Working hard will only get you so far. Working creatively will get you ahead. Whether you’re trying to get a promotion at work, running your own business, studying for an exam or simply carrying out the chores of everyday life, there are always creative ways to make the process easier. Once you start thinking this way, life gets a lot easier. Here are just a few ways to embrace working creatively.
Find your learning style. Learning is an essential part of life. Whether you’re getting to grips with a new job, taking a course or seeking advice to further grow your business, you need to be able to take in all the new information that’s thrown at you.
Everyone learns at different rates, however everyone also has their preferred style of learning. Some people are audio learners and take in things being spoken to them either through someone talking to them or an audio guide. Other people are visual learners and prefer diagrams, graphs and visual demonstrations. There are practical learners who need to get hands on with every task in order to learn it. And there are verbal learners that prefer to write everything down.
Once you know your learning style, you can start processing information more quickly and effectively. If you turn out to be a visual learner and are struggling to understand a school subject or get to grips with a task at work, it may pay to start drawing diagrams, asking for visual demos or taking photographs if you can.
Use other people’s research. To solve a problem effectively, you need to do your research. The most successful people don’t just rely their own personal research but the pre-existing research of others. This includes everyone from famous critics trying to argue a point and rich entrepreneurs trying to find new improved ways to conduct business.
The internet has made this research much easier, with many people putting it voluntarily online. If you’re a business looking to do some market research, you may find that another business within your trade has already published analytics online, giving you a headstart on where and how to focus your marketing. Similarly, for those swotting up for an exam, there are online resources such as GradeBuddy Study Documents which are essentially donated study notes from former students. Instead of having to write your own study notes, you may be able to download some of these to do your research of off.
There are of course times when using other people’s research or indeed replicating it action-for-action could be considered stealing or fraud, and so it’s important to use such research as a template and apply it to your own cause. This will show the right balance of intuition and replication.
Structure your work. Careful planning allows you to get on with the job at hand and get every task done on time. Most of us our lives are laid out for us through hourly work rotas and school timetables, but there are many times when we need to organize our time ourselves.
This becomes more of a responsibility at work, in which we may need to juggle several tasks at once and find the best way of prioritizing them. However, students can start to develop good organisational skills early, by organizing their private study time. Starting a plan at the beginning of each day and keeping to this can help you get everything done. There will always be tasks added to the bill that we have to somehow squeeze into our day—allowing for these spanner-in-the-works moments by keeping an hour free each day can allow these tasks to be completed. If by the end of the day there have been no surprises or emergencies, this spare hour can then be used to get extra work done and overachieve – or alternatively you can reward it to yourself as leisure time.
Speed up processes with technology. Technology is constantly finding new ways to make our lives easier. Gadgets are being developed in all fields to speed up menial tasks involving everything from accountancy to cooking rice. Apple’s early tagline ‘there’s an app for that’ is now truer than ever—there are already over 30,000 apps in the Apple Mac store speeding up every admin process you could possibly think of.
Next time you are struggling with a time-consuming tedious task, consider whether it would be possible to speed up what you’re doing with technology. Search online and see what comes up—you’ll probably find what you’re looking for. If not, you may have just come up with a revolutionary idea for your own invention.
Know your optimal work time. Everyone has a different optimal work time. Some people are early birds who are able to get the most done in the morning. Others are more productive in the evenings when they’ve had the whole day to generate ideas. Fitting your lifestyle and work around these optimal times can cause you to function better and succeed more.
In a job with fixed working hours this might not be possible, although in many careers you may be able to find a solution. If you work in a bar but find you work better in the mornings—a change of career to a café or a coffee bar might be better for you. If you’re an accountant who works better at nights, you may be able to negotiate a way of working from home—such a job is digitally based and so can be effectively carried out from anywhere. Proving that you can work better during these times is sure to encourage an employer to keep you on this rota.
Take more breaks. Scientists have proven that our brains are only able to focus intensely on a task for 90 minutes. After that our brains and our attention spans start to tire out and we need a break to refresh them.
Regular breaks aren’t guaranteed in most careers—but we needn’t take too long a break. In fact, working in twenty-five minutes bursts with a five minute break, known as the Pomodoro Technique, is thought to be one of the most effective methods of working.
For those that can, napping is thought to be even better for our brain function. This is because we store short-term memories when we sleep. After an intense study session or a training day, a small nap could help get all that information you’ve just crammed into your head to stick.
And of course, in the grander scheme of the things, holidays are needed to help us completely rejuvenate our brains and bodies.
Spend time with nature. Growing scientific research has also found that we’re more motivated when outdoors than indoors. Many schools have been experimenting with holding classes outside and have found it can reset children’s focus levels for when they go back indoors.
This can also be applied to work. If you work from home or run your own business, why not do a bit of work in your garden on a hot summer’s day. As for those that have to commute to work, getting out of the office for lunch and eating outdoors could have some of the same refreshing effect.
Mia Guerra
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