People like the word creativity because it is a word that carries a certain feeling of positivity and energy.
It makes you feel like you’re not dormant, but your mind actively engages and embraces new directions.
Why? Well, according to Albert Einstein:
“Creativity is intelligence having fun.”
Essentially, creativity is about enjoying and exercising our minds, with the aim of finding new solutions or discovering new methods to address specific challenges.
In the world of today, everyone is in search of a creative means to solve problems and make progress. In the same vein, we can also agree that sometimes, during certain periods, when the knife edge of our minds becomes a bit dull, our creativity needs a boost.
Boosting creativity involves taking advantage of healthy routines, which are patterns of behaviour, capable of improving our thinking towards greater productivity.
Here are six healthy routines to boost creativity:
1. Reading To Improve Knowledge
It is impossible for me to write about creativity, without reading being at the top of my list.
I believe a consistent reader is constantly and continuously creative.
In the words of Albert Einstein:
“The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking, It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.”
You can compare the activity of reading to putting a torchlight over your thoughts. When you engage the minds of knowledgeable individuals through their books, you quickly identify areas of improvement in your own thinking, and naturally, you find new ideas.
I would recommend making an effort to read something every day even as little as one page of a good book, which can contribute a lot to your creativity.
If you are wondering what books to read that will help spark your creativity, we compiled a reading list for creative business owners that you might find helpful.
2. Eliminating Distractions
The challenge with creativity is often remaining focused and productive.
Sometimes there are a lot of distracting thoughts clouding a person’s mind which can easily prevent creativity.
“I’m here to build something for the long-term. Anything else is a distraction.” – Mark Zuckerberg
There’s no reason why anyone wouldn’t admire the creativity of someone like Mark Zuckerberg.
He built a world-changing platform like Facebook and reinvented others like WhatsApp and Instagram.
So it only makes sense that if someone like Mark Zuckerberg avoids distractions, then we should avoid them as well.
Distractions could exist in the form of unproductive associations, social media, emails, television or even burnout from your own work as a creative.
The first step to eliminating distractions is to identify them and to be honest about how they affect your daily life.
Then you can take the required measures for eliminating them and boost your creativity.
3. Resting From Work
Sometimes the problem isn’t that you aren’t working enough, it could actually be that you’re working way too much.
You might actually need a break, just a moment’s pause to process things. Allowing your mind to reflect, might just be the creative spark you need.
“Wisdom is knowing when to have rest, when to have activity, and how much of each to have.” — Sri Sri Ravi
Ensure to take out the time each day, to give your body the rest it needs, in order to boost your creativity.
4. Developing Your Ideas
“Any idea, plan, or purpose may be placed in the mind through repetition of thought.” – Napoleon Hill
There’s nothing helpful about creative ideas which are not recorded and developed.
It’s important to write your ideas and give yourself time to ponder about them and develop them because ideas do not come fully formed.
5. Silencing Your Inner Doubt
“Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt.” – William Shakespeare
The first step to silencing your doubts is admitting the fears holding you back, then after that visualize the success you intend to achieve.
When you choose to paint a mental picture of your preferred future, I bet you’ll be surprised how energized you’d feel, and those creative juices would definitely flow. 
6. Acting On Your Ideas
“To make great ideas a reality, we must act, experiment, fail, adapt, and learn on a daily basis.” – Jocelyn K. Glei
The sole purpose of being creative is to improve your work or to improve how you carry out your activities.
So creativity is not really useful to you if you’re not going to act on anything creative which comes to your mind.
When you settle on a creative idea, think about the first necessary step for that idea to become tangible, then take that step.
Conclusion
My guess is you’re probably aware of some of the routines mentioned in this blog post and you might be doing some of them, but it always helps to be reminded.
These six healthy routines are practical and achievable, and putting them into action is sure to boost your creativity.
Don’t hesitate to share your thoughts on other effective methods which have helped your creativity in different ways.
