8 creative exercises to stimulate your mind

A way to stimulate spontaneity, originality and lateral thinking with exercises.

Sometimes it's hard for the muses to bring us the dose of inspiration we need, but with the right strategies we can help our minds receive the influx of creativity. with the right strategies we can help our mind receive the influx of creativity..

Below you can see a selection of creative exercises to make your way of thinking more flexible and spontaneous. You can choose the ones you like the most depending on what your objectives are.

1. Drafting technique

This technique is widely used by writers and advertising creatives, as it helps us to deconstruct an idea to reveal its most basic components and build again from there.

To carry it out, we will write down on a sheet of paper all the ideas that we think make up the topic to be discussed, we weigh the "gaps" of knowledge that appear among that jumble of information, document more about what is necessary and, from there, look for connections between those ideas that we have been writing down separately.

2. Good bad interesting

This method was devised by the psychologist Edward de Bonofamous for being the first to theorize theorize about the concept of lateral thinking.

It consists of selecting the idea we want to work on and thinking something good, something bad and something interesting about that element. Reviewing the number of ideas we collect in each of these three columns will help us to know if we are experiencing a bias when analyzing that idea.

Group sketching

This exercise is used to see the same idea from different angles thanks to group action.

To do this, we should get together with a group and start drawing the beginning of an idea on a sheet of paper. Then, all the sheets of paper change hands and each person continues the drawing started by his or her partner.. This is done in 4 to 9 steps like this.

4. SCAMPER

SCAMPER is an acronym created to make our texts or ideas go through a series of filters that will help us to a series of filters that will help us to make our ideas about what we have in about what we have in hand:

Substitute: What elements can I substitute for others that are not present in the original concept?

Combine: How can I combine ideas? What happens if we put this and this together?

Adapt: What can I modify to make it fit better with the whole?

Magnify: Which elements deserve more attention?

Put to other uses: Which elements can be used more efficiently?

Eliminate: Which elements could be eliminated without affecting the whole?

Reverse: Which elements can be rethought without causing serious problems?

5. Forced connections

First, we write down in two different columns a series of concepts with no apparent relation between them, numbered. Then, we choose one element from each column at random (e.g., with the help of numbers and dice) and we play to make them related to each other through an idea that we will have to create, no matter how crazy it may be.however crazy it may turn out to be. This is one of the most fun creative exercises.

6. The candle problem

This problem was created by psychologist Karl Duncker to observe people's ability to use conventional objects in novel ways. Some people find it such a difficult test that it can cause some anxiety.

To perform the test, a wax candle, a box of matches (with matches) and a box of tacks (also filled) are used. The objective is to the candle is fixed to a wall and can be kept burning without the wax dripping down to the floor. to the floor. If you want to know the solution, click here.

7. The six hats

This technique was also developed by Edward Bono, and it consists in consists of analyzing a problem from six different perspectivesIt consists in analyzing a problem from six different perspectives: logic, optimism, devil's advocate, emotion, creativity and general management. Thus, we must put ourselves in the shoes of these six "flat characters" just as an actor would do.

8. Questioning everything

This exercise is very simple: it consists of writing down all the ideas that make up a concept and start asking yourself how each one of them could be challenged. In this way you identify unfounded beliefs or you come up with funny and crazy ideas about the way in which thought has to be contorted to negate very basic and obvious ideas. It can be especially useful in the field of advertising, where lateral thinking is very important.where lateral thinking is very important.