we do this activity frequently, we are likely to put on weigh and taking unwanted food. 

So, what does this link to creativity when we are watching TV and Internet. TV and Internet might affect how we think and behave. This conditioning might lower our thinking creatively and independently. A creative person tends to think independently and enjoys coming out many ideas. They spend time engaging many creative activities because of the joy of thinking out of the box and trying out new ideas. They would spend less time on TV or Internet. Think about how many great creations in the past were done without TV and internet. Hence, one of the tips is spend less time on TV or Internet. In other words, try to give yourself more time in doing creative things. Take for instance, if you can reduce one hour per day spending time watching TV or surfing the net, you can accumulate 7 hours per week and you earn yourself almost one full day for creative fun activities. If you think about it, we can possibility control how we spend our time for creativity and good health. You might be creative in coming ways to earn more time for yourself as well. 

2. CAPTURE YOUR IDEAS FREELY AND IMMEDIATELY 

The next tip is when you have extra time off for yourself and you could do something that is within your control. The next tip to find ways to capture your ideas freely and immediately. A simple and effective way is to buy yourself an A4 size sketchbook and a set of color pencils (24 colors will be sufficient). A sketchbook or notebook because it would give you maximum space to free your creativity. A notebook with straight lines might set an orientation for your left-brain to take charge. A blank white page is good technique to balance our left and right brain. For orientation of our right brain, which is the creative part of our brains; using colors is the creative strategy. That is why I strongly recommend a set of color pencils. Once you are ready with your basic capturing tools would make your creative self easily and freely when available. You can get these two tools from most of the stationery shops and it is very cost effective when you consider they would help you in your creativity. You can try this out by exercising the next tip. IMPORTANT NOTE: sign your NAME and DATED it on your sketchbook each time you captured something. It is also a good habit for protecting your intellectual property and copyrights. 

3. CHANGE SOME OF YOUR DAILY ROUTINES

The next tip is when you have two basic tools ready and now, it is time to try it out.  Try something that is within your control. I would recommend your daily routines such as the route that you used to travel to your work place or furniture in your office and room. Most people would not change much of their daily routines because they are comfortable and used to it. When we are used to something, it becomes a habit. Habits can be changed with things within our control. It is a good habit to change the bad habits to good and healthy ones. Saying is easy here but it is possible from psychological point of view. 

Open your sketchbook and pick any color that you liked to do this creative exercise. Look into the daily travel route of your morning or evening journey. Use colors and shapes to represent the route. This route could be your road name, bus stop, train station, building or things that symbolize your route. Try to use different colors to represent different points. Try to change the route because this might triggers some new discoveries when you made this change. Well, creative discovery is fun doing because we can discover new things just by changing walking route, for example. Take notes of small and insignificant discoveries including flowers, tree, shops, people, food, etc. The new discovery journey is a new creative journey for you.

4. ENEGAGE YOUR RIGHT BRAIN REGULARLY

Find the joy and fun in your new creative journey. Capture them creatively by using your sketchbook and color pencils. It is not necessarily that you must be create some products because creativity is a process that you can enjoy and be free. For example, you can do a sketch of new cloth or new machine into the sketchbook. It is not to sketch artistic works because this is your personal idea book. Try to use symbols, shapes, images and colors to capture your ideas. This is a strategy to activate your right brain regularly because creative brain seems to be highly active when dealing with symbols, images and colors. If you engage your right brain regularly, you might find more creative in your thinking. You can find ways to unleash your creativity by involving yourself with more right brain thinking and one of them, is the perspective. That is the next tip to be creative. 

5. CHANGE YOUR PERSPECTIVE REGULARLY

Changing your perspectives regularly would be useful for your creativity as well. How do we change our perspectives when we are conditioned to think in certain ways? One of the strategies is to exercise our brain to look at the same thing but differently. There are many fun images that offer this level of perspective shift. For example, I created this picture after an inspiration Creativity Does Not Age because age does not inhibit our creativity according to research. 
How many human beings can you find in this image in addition to the OLD MAN ENJOYING A CUP OF COFFEE?

Creativity Does Not Age - By Paul Lee, All Rights Reserved, 2009.

There are 18 known human beings in this picture. You can discover more if you look into this picture a few times from different perspectives. This is a good training for our brain to look into things from different sizes, angles, and perspectives. You can come back to this image to practice your perspectives. But you will need more and this is the next tip to stay creative.

6. SURROUND YOURSELF WITH CREATIVE PEOPLE, THINGS AND ENVIRONMENT

We can be more creative when we are surrounded with creative people, creative things and environment that encourage creativity. But what if you do not have these three elements? How can you achieve this strategy. One of the strategies is to find out and visit art exhibitions or art gallery because artists usually engage themselves into creativity while creating art. Their works might be interesting and you can be inspired. If you find this hard to do it, then, another suggestion is to visit public library and borrow some books with a lot of graphic and images. They are great source for embracing yourself with creative environment. Nevertheless, to be more creative, it is best for the person to be pro-active in doing creative activities and this is the next tip.

You get to be more creative when you are in the process of doing creative activities regularly. You can review your daily routines to find any activity is creative oriented or how to create extra time for yourself to take on some creative activities. Creative activities can be discovered around you. For example, you can spend about 10 minutes to read daily newspaper comic strips, they are great source to relax and enjoy. You can also try to create things at home with recycled materials. Other activities may be taking up some art workshops and creativity seminars. Some outdoor activities like making sandcastles and sand scribbling at the beach. Indeed, engaging more outdoor activities are great for physical health because we sleep well when we are physically exhausted. 

You can be more creative when you can sleep and rest well. It is because our body and mind need to be in a relax mode. When a mind feeling good while relaxing, creativity can be active. Indeed, some creative minds are not conscious. Take for examples, some people will quickly wake up, capture ideas in their dreams and continue to sleep. Take care of your body and mind, they would take care of what you needs as well.

Last but not the least, take good breaks for your mind and body regularly. Of course, the easier is to take leaves from your works and goes for holidays. A holiday might takes time to plan and come by, then, a short getaway like over weekends would be useful. There is also time off as a break for yourself such as going for a movie, a walk at the beach, cycling, listen to your favorite music, and the like. Creativity is rich when our mind and body taking recharge regularly.