7 Tips I Use to Spark My Creativity | Gretchen Rubin, Huff Post, Healthy Living

After blogger Rubin notes that everyone has differing things that prompt their creativity, she provides some creativity-producing strategies that might work for you ... because they work for her!

In summary, here they are:

1. Take notes. I have a compulsion to take notes as I read. I write down quotations and bits of information that catch my interest. ...
2. Follow my interests. ... Instead of focusing on what I "ought" to be doing, I allow myself to wander -- by buying an odd book, poking around the Internet, or exploring an unusual place. ...
3. Buy supplies. ... I encourage myself to make an occasional creativity-supporting purchase.
4.Draw an idea-map. This is a process of writing down ideas in a way that helps you see new relationships and possibilities. ...
5. Enjoy the fun of failure. ... Telling myself that I can enjoy the "fun of failure" has made me (somewhat) more light-hearted about taking risks. ...
6. Read random magazines. ... I love the feeling of possibility that I get whenever I browse in one of those stores that carries 500 different magazines.
7. Indulge my magpie impulses. ... When I have the urge to collect materials, articles, or information, I now indulge it. Although I generally fight against any stuff that could become clutter, as with note-taking, I find that these collected materials help spur my creativity.

I'll add a concept of creativity that I present at the top of all the pages in my main website: Garbl's Writing Center. It's a pencil. I think that "old-fashioned" writing tool is a perfect symbol for creativity. If you have an idea, write it down, try it out, see if it works. If it doesn't work, if it turns out to be a mistake, erase it. That's why pencils have erasers!

And then, of course, keep writing down your ideas, symbolically, and trying them out. Correct your error, fix your mistake, until you write something that works!

For more information, check out Garbl's Creativity Resources Online.