(Today’s blog is a guest post from my daughter Ashley because I’ve been at the hospital all day with my father-in-law who we finally got home and settled tonight just in time to get a call that our daughter-in-law is in labor with my second grandbaby! No sleep for me tonight!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
DISRUPT YOUR ROUTINE TO JUMPSTART CREATIVITY – by Ashley Hill<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On my way to class today I turned on my TED Radio Hour podcast and listened to an episode called \u201cJumpstart Creativity\u201d. Tim Harford, writer and economist, suggested a simple tool that can help us draw out creativity from within ourselves \u2013 learn how to cope with a little mess. This means doing things that are purposefully contradictory to our daily routines, make us feel a bit uncomfortable, and might even flat out frustrate us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He shared an example of a study\nwhere they gave two groups of students the same handouts during the course of\nthe semester. The only difference is that one group\u2019s handouts were written in\nTimes New Roman font (standard and very easy to read), while the other groups\nwere written in Comic Sans italicized (bouncy and difficult to read). What they\nfound is that the group of students with the Comic Sans handouts did better on\ntheir final exams. Why? Because they had to slow down and work a bit harder, so\nthey learned and retained more. These tiny disruptions helped them solve\nproblems and become more creative. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He also shared about Brian Eno, a Rock\n\u2019n\u2019 Roll composer who works with artists\/bands like David Bowie, U2, Coldplay,\netc. What does he do to make them better? He makes a mess and disrupts their\nprocesses. He developed a deck of cards with different instructions that he\u2019d pull\nout during his sessions. One card might say \u201cswap instrument roles\u201d (drummer on\nguitar, singer on drums), or \u201cmake a sudden unpredictable action and\nincorporate it\u201d. The musicians hated the cards. He mentioned that one time Phil\nCollins got so frustrated that he started throwing cans across the studio. However,\nsome of their greatest hits came from these sessions. The takeaway? Just\nbecause we don\u2019t like disruption doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s not helping us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The final example was about some\nmajor roads in London that shut down for 2 days. This forced people who\ncommuted the same exact way to work every day to drive a different route. After\nthe main roads opened back up, a small percentage of people never switched back\nto drive their normal route again. The shutdown actually helped them find\nfaster routes, and ultimately changed their daily routine to drive a better\nway. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
How many things do we do that if we were forced to differently, we would never go back? Today, my invitation is to find something in your routine that is small and simple (taking the same elevator, walking the same route to the bathroom, using the same drinking fountain, talking to the same people at work) and do it differently. We might all be surprised by the new circumstances, opportunities, and outcomes that could jumpstart our creativity! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n\n\n\n