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Stimulate your creativity and create new possibilities
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If you've ever been told you should "think outside the box" and didn't understand exactly how to do that, you've come to the right place. We talked to research and clinical psychologist Mary Church to get the low down on what it means to think outside the box and how you can do it in your life. Stick around and you'll also learn the many benefits of thinking creatively and how you can train your brain to be more open, flexible, and creative.
Thinking Outside the Box
When you think outside the box, you throw out the usual assumptions people would make about a problem and look at it from a totally different perspective. Use techniques such as brainstorming, mind mapping, and role-playing to stimulate your creative thinking so you can more easily think outside the box.
Steps
Section 2 of 4:
Ways to Think Outside the Box
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Move to a different location. When you give the logical, left hemisphere of your brain a break it becomes much easier for the creative right hemisphere to take over. So take your problem-solving discussion outside, go to a public place, or even take a shower—something different to shake things loose. [3] X Trustworthy Source Harvard Business Review Online and print journal covering topics related to business management practices Go to source
- For example, if you're stumped trying to come up with a project for a class, you might take your dog to the park and try to put the project out of your mind—something might come to you once you give the left hemisphere of your brain a rest.
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Brainstorm ideas without judgment. Set a timer for 5 or 10 minutes. During that time, come up with as many solutions for your problem as you can without worrying about whether they're anything you would actually do. One of the hardest things to do here is to turn off your inner critic that tells you that you can't or shouldn't do something or that's a bad idea. [4] X Trustworthy Source Harvard Business Review Online and print journal covering topics related to business management practices Go to source
- Church agrees that "to think outside of the box... requires curiosity, rather than judgment." [5]
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Expert Source
Mary Church, PhD
Research & Clinical Psychologist Expert Interview. 6 August 2021. - If you're having a hard time letting yourself loose, try to think of a solution to your problem that would be illegal. While you're not going to actually do the illegal thing, having that idea up on the board shows you that literally everything is on the table.
- If the problem is just too broad for you to tackle, you might need to scale it back with parameters. For example, instead of brainstorming how to increase social media engagement, you could start by focusing on a single platform.
- Church agrees that "to think outside of the box... requires curiosity, rather than judgment." [5]
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Expert Source
Mary Church, PhD
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Look at the problem from a different angle. It's conventional to work from your starting point to your ultimate goal—but why not think about it backwards? Take a solution, then work backwards to figure out how you get there and what position you need to be in to get started down that path. [6] X Trustworthy Source Harvard Business Review Online and print journal covering topics related to business management practices Go to source
- For example, if you want to run a marathon, you might imagine that you've just finished your first marathon, then map out the steps it took you to get to that point.
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Draw a picture of the problem (or a possible solution). Drawing activates your creative right hemisphere and makes it a lot easier for you to see more creative solutions to problems that might have evaded you before. It also allows you to visualize things in a way that you might not have been able to do before. [7] X Research source
- If you're not an artist or not comfortable drawing, you might also mold something in clay or build something with blocks—these activities also stimulate your visual brain and get you thinking outside of the box. [8] X Research source
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Listen to other people's ideas. No one can ever completely separate their ideas from their background, experiences, and perspectives that make them who they are. That's why listening to other people is a really great way to think outside of the box—other people often have a totally different box than you do, so something that might seem off-the-wall to you would seem perfectly normal to them. [9] X Research source
- People tend to surround themselves with other people who are very similar to them because it's comfortable. Make an effort to surround yourself with people from diverse backgrounds so that you always have access to different viewpoints.
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Talk to a little kid about it. Little kids make all kinds of connections that adults wouldn't think of, especially when they're just playing and having fun. They don't have all of the assumptions that adults do, so they can see things more easily that would be considered unconventional to an adult. [10] X Research source
- Playing with children's toys can put you in this headspace as well and help you come up with new and innovative ideas that you never would have thought of before.
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Ask someone outside your field. This technique tends to work best if you're dealing with a problem at work or school. Your field or industry has many assumptions that you probably take for granted. If you talk to someone who isn't at all familiar with those assumptions, they can point out things that you might otherwise have missed. [11] X Research source
- Talking to someone who isn't making the same assumptions as you is a bit of a shortcut—you can also think through this and try to imagine what they would say, but that takes quite a bit of empathy.
- This doesn't just mean having a conversation! You can also read articles about how the problem is addressed in different fields or otherwise expose yourself to different methods.
- For example, if you're trying to come up with new plays for your football team, you might go to a rugby game and see if you can get some inspiration from some of their plays that you could adapt for your own sport.
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Roleplay different solutions to see how they play out. Acting a solution out can help you see the problems with it as well as how to fix them. You also might uncover a totally different solution that would actually work better than the one you originally proposed. [12] X Research source
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Try mind-mapping to find holes that could be filled. To create a mind map, start with one thing. Write the word for that thing on a page and circle it. Then, think about what makes up the thing in the circle. Write those things around the original thing and circle them. Then, repeat the process until you've filled the page. [13] X Research source
- Going backward like this helps you see the different parts that go into something so that you can more easily see where there's a gap you could fill or a process that could use some improvement.
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Go for a walk to boost your inspiration. Studies show that walking is a great way to get your creative mind going. If you're ever at a loss for ideas or struggling to find a creative solution by thinking outside of the box, a short 20-minute walk outside in nature can help. [14] X Research source
- If you can't get outside, walking inside can be just as beneficial, as can any other kind of movement. Getting up and moving around, even if it's just to do a few jumping jacks, will kickstart your creative mind.
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Start over with a clean slate. If you've ever thought you'd do things way differently if you had the chance to start from scratch, here's your chance! When you merely build on what others have done before you, you're likely not coming up with any truly new ideas. To come up with a new idea, you have to either be able to connect seemingly unrelated concepts or to figure out a different way to do something that's better and more efficient than the usual way of doing it. [15] X Research source
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Question how things have always been done. Outside-the-box thinking is, at its heart, unconventional thinking. You'll find unconventional solutions if you ask why those conventions exist in the first place. Whose ends do they serve? Who benefits from them? Are they even relevant anymore? [16] X Research source
- For example, if you're looking for a new and original breakfast idea, you might question why French toast is always sweet. This could lead you to the idea of creating a savory French toast dish.
Malcolm Gladwell, WriterBe creative without constraints. "If everyone has to think outside the box, maybe it is the box that needs fixing."
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References
- ↑ https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/the-power-of-forgetting/201404/surprising-exercises-to-get-you-thinking-outside-the-box
- ↑ https://www.inc.com/jim-haudan/3-ways-to-make-thinking-outside-box-less-rare.html
- ↑ https://hbr.org/2011/11/how-to-think-creatively
- ↑ https://hbr.org/2023/03/5-ways-to-boost-creativity-on-your-team
- ↑ Mary Church, PhD. Research & Clinical Psychologist. Expert Interview. 6 August 2021.
- ↑ https://hbr.org/2011/11/how-to-think-creatively
- ↑ https://www.inc.com/jim-haudan/3-ways-to-make-thinking-outside-box-less-rare.html
- ↑ https://www.inc.com/christina-desmarais/25-ways-to-be-more-creative.html
- ↑ https://www.inc.com/christina-desmarais/25-ways-to-be-more-creative.html
- ↑ https://www.inc.com/christina-desmarais/25-ways-to-be-more-creative.html
- ↑ https://www.inc.com/jason-surfrapp/6-ways-to-boost-your-creative-thinking.html
- ↑ https://www.inc.com/christina-desmarais/25-ways-to-be-more-creative.html
- ↑ https://www.inc.com/ayse-birsel/this-insanely-simple-tool-is-all-you-need-to-think-more-creatively.html
- ↑ https://news.stanford.edu/2014/04/24/walking-vs-sitting-042414/
- ↑ https://www.technologyreview.com/2014/10/20/169899/isaac-asimov-asks-how-do-people-get-new-ideas/
- ↑ https://www.inc.com/jim-haudan/3-ways-to-make-thinking-outside-box-less-rare.html
- ↑ https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/the-power-of-forgetting/201404/surprising-exercises-to-get-you-thinking-outside-the-box
- ↑ Mary Church, PhD. Research & Clinical Psychologist. Expert Interview. 6 August 2021.
- ↑ https://www.inc.com/christina-desmarais/25-ways-to-be-more-creative.html
- ↑ https://hbr.org/2022/03/what-it-means-to-truly-think-outside-the-box
- ↑ https://www.inc.com/christina-desmarais/25-ways-to-be-more-creative.html
- ↑ https://www.elmhurst.edu/blog/how-to-generate-ideas/
- ↑ https://hbr.org/2020/09/what-to-do-when-your-mind-always-dwells-on-the-worst-case-scenario
- ↑ https://ideas.ted.com/3-science-based-strategies-to-increase-your-creativity/
- ↑ https://ideas.ted.com/3-science-based-strategies-to-increase-your-creativity/
- ↑ https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/the-power-of-forgetting/201404/surprising-exercises-to-get-you-thinking-outside-the-box
- ↑ https://christinekane.com/21-ways-to-be-more-creative/
- ↑ https://christinekane.com/21-ways-to-be-more-creative/
- ↑ https://www.inc.com/jason-surfrapp/6-ways-to-boost-your-creative-thinking.html
- ↑ Mary Church, PhD. Research & Clinical Psychologist. Expert Interview. 6 August 2021.
- ↑ https://ideas.ted.com/3-science-based-strategies-to-increase-your-creativity/
- ↑ Mary Church, PhD. Research & Clinical Psychologist. Expert Interview. 6 August 2021.
- ↑ https://www.inc.com/christina-desmarais/25-ways-to-be-more-creative.html
About This Article
Article Summary
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To think outside of the box, try to learn new things and pick up new skills as much as possible, which will broaden your horizons and help you think of unique and unusual ideas. Also, exercise your creativity by doing fun, creative projects at home that require you to be resourceful. Even just changing up your daily routine by doing things like taking a different route to work or grabbing breakfast from a new coffee shop can spark your creativity and help you think of a new way to approach an issue. To learn how to come up with creative solutions to problems, keep reading!
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