Number 23

Creativity Exercises

Creativity Exercises for Expanding and Developing your creativity can be used each day for 15 to 30 minutes to an hour or two.

1. Sit down with a drawing pad and sketch drawings or symbols of things you did as a child that were creative.

2. Make a list of the things that your company or school have done in the past that were creative.

3. Choose your favorite time in history. Make a montage, collage or poster of images from magazines that illustrate creative things that happened during that period of history.

4. Write a dozen different title for creativity. 5. Make a list of 12 totally different famous people and then write down what would be their definitions for creativity. 6. Interview 12 strangers in one day and ask them for their definition of creativity.

7. Make a list of qualities or traits or characteristics that make something creative to you.

8. Take out 12 small pieces of paper and write down one characteristic of 12 different highly creative products. Then evaluate each of the 12 products using the 12 characteristics.

9. Collect pictures, photographs of 12 of your creative heroes or heroines. Then make a list of how they were creative and how creative they were for each of the traits you see the twelve people.

10. Take out a box of crayons. Use one crayon for each individual idea you write down. Now look completely around the room you are in and list everything that was creative at one time, when it was first made or bought. Use construction or colored paper to write you ideas down on.

11. Take a blank white t-shirt with you for a day. Also take some fabric marker pens with you. Every time you see something creative make a note of it on your blank t-shirt.

12. Fill a shallow pan of water about 12 inches by 20 or bigger with 1 inch of water. Place it on a table in a room with many things in it. Now with the fingers of the hand you do not usually write with write own the things that are creative in the space you are in, one at a time.

13. Write the names down of everyone of your relatives. Rank them by which ones are the most to not so creative. Then write out an example of how the more creative ones are or have been creative.

14. Make a similar list of friends from your entire life. This time rank them from list creative to most. Then write out why you think or thought the less creative ones were.

15. Go to a library and select books about 12 famous people you are inspired by. Take the books home and read one chapter in each book. When you are done write out examples of how and why they were or are creative.

16. Choose one of your favorite magazines you read. Select 12 products you find in articles or advertisements. They describe which ones are creative and how they are creative.

17. Take a tape recorder with you for a day and record every time you see some that is creative or was.

18. Stop 12 strangers as you travel through you day and ask them what are somethings that are creative in their lives.

19. Fill a pan with mildly wet mud. Take a stick and write out the times of day, week, month, year you are creative.

20. Over the internet interview 12 to 144 people you write to and ask them when they are most creative.

21. List a dozen companies that you classify as the most creative in their industries or professions. Examine them and their work during any particular year. When are they creative.

22. Examine a product from inception of the idea to the delivery to the customer. Make a time-line chart showing the various steps involved from inception to deliver. Then mark the times when creativity is important in the product's life.

23. During a 30 minute time walk around your office or home and pick up 12 items. Then list the various ways each of them is creative compared to the competition of their companies.

24. List 12 different professions, occupations, industries. Describe how are each of them creative. Then explore how they are similarly creative differently creative.

25. Take about 30 minutes to think about a mixture of cultures you have experienced. Ask how are they creative. How different is being creative in one culture compared to the others you are thinking about?

26. Ask yourself the following four questions and then examine your answers for differences and similarities.

Why do you think visual artists are creative? Why are musical composers or song writers are creative? Why are business people creative? Why are the best teachers creative?

27. To further develop your concepts of why of creativeness begin by making the longest list you can for why people SHOULD NOT be creative at specific times or in specific situations. 28. Make a list of 12 things you do every year and ask yourself why doing them more creative next year would benefit you.

29. Using each of the following words make a poster, collage, or montage that is 3 and 4 dimensional (parts move or change) that demonstrate the importance of each of them to the development of your creativity during the rest of your life.

a. Courage b. Passion c. Commitment d. Energy e. Other intelligences f. Entrepreneurship g. The whole brain h. Intuition i. Visualization j. Humor

30. Fill a pan with mildly wet mud. Take a stick and write out the times of day, week, month, year you are creative.

31. Over the Internet interview 12 to 144 people you write to and ask them when they are most creative.

32. List a dozen companies that you classify as the most creative in their industries or professions. Examine them and their work during any particular year. When are they creative?

33. Examine a product from inception of the idea to the delivery to the customer. Make a time-line chart showing the various steps involved from inception to delivery. Then mark the times when creativity is important in the product's life.

34. During a 30 minute time walk around your office or home, pick up 12 items. Then list the various ways each of them is creative compared to the competition of their companies.

35. List 12 different professions, occupations, industries. Describe how are each of them creative. Then explore how they are similarily creative and differently creative.

36. Take about 30 minutes to think about a mixture of cultures you have experienced. Ask how are they creative. How different is being creative in one culture compared to the others you are thinking about?

37. Ask yourself the following four questions and then examine your answers for differences and similarities.

Why do you think visual artists are creative? Why are musical composers or song writers creative? Why are business people creative? Why are the best teachers creative?

38. Make the longest list you can for why peple SHOULD NOT be creative at specific times or in specific situations.

39. Make a list of 12 things you do every year and ask yourself why doing them more creatively next year would benefit you.

DEFINE THE PROBLEM

40. Choose a problem from the headlines of today's paper. Brainstorm a list of 12 other things that the problem might actually be.

41. Collect 6 objects. Choose a basic problem you are working on. Randomly pick one of the objects and ask yourself how might your problem be like the object or vice versa.

DIAGNOSE PROBLEMS

42. Pick a problem from your past. Make a list of 12 different people who had nothing to do with the problem. Then write down how might they have defined your problem from their particular perspectives.

43. Pick a solution and list backwards how it was solved. They list 6 different ways the problem might have been understood at each stage or step.

POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS

44. Imagine your goal is to make the land around your house more beautiful and you have an unlimited budget. Generate 12 different ways to make it more beautiful without using plants or flowers that most people would think are strange.

Be fluent

45. Pick up an object and generate 12 ideas for what it might be used for.

Be flexible

46. Take the most unique of the 12 ideas and generate 12 more ideas that are from 12 different perspectives.

47. Take wild flights of fancy

48. Take one the most unique of the unique and generate 12 totally strange, unusual, weird, fanciful ideas. Strive to be Original

49. Choose a list of 6 to 12 ideas and make each one as original as you can.

ATTRIBUTE ANALYSIS

50. Pick up a pen and list all its attributes: tactile, visual, audible. Then create a new pen by changing one attribute at a time.

51. Choose a problem you had recently and list all its aspects. Think about all senses.

52. Search through the headlines of a newspaper and choose 6 problems and write 6 attributes for each.

CHOOSE A LETTER

53. Write the alphabet vertically on a piece of paper and generate the name of a famous people for each letter.

54. Using the alphabet generate a list of things.

55. While you are traveling find an alphabet of things as you are moving along. This is great fun in helping young children to learn the alphabet. A is for automobile, b is for bakery shop, c is for candy wrapper.....

WHAT A CLICHÉ!

56. Collect a dozen clichés and write 3 new versions for each.

57. Ask a group of children to finish a cliché. Show or tell them the first half and ask them to finish the cliché.

58. Listen for the clichés you use during a week and reward yourself with an ice cream cone or other dessert for finding 25 or more.

WORD MAGNET

59. Watch an hour of television switching from channel to channel every 3 to 5 minutes. Listen or look for words that stand out and list them. Then think about which of the words relate to world peace.

60. Scan a newspaper for a dozen words that jump out from the headlines. Then think about which of these words relate to helping your children do better in school.

61. Examine a challenge of yours for the key elements or words: nouns and adjectives. Then make a list for each of them listing everything that comes to your mind while you are thinking about each word, the original word and the words you begin to write.

MAKING SENSE

62. Focus on the sense of smell for 15 minutes. How many smells can you smell where you are.

63. Take a walk and focus on the color red. How many things do you see that are red.

64. Listen to a conversation and make a list of every reference to touch you hear any of the people make.

65. Focus on your tastes today at each meal. How many different tastes did you experience? Which tastes did you avoid by choice?

66. Walk around a room and touch the greatest variety of surfaces you can from smooth to rough to soft, hard, dry, moist. How many can you find in 12 minutes.

GOING PLACES

Traveling: virtually and actually, is the greatest creative sparker for me. I have been to 49 of the US states, 60 countries and several hundred cities and towns around the world. I deliberately travel and record my experiences in a journal and photographically. Also I often go on memory or virtual trips to take a break.

67. Pull out photographs from one of your best vacations and organize them. When you need to take a mental or emotional break pull them out and go back on your trip.

68. Collect photos, clippings, etc for a place you want to go some day and make a poster or display on a wall in your office. When you need to take a break simply sit back and enjoy your poster or bulletin board travelogue.

69. Set up a slide show on your computer to visit periodically to help spark your creative juices.

70. Collect travel brochures and put them in a desk drawer for use when you need to spark your creative juices.

71. Choose one of the roles that fits your life today and make a list of 6 to 12 things you can do to become a more creative....

72. Collect pictures of examples of one of the roles you will play in the future and make a 3 dimensional sculpture out of them to put on display in your office or home.

73. Interview 6 people from 3 or more of the role categories asking for how they continue to be creative.

74. Each week practice a new leisure creative activity you have never tried before.

75. Set up a Creative Manager, Teacher, Student mastermind group and meet once a month to discuss how you might become more creative as one of them.

76. Start a creative parent encouragement and enrichment group that meets once a month to help each other become more creative.

77. Interview 3 friends and 3 strangers and ask them what they want their futures to be like in 20 years.

78. Talk to a class of 5 or 6 year olds and ask them what they dream their futures will be like.

79. Hold a party for a group of college freshmen and have them come dressed as their future in 10 years.

81. Find articles in newspapers that predict what today would be in the future from 1900, 1950, 1990 and compare with today's reality.

82. Read science fiction books that were written 50 years ago and compare them with books written today.

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© 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2005, 2006 Robert Alan Black, Ph.D. CSP