The new year is a great time to experiment thanks to that “fresh new start” feeling. But if you’ve been burned by years of January resolutions that went nowhere, why not just commit to doing things a little differently this time round?
It’s not too late.
As the expression goes – the best time to start was yesterday… the second best is now
Regardless of when you start, we’ve gathered some exciting ideas you can use to switch up your schedule and boost your creative motivation.
Try them as a solo creative activity, or get your whole team on board.
1. Have a Vision Day
Start the new year with a vision day. This is a chance to gain clarity on what you (and your team) want to achieve over the next 12 months, refine that into clear goals, and start making progress from the very start.
If you’re working solo, try creating a vision board: a concrete representation of your goals that will help you to visualize the outcome(s) you want. Not only is this inspiring, there’s also evidence to suggest that visualization can help prime the brain to achieve.
If you’re working with a team, start by inviting everyone to work on their personal vision for the year. Then, expand it to think about what your team’s vision should be and how it fits into the organization’s wider goals.
Aim to summarize what you come up with in a brief vision statement that you can all refer back to. This will help you start the year from a place of group motivation and team alignment.
Don’t be afraid to have some fun with this. Colorful markers, sticky notes, and collage materials are all very much encouraged.
2. Collaborative Power Hour
Pick an hour every week that you can dedicate to your most important task or goal and then find people who will work alongside you in companionable quiet.
It harnesses the concept of “body doubling” AKA “parallel work”: the idea that working alongside others on separate tasks increases our focus. Everyone can benefit from the extra accountability and solidarity.
This is easy to do if you’re part of a team, whether you’re in the office or remote. But there are also options if you want to try it solo – you can sign up for a dedicated online co-working app or use body doubling livestreams on social media (or even remote coworking spaces).
3. Inspiration Exchange
Hold a quick chat every month where everyone contributes a tool, technique, resource, or piece of inspiration that has boosted their creativity recently. It could be anything from a podcast to a new app to something as simple as a quote from a book.
This activity encourages everyone to keep seeking out new things, exposing them to ideas and resources they might not have otherwise discovered. It also acts as a jumping-off point for valuable conversations about creative motivation.
This is very easy to do as a team – just make a small space for it in the calendar. If you’d like to try it solo, you could recruit like-minded creatives to join a group chat instead.
4. Wins and Why Ritual
This weekly ritual involves picking a “win” , such as making progress on a goal, something that went well, or something new you learned… and a “why”, something that reminded you of why you do what you do, wider goals, or the impact you can have.
Academics Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer have found that what creatives really need to stay motivated is to make progress on meaningful work.
The Wins and Why ritual reinforces that concept by highlighting both the progress made and the meaning behind it.
You can do this as a personal ritual by working it into your end-of-week routine. Or, you can try it as a team activity by holding a quick meeting or creating a digital space for people to share their responses.
5. Go Big on Celebrations
Once you’ve picked your wins, find fun ways to make a big deal out of them. This lets you harness the power of positive reinforcement. It also forces you to stop and properly appreciate the win and the effort and creativity that went into it, rather than just pushing on to the next thing.
As a solo creative, you can go for a double benefit by making your rewards things you’ve never tried before but would like to (novelty is great for creative thinking). As a team, why not try letting everyone vote for their favorite way to celebrate?
6. Quarterly Idea Swap
Get together every quarter to share ideas about new projects or brainstorm new strategies the team could adopt.
This means everyone gets a chance to be heard and to potentially see their ideas having a real, positive impact on the organization (motivating them to keep thinking creatively). It also means there’s a chance to reevaluate processes and road-test new ways of doing things that might benefit the team.
You can also do this at a solo level by performing a quarterly self review where you evaluate new ideas to see if it’s worth changing your priorities so you can pursue them. It’s a chance to think about your processes and switch things up if needed.
7. Creative Fridays
Set aside a couple of hours on Fridays to work on a creative passion project or to explore an interest that’s not directly related to your primary goals.
As well as giving you space to work on ideas and uncover valuable insights, this is a powerful reminder that creativity can be enjoyable (and even playful). You can also use it as an opportunity to cultivate your curiosity, something which has a positive impact on creative thinking.
If you can’t clear a large block in your schedule, you could still try doing this at a microlevel by devoting twenty minutes to nurturing your creativity whenever you can.
8. Creative Cup Leader
Fill your coffee cup with a dose of creative inspiration.
Nominate a team member every week to be the Creative Cup leader. It’s their job to share something interesting or inspiring (like a book, podcast, documentary, quote, great ad, or idea) every morning to get everyone thinking differently.
Everyone gets to start the day with a dose of creative inspiration.
If you’re working solo, find a daily creativity newsletter or podcast to sign up to. Alternatively, choose a different successful creative each week to be your personal creative lead and spend 5 minutes each morning reading their interviews or social media posts.
Never Be Afraid to Mix Things Up
It’s always worth experimenting with different activities and methods for encouraging inspiration, particularly when it comes to creativity.
Even if you try just one of these suggestions, it could get ideas flowing, improve your working relationships, and jumpstart your productivity and creative process this new year.
