by Kelvon Yeezy
The ability of generating recognizable and new ideas defines creativity. In freelance, like any other business, creativity is very essential to get your skills expanded to please and satisfy clients. It gets freelancers out of the overcrowded marketplace.
Mark Zuckerberg’s series of killer creative and innovative ideas made him the owner of the most popular social media network, Facebook.
Steve Jobs turned Apple into the world’s most valuable consumer-facing brand with is creative virility. He implemented new ways for people to interact with technology.
Creativity is a natural talent that everyone is born with. The only difference is that certain people are confident about exploring their ideas while the others are not. In this article I’ve listed 5 actionable tips to boost creativity.
1. Try New Things
It’s fairly easy to be attached to habits that you have on a daily basis. These habits can turn you more practical to perform your freelancing duties; the bad side is that they can hinder creativity.
In order to be creative, a freelancer needs to try out new things and avoid staying confined in the same routine, day in, day out.
If you are freelancer writer who writes content for websites, you can take plunge into writing an e-book in a topic of your field of expertise or perhaps try working with the basics of Photoshop designing because creativity may occur by trying out those new things.
2. Collaborate with Other Freelancers
One of the best ways to expand new ideas is through discussion with other freelancers. If you feel lack of creative stimulation, collaborating with a freelancer who shares the same interests or somebody who is in the same freelance specialization as you are, is a viable solution.
Collaborating ideas with other freelancers is misunderstood by many. It is not a principle of “scratch my back I’ll scratch yours.” It is about helping each other and working together to achieve a certain goal.
Since there is too much competition in the freelance market, freelancers tend to hide their ideas and avoid sharing with others. And, that is certainly a hindrance to creativity.
3. Make a List and Save Your Ideas
Generating ideas is a process that varies from person to person. The “aha!” moment that gets people in a real wisdom mode, doesn’t occur simultaneously for every freelancer. For some it often occurs during a shower, reading a book and for others while meditating, listening to music, etc.
We tend to easily forget ideas due to short memory loss. Some of the times, an idea pops in your head but the next time you stumble upon a new one, you literally forget the previous, and so on.
Well, it is unpredictable and somehow erratic; therefore, it is extremely important to be ready to save your ideas when they unexpectedly come in your mind.
Notebooks, sticky notes and note taking apps: Evernote, Catch, and SpringPad are some of the tools I use to save my ideas when the “Aha!” moment occurs.
4. Exercise Regularly
Freelancers stay long hours in front of screens. That can lead to common hazards: back ache; fingers full of pain and eyes craving for some rest. Therefore, doing exercise regularly can help you a lot.
Doing exercise not only gives fitness to the body; it also gives the ability of generating new ideas and gets you thinking outside the box.
Researchers suggest that by exercising you can reduce the levels of cortisol in your body.
Cortisol is a stress hormone that influences the “fight or flight” response to stress. At the same time, it is a psychological barrier that stifles the brain from generating ideas.
High levels of cortisol and poor health lead to stress. This unwanted feeling is a burden to freelancers, and everyone should avoid it by any means. That is when exercising comes into play. It also removes stress, helps relaxing the brain, and limbers up the mind for a smooth flowing of ideas.
5. Declutter Your Workspace
The environment you work on poses some effects on the output of your creativity.
A cluttered environment not only destroys your creativity, it also gives you too much distraction. It can be in several forms: junkie desk, untidy desktop, stationery items everywhere, and so on.
In order to maximize your creative output you ought to set up an organized and uncluttered environment that can help your ideas to flourish easily. Apart from that, an uncluttered workspace can give you some sort of inspiration and at the same time allows you to stay focus, productive and creative.
Conclusion
I believe that every freelancer is creative—we are all born with tendencies of being creative. We just need to explore these tendencies. The tips above will help you become a more creative freelancer and develop habits of creative thinking.
