How to Be a Creative Thinker and Problem Solver
Want to re-wire your brain to be more creative and clever? Here's a short list of ideas.
[edit] Steps
- Force yourself to approach problems in unconventional ways. For instance, take a new route to work, or perform tasks with your left hand that you normally do with your right. This helps form new neural pathways and diversifies reasoning capacity.
- Watch movies, read books, and look at pieces of art in genres and styles you normally aren't interested in. Make sure you finish the whole thing (or if it's a painting, look at it for at least 5 minutes straight) and really try to understand the meaning behind it. If you discover you like a style or piece of art, read more about it.
- Do logic puzzles, such as crosswords, word finds, and sudoku. These can easily be found for free online.
- Look at dictionary.com's "Word of the Day" every day. Try to use the word at least five times during the day.
- Approach logic from different angles. For instance, convince yourself that you already know the answer, and try to "remember" it. Or think of potential solutions as "parents," and imagine "children" that are offspring of the most useful solutions surviving and having "children" of their own. A new computer system that thinks in exactly this way is solving major engineering problems with very little human intervention.
- look at the problem from the opposite end. the perfect solution would be ??? and work back to see how it could be achieved. I think this is what the previous point is saying but in different language.
- trust your brain to come up with the answer. put the information in then stop thinking about it,relax and do something else. when some solution 'pops up' don't dismiss it too quickly. what you have thought will have some bearing on the problem if it is not the solution right away.
- be confidant and do not be limited. trust in yourself the answer may go against convention.
[edit] Tips
- Don't get discouraged if your thought processes don't change overnight. Reward yourself for successes, and think of how you can apply your oversights to learn better next time.
- When you are complimented on a clever thought or solution, ask yourself (or the person who complimented you) what about it was clever. Incorporate that knowledge into your next attempts.
- Concentrate on the problem in hand. Write down all possible solutions that come in your down (even the most absurd ones!). Then start with canceling out based upon all your criteria (i.e. time, resource, capability, man-power etc).
- Try to observe & talk to people and ask them how they solve their problems. More than often we learn from others than actually doing it ourselves. Moreover, try to master the techniques of "borrowing" solutions.










