3 Easy Ways to Improve Your Creative Thinking This Summer
You might find yourself with some extra time this summer, in between summer job shifts and other responsibilities. Here are three ways to make space for new ways of thinking.
Attempt a new skill you’ve never tried before.
Trying something new can help you experience the world from a new perspective and find fresh creative connections. Checking out a class for something out of your normal routine is a great place to start. Perhaps you could try a new style of workout, cook food from a different country, volunteer in a community garden, learn the basics of a new coding language, and more.
Check out your local library or park board for information about community classes, or find videos on YouTube, Edx, or Skillshare. Or, even better, ask a friend who you know enjoys that skill to show you some of the basics.
Here are some ideas if you’re not sure:
Learn more about American Sign Language
Explore what it takes to become really good at singing
Try to knit or crochet a gift for someone, or attempt embroidery
Attend a class on car mechanics
Check out a course on marine biology or how to take care of an aquarium
See if the local Department of Conservation is offering any Naturalist classes or hikes
You don’t need to be an expert, just try a few new skills for fun and learn more about what you like to do! You never know what inspiration it may spark.
Read a subject you don’t know much about.
Hear us out: Reading can take a lot of different forms besides just long textbooks or chapter books. You may or may not love reading, but chances are, there is something out there that could spark an interest in something you may have never considered.
What if you:
Saw your favorite movie in a fresh light by reading through the screenplay?
Experienced a new city through the eyes of a photographer’s photo book?
Learned more about what it takes to write social media copy that sells by reading a marketing magazine?
Listened to the audiobook autobiography of one of your favorite sports heroes?
Read through all of the lyrics of one of your favorite albums to find new insights you hadn’t noticed before?
Listened to poetry created over the past few years to find something that resonates with your experience?
Discovering new angles from which to view ideas can create opportunities for creativity.
Of course, your local library is a great place to find new ways to connect with the written word. Ask a librarian if you’re not sure where to start.
Be okay with feeling bored sometimes.
If you don’t have much going on some days, it’s okay. You don’t have to fill up all of the free time you might have gained during the summer. In the day-to-day flurry of school activity, it can be hard to find time to slow down and just stop to think. Manoush Zamorodi, author of Bored and Brilliant: How Spacing Out Can Unlock Your Most Productive & Creative Self, said, “to think original thoughts, we must put a stop to constant stimulation.”
It’s hard to be creative when you have an endless stream of information coming at you. And even more significantly, it’s hard to know what you think and feel about the world when you don’t get a chance to actually, well, think about it.
Going on a hike or walking in silence can be uncomfortable, but silence is where you can find the space to think, feel, problem-solve and generate original ideas. It might not seem like much at the moment, but the small moments can add up to something amazing.
If you want to go a bit further in planning your best summer, check out our Vision Planning Worksheet!