Feeling Stuck? Spark and Ignite Your Mind: Boost Creativity and Productivity

It's midnight and you're trying to spark some ideas or enter a workflow. It's something we all want to experience and be able to control, but alas, nothing.

Here are some ways I go about getting my brain to work.

Deep Thinking and Innovation

I find the best ways to achieve this is by following what Robert Greene (2013) mentions in his book, Mastery, doing something repetitive, dull, and easy. I first thought of this during a part-time retail job in college. An example of this is the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, where J.R.R. Tolkien developed his Middle-earth stories while grading papers as a professor, and Nikola Tesla had the idea of the alternating current (AC) system while taking a walk in the park.

Repetitive dull task: The idea mentioned is by doing tasks repetitively until you perfect them. Also, doing a task many times allows your brain to think more in the background about the task itself. This is mentioned in Robert Greene's (2013) Mastery, specifically in the section about repetition in both work and practice, and routine work.

The Act of Creativity

Creation in its raw form is a form of innovation. Try doing creative things that help activate other parts of your brain. Draw, paint, sew, sculpt, play music on an instrument, or build using your hands to physically manifest your thoughts. As a person who wants to increase their efficiency and boost their ways of being creative in problem-solving and thinking differently.

Creative Act: Creativity by exposing yourself to the arts, music, and writing promotes a different way of thinking. According to Jean-Berluche, Ducel (2024) Creative expression and mental health allow for better cognitive flexibility, adaptability, self-efficiency, and confidence, being able to handle stress better and can offer a stronger social connection and more.

Fun + Emotion into Action = Greater Output

Don't be afraid to have fun with an activity by yourself or with people. I found that by boosting my mood and thinking about things that would excite me while I worked and talking to my colleagues helped my eagerness to do the task. I was faster, more attentive, and efficient at what I was doing. Remember to be careful not to get distracted. Always take a chance and go to every social gathering activity, especially work-related because another instance this can occur is in work and personal events. For example, I remember watching that one episode of The Office where Michael convinces Jan to take out the client and have fun at a restaurant, then closes the deal at the end.

Have fun, boost your mood, and emotions while working on the task which will offer greater performance and results.

Healthy Lifestyle:
Sometimes it's not simply enough to have adequate sleep; try taking a walk, meditate, look into mushroom supplements, peppermint, or caffeine.

Healthy Lifestyle:
Usually involves things like sleeping 7-8 hours a day, eating balanced meals, and working out that can have a profound impact on your optimal performance and efficiency in our daily lives and work. Once the basics are handled, we can try supplements to further optimize our capabilities, for example, with a mushroom extract like lions mane, caffeine, and peppermint, which can have effects on memory, energy, and focus. Information came from various sources such as personal trainers, my own experience, the local supplement store clerk, and online.

I would combine a combination of these listed above, from a healthy lifestyle to deep thinking and innovation through respective and simple tasks, try acts of creativity such as art, and building things. Have fun and boost your mood while doing the action for a performance boost.

I invite you to check out the context and references below where you can look into more information on some of the things I mentioned above.

 

References:
 
Greene, Robert. (2012). Mastery. Penguin.
 
Jean-Berluche, Ducel. (2024). Creative expression and mental health. Journal of Creativity. Reference from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2713374524000098

 


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