When I was at the Pop Art exhibition in the Gold Coast (KR Connect 3rd May ’23, https://krconnect.blog/2023/05/andy-warhol-on-the-gold-coast.html), I picked up a pack of 50 cards by Nik Mahon. A pack that promised to Change Your Ideas – and to boost your Creativity.
Nik recommends that when you’re staring at the proverbial blank screen / piece of paper, take this deck, shuffle the cards and deal them one by one until a great idea is born.
The cards have a simple idea on one side and a well written explanation on the other side.
Here are Nik’s 50 Tips to liberate your creative self.
- Take a break
- Put it to bed
- Rephrase the problem
- Tackle the real problem
- Challenge your assumptions
- Reverse your assumptions
- Break up your routine
- Find a role model
- Hire a hero
- Employ a metaphor
- Reinvent the wheel
- Do the opposite
- Consider your glass half full
- Take a risk
- Turn it on its head
- Build it
- Visualise the problem
- Take a walk
- Expand the problem – or shrink it
- Keep it simple
- Have fun
- Piggy back ideas
- Adapt or combine
- Live the problem
- Try something different
- Embrace naivety
- Think like a child
- Use random words
- Play with crazy ideas
- Keep asking questions
- Work with what you’ve got
- Break the rules
- Follow your instincts
- Don’t prejudge your ideas
- Throw it away and start again
- Let your subconscious work for you
- Make the impossible possible
- Fly in the face of the acceptable
- Start at the end
- Connect the unconnected
- Bank your ideas
- Generate 20 ideas in 20 minutes
- Create a Mind Map
- Picture it
- Take a lesson from nature
- Learning something new every day
- Let your dreams do the work
- Set yourself a time limit
- Prepare to unlearn things
- Learn from the masters
