Five bad habits that stifle creativity
Want to improve your creative problem-solving ability? Then stop letting these five things get in the way.
Waiting for "free time". Life is busy. If you wait until you have time to do creative work, it probably won’t happen. Creativity needs you to prioritise time to work on creative pursuits.
Waiting for "the right mood". Waiting for a time when we feel creative will not provide enough opportunity to practice your creativity. Showing up and doing creative work can often generate the flow that we need.
Lack of consistency. Creativity isn't a switch, it’s more like a muscle. It requires regular, small actions for it to become second nature. Without frequent effort, it’s harder to get it to work when you need it.
Not practising observation skills. Creativity often comes from noticing details, patterns, or unusual things that others overlook. If you don't practice observing the world around you, the pool of potential inspiration will be limited.
Lack of mental space for incubating ideas. Constant external input, particularly from digital devices, fills up the quiet cognitive space needed for your subconscious mind to process ideas, make connections and generate insights, which is a crucial part of the creative process.
Creativity thrives when we make it part of our daily rituals. Try journaling to capture new thoughts and ideas. An extra half hour in bed once a week without devices will wake up your creative brain. Or a daily “disconnect hour” with no screens builds mental space for incubating new ideas. Build in time for reflection by taking a walk, meditating, or staring out of the window.