Way overdue, I know.
So, before I get into the meat of this thing, let me give you a little word of advice: if you sign up to audit a course on EdX, pay attention to the time frame on it. If it’s a 3-week course, EdX WILL ONLY GIVE YOU ACCESS FOR THREE WEEKS. So, even if you’re only halfway through, you STILL LOSE ACCESS TO THE MATERIAL. WHICH IS A GIANT PAIN IN THE–I digress. Anyway, as you can probably guess, this has happened to me with this class, which means I either have to drop the $200 for the course material, or create a new account and hope for the best. I wonder what Creative and Critical Thinker Professor Mike would do in a situation like this…? Anyway, cautionary tale told. Let us move on.
So, to refresh the deets on this particular course, it’s EdX’s Critical Thinking & Problem Solving, taught by RIT’s very effervescent Mike Johansson. TBH, I love this guy. Wonder if RIT offers any online courses other than MOOCs… (UPDATE: They do.)
Notes:
Mike’s 10 ‘in-the-moment’ Ways to Deploy Creative Thinking (In the course, each one of these points includes a link to an interesting article that relates to and/or supports the concept. I’m not including these, because I want you to GO TAKE THE COURSE!)
- Tactile activity: play with Legos, baby toys, Play Doh, or something like that. Moving your hands around can spark creative thoughts.
- Doodling with purpose: draw a random shape on a sheet of paper. Add to it, and give it a name. Then, rotate the paper and give your drawing a new name. Make your brain re-frame the idea. Keep at it.
- Word play: combine words, reorder them, make real or new words and come up with what they mean. An example might be starting with the words ‘dog’ and ‘rainbow,’ which makes ‘dogbow,’ ‘raindog,’ ‘raindogbow,’ and so on, and can lead to things like ‘rainbow puppy,’ ‘pupbow,’ ‘rainpup,’ ‘sunpupper’ and so on. The cited article includes a fun exercise using ‘random word stimulation’–I gave it a try. Maybe I’ll snap a pic and show you.
- Do something boring or tedious: clean out your gutters, vacuum, organize a pile of shoes, or something dull. Apparently this makes your brain want to ‘wild out’ as some used to say, maybe–I’m not sure if there was actually a ‘d’ on the end of ‘wild’ in the (then) vernacular–and you get new ideas and thought paths.
- Stare off into space… on purpose: he says do this and clear your mind. I’m guessing this is then supposed to spark unprovoked thoughts and ideas. There are 2 (two!) articles cited on this one.
- Listen to or watch EVERYTHING with purpose: you’ll notice patterns and the hyper-observation will make your brain pick up on things you never noticed before. But you’ll also probably have to do this in short bouts, because it sounds tiring.
- Make lists of opposites of the thing you want to resolve: Mike uses the example of when you’re trying to name something. Describe the concept in a couple words and then start listing off opposites of those terms. It’s just occurred to me that I don’t know if he means to give something a new name, like something you developed or made, or if it’s when you’ve forgotten a term and are trying to remember it. Probably the former, but there’s a word I always forget and I’d like to try this, just to see if it helps. (UPDATE: Almost certainly the former; I was trying to find the word and my list was small and frustrating. I tried a Google search but have no good way for defining the word in a specific enough manner to narrow the search results. I’ve texted my boss because I know he knows it. UPDATE to the UPDATE: Discussion with my SO got me there–the word is ‘attrition’; apparently my boss also had a hard time remembering it until he woke the next morning, just as John Cleese mentioned–sleep on the problem.)
- Play music you don’t love: playing unfamiliar or less-often-heard music can stimulate new or unexpected thoughts.
- Use all five senses to describe any item on your desk–I’m gonna go ahead and stop you right there. Do NOT lick anything on your desk. If you have some prepackaged food or candy, that’s one thing, but I swear if I see someone licking their stapler…
- Flip through a creativity notebook: Apparently how to make/keep a creativity notebook is addressed in another, presumably later list, but I can say that I used to keep notebooks with quotes and other significant things written or taped into them, and have been considering getting back into the habit. Right now I’ve got a set of small, identical softback notebooks. I use each one for a different purpose such as recording my work hours, meal planning ideas, finances, and the one most germane to this idea: the front of the notebook just reads “REMEMBER.” And, I write things in there that I either want to or need to remember such as new books to read, foods to try, or ideas to address later. Flipping through it, the book titles in there caused my mind to wander to other thoughts and ideas, so I’m calling it at least somewhat of a creativity notebook. So, I’m sure I’ll find out more later, but for now I’m going to go out on a limb and say that making a “Creativity Notebook” is as complex or as simple as you want it to be.
Thoughts:
As you may have noticed, I’ve not been posting as much recently. First off, I’m sorry. I don’t really have a reason except to say that I wanted to spend more time with my family and I seem to be more tired lately, hence fewer waking (and blogging) hours. I’ve not been as engaged with the MOOCs I’m in lately, either. My brain seems to be in overdrive in terms of wanting to create and experiment with new ideas, but only while I’m busy doing something else. Ever have that problem? Silly brain, get with the program that you yourself are managing. Anyway.
Do you have a particular favored method for cooking up new ideas? Do you feel particularly inspired somewhere, or by a certain type of music? I know we’ve all been on lockdown and it’s been rough. Have you come up with a way to keep things fresh? When all of this first started, we were supposed to be taking a trip to Italy–that’s right, one of the initial epicenters of COVID activity. Obviously, that trip had to be canceled. So, as a way of saying “sorry” and trying to make the best of it with our kiddos, we had dinner ‘in Italy’ one night, with a carefully selected menu, Italian music, and mood lighting. They loved it. This branched into the concept of ‘international food nights’ in our house, wherein we’d pick a country, find a dish or two to try making, turn on some music representative of the region, and enjoy a new meal together. It sparked conversation, we found some new favorite meals, we explored new places and topics (even if only via the internet and maps), and made the best of a weird situation.
Do you feel more creative at a certain time of day? I think I’ve read before that one of the best times to write is when you’re groggy/sleepy. I guess maybe our natural inhibitions/inner editors aren’t cogent enough at that point to hold us back? I’m going to go ahead and leave this here. That way, I can move right along to the next idea and, hopefully, post.
Take care,
-hxrg
Decalcify Your Brain 