4 Ways To Trigger Creative Ideas

Inspiration

By Todd Henry

Stimulate Creativity

It’s easy to get stuck in ruts when looking for new ideas. Sometimes it’s tempting to seek inspiration in the same places over and over again simply because they’ve worked in the past. But as we often talk about here in AC world, to experience “creative accidents” you need to develop the habit of regularly putting yourself in dangerous intersections.

Need an insight now, but the juices aren’t flowing? Here are a few places I’ve personally found especially effective in triggering new creative insights.

The Local Bookstore

They still exist? Sure! While it’s nice to have access via ebook readers to any book in less than a minute, online shops cannot compare to the stimulus-rich environment of a real life brick-and-mortar bookstore. I like to peruse topics and sections that have little to do with the problem I’m trying to solve and see if inspiration strikes. This sometimes happens from book titles, or from cover designs, or even from the unique groupings of titles that bookstores sometimes put on a table display.

If you have the luxury of getting out of the office, I recommend taking about an hour – with your most pressing problem top of mind – to peruse your local bookstore and see what it sparks.

A Good Flick

Just a way to kill a few hours? No way. Movies can also be a good source of narrative, motive and escape. More than once I’ve found my mind wandering during a movie because a new thought or idea was sparked by the dialogue or location. I’ve also left in the middle of a movie to make an urgent call to set things in motion for a new initiative.

By ceasing the act of staring at the problem and giving your mind a bit of time to decompress and experience something new, beautiful serendipity often appears. (And believe it or not, though they’re not my personal preference,sometimes silly comedies work best as they let you unwind and laugh a bit.)

City Walk

It can be tempting to keep your head down and avoid eye contact when navigating the city streets, but by playing “tourist” (a dangerous game, I know) you can see a lot that may otherwise go unnoticed. Make a game of looking for things that seem out of place, or that you’ve not noticed before. Be conscious of your surroundings. Your mind is wired to weed out irrelevant information to prevent stimulus overload, so you’ll need to be mindful of potential serendipity.

Keep your head up, bring your notebook, and don’t be afraid to strike up a conversation.

Dollar Stores / Discount Outlets

A repository of junk nobody wants? Maybe, but you can often find interesting product ideas and new ways of thinking about messaging by perusing discount shops and outlet stores. You’ll encounter products that you don’t often see on the shelves of most stores, some of them a little off-beat and priced to move. This can also be a great place to purchase inspiration and stimulus for team idea sessions.

As a bonus exercise, take your entire team to a dollar store and give each person a budget of $3 to purchase something to inspire new thoughts for a project. Bring the items back to the office and use them to generate ideas for your work.

Again, these are just a few methods I’ve used over and over to prevent staring at the problem and hoping a solution will appear syndrome.

Add some to the list! Where do you look for ideas when you need them?

About Todd Henry

Todd is the founder of Accidental Creative, the author of The Accidental Creative: How To Be Brilliant at a Moment's Notice, and an in-demand speaker and consultant for creative teams. Connect with him on Twitter or Facebook.

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Comments

http://www.journeyofworship.com Chris Gambill

Thanks for these ideas. I especially like the idea of taking the team and giving them each $3. I’ll have to file that one away for future use.

http://www.accidentalcreative.com Todd Henry

That one has worked well for us. Let me know how it works for your team!

http://twitter.com/j2narchitect Jason Nicholas

I sometimes will try to see the world through the eyes of my 5 year old. Seeing things from his perspective can certainly be enlightening and spark all kinds of creativity.

http://www.accidentalcreative.com Todd Henry

Agreed. As a father of three (8,6,4) I often find that taking time to play LEGOs, or build a world with them opens up a lot of thoughts/ideas.

Anonymous

Go to a coffeehouse and spark a conversation. Don’t force it, make it natural and you’ll be surprised where the talk goes to! Works like a charm.

http://www.accidentalcreative.com Todd Henry

Nice – I like this.

Vancerains

I regularly peruse Goodwills, thrift stores, garage sales, antique stores, and even dumpsters – just looking for interesting stuff!

http://www.accidentalcreative.com Todd Henry

Ooh – dumpster diving. I’ll have to remember that one…
Jenniferstone

dumpsters- not so much….but thrift stores, flea markets, garage sales, antique stores-all good

Nancy Cameron

Nice list. I’ve needed this lately!
http://twitter.com/dubyasquared wanda weithers

Just read that you are an obsessive notebook purchaser. Love it! I’m not alone. LOL. Thanks for sharing. :)

http://www.accidentalcreative.com Todd Henry

Nice – it’s a life-long obsession. I’m weening off.

Wade Kingsley

Putting something in your hands works. I use drumsticks (without the drums!) and tap anything around me… furniture, pillows, the desk, my knees.

My other trick is to throw a tennis ball against the wall. I learnt that from Toby on The West Wing :)
Jennifer Stone

people watching~ go to the mall, the gym, the beach, the airport…anywhere just watch what people are up to/ are the in groups or alone? are the shopping or ‘strolling’/smiling or frowning….you get alot from observing the ‘mood’ of others~
http://www.facebook.com/darcy.eikenberg Darcy Eikenberg

Facebook friends, both closer and distant! I set a timer to surf for 10 minutes, looking at not just what comes up as “top news” but also “most recent,” and I often get a spark of an idea of something I want to write about, look into further, or a question I want to ask of my friends and fans at my business page for http://www.RedCapeRevolution.com! The timer makes sure I don’t get lost and pull my head up hours later–and not get anything done!
jhalter

We like finding inspiration outside the industry we are working on . . . we recently found some interesting package solutions for the beauty care industry at a pet store! The ideas definitely needed some translation but that he how we get to some place new in the end.
jhalter

We like finding inspiration outside the industry we are working on . . . we recently found some interesting package solutions for the beauty care industry at a pet store! The ideas definitely needed some translation but that he how we get to some place new in the end.

Noel Payne

I agree, I am in the Video Production Industry and Stage Lighting, and lately I’ve been using Architectural/Photography to analyse light shadow and shapes. to

jhalter

We like finding inspiration outside the industry we are working on . . . we recently found some interesting package solutions for the beauty care industry at a pet store! The ideas definitely needed some translation but that he how we get to some place new in the end.
jhalter

We like finding inspiration outside the industry we are working on . . . we recently found some interesting package solutions for the beauty care industry at a pet store! The ideas definitely needed some translation but that he how we get to some place new in the end.
jhalter

We like finding inspiration outside the industry we are working on . . . we recently found some interesting package solutions for the beauty care industry at a pet store! The ideas definitely needed some translation but that he how we get to some place new in the end.
http://twitter.com/JoannSondy Joann Sondy

A walk. I live across from the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago and watching the animals is a great liberator of the junk that clouds my creative thinking. Additionally, a stroll through the Conservatory is another boost to reconnect with nature.
Jennifer Crutcher

Cultural Festivals that aren’t your own culture.
Steve French

Every now and then I go to the driving range. Something about trying to swing the club exactly the same to produce exactly the same result OR make a subtle change and see the effect it has seems to sharpen my mind and sometimes releases good stuff. And there are often some interesting, retired folk who are not in a hurry and have no agenda who will shoot the breeze.
http://twitter.com/andy_healy &E

What does it sound like? I’ve found putting on music that represents the tone I’m going for can help stimulate ideas.
Lila’s Twist

Conversations sometimes help tremendously. But of course, for me it’s got to be lack of sleep most days. At the same time sleep helps and does me a great favor because dreams are a great source of inspiration for me. The same when I meditate, ideas may come out of “nowhere” giving me a nice rope to “swing” from ;)
http://embracingcreativity.com/blog Sally Evans

Great ideas, Todd. Thanks for sharing them. I also like to pull images and words from magazines that attract your attention, without thinking too hard. It can trigger new and interesting ideas.
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Fractalshift

I have made it a personal habit of going to a book store and reading magazines and biographies that are intentionally chosen to represent contracting ideas from my own or are written for different fields…I liked that you included this because I’ve been practicing that for the last 20 years! I also make a habit of talking with really intelligent people in many different areas of expertise. I happen to be lucky in this regard with a large group of friends and acquaintances who work on different topics of scientific research while I work in the financial industry. Neither of us know much about what the other actually does and thinks each day at work so it often becomes a process of mutual discovery. Many times we have the same questions, just a different context. I think this kind of cross pollination is a great way to discover new ideas and viable solutions.
Yvon Beaubrun

To discover new ideas I use I open up the pages and read advertising. I follow consistent advertisers; because if they keep paying for ads they most likely are doing a good job. I usually weed out the bid dog advertisers because they have too much money to spend and probably don’t care about ROI. Since I am into technology I also use Flippa. Flippa a an ecommerce site for selling websites. Websites are sold everyday on Flippa from 100 bucks to millions. Lastly I look for script sites. For example Groupon is Huge but the platform that it runs on is relatively easily built; much like a wordpress site. If you can identify a need and market it correctly; BAM.
http://www.janyatsko.com Jan Yatsko

Play with another media or form of expression. If you paint, play an instrument or improvise a dance around your studio. If you write copy for advertising, paint or sketch what you want to communicate in writing. The idea is contrast in discipline.
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