4 Tips to Increase Innovation and Creativity in Your Work This Spring

Those of us with long winters (Upstate NY anyone??) know that this time of year you start to get cabin fever – you feel the need to get outside and break free from the hold of winter. By this time in the year we also tend to feel a bit worn out, needing something to spark our creativity. So, here are 4 tips to increase your innovation and creativity this spring:

1. Study Another Industry: What could be transferrable to your work from the way photographers do things? Sculptors? Automobile companies? Sports? Find an industry that interests you and notice they ways that successful people and companies market themselves, organize themselves, etc.
2. Take an Online Course/Listen to a Podcast: Online courses and podcasts have exploded in popularity in recent years. Podcasts are often free – explore the many topics from your smartphone podcast app or a website like Stitcher. Online courses may be free or paid. Explore offerings from udemy, edX, and Coursera. What skill(s) could be helpful to your work? What do you want to learn about?
3. Experience Art: Try a new art gallery. Go to a new concert venue. Experience new kinds of art that you haven’t encountered recently.
4. Set Aside Time: Creative work that will lead to innovation often requires deep work, which for most people, can’t be done between the 10 emails you need to reply to, the 3 phone calls you need to return, and the social media you need to catch up on. Deep, creative work is best achieved when you set aside the time for it. Schedule it in your calendar if you like scheduling. Or just remind yourself that you are going to spend a certain part of the day (it could be 45 minutes, it could be 3 hours) dedicated to creative tasks that require focused work.

Now, go be creative! 🙂