How to Develop a Daily Creative Habit So You Actually Solve Problems

Problem solving is a key skill to learn. Therefore, it's important to develop a daily creative habit, so you generate bettter solutions.

On a scale of one to 10 where one is the lowest, how would you rank your problem-solving skill? How would the people who know you the best rank your ability to solve problems? You have to solve problems every day, therefore, it’s important for you to develop a daily creative habit, so you can solve your own problems when they arise. The ability to solve problems is a skill you’ll use your entire life, and is a core skill the World Economic Forum says you need to thrive.

When you think of creativity, what imagery comes to life for you? Are you one of those people who imagine a eureka moment - Archimedes running down the street in his birthday suit screaming Eureka. But life's not really like that. There are creativity techniques you can use to develop a daily creative habit, so you'll likely encounter better ideas to solve your problems. Typically, in the creativity model, you gather information, process the information, let it sit for a while, then an idea often comes to you. But how do you develop a daily creativity habit?

Preparation is key. The quality of the ideas and solutions you generate, depends on the quality of the information you consume.

Questions to Answer to Resolve Meaningful Challenges

Before I delve into information consumption, there is something that I’d like to discuss first. Often when you read a nonfiction book, you have a problem to solve. Or you have questions that you’d like the book to answer. That’s a good thing. However, in the book, Turn the Page by Chris Brady, the author says a better thing to do is to first answer the following two questions, so when you’re reading any nonfiction book, your subconscious mind is looking for answers to the two questions.

What are your top five leadership and business challenges right now?
What are your top five personal, family, and life challenges right now?

3 Types of Learning

Turn the Page also mentions three types of learning. When you want to develop a daily creative habit, the type of learning you want to focus on is mystery learning.

Task learning: This is when you’re looking for specific answers while reading.

Problem learning: The person is given a problem to solve or figure out the answer to something by reading the book.

Mystery learning: Takes you to a deeper level because no one is telling you what you are looking for or even if you're looking for something.

If you’ve taken the time to write down your list of the challenges you’re facing personally and professionally, when you read, your subconscious mind will be on the lookout for any information that will help you to resolve those challenges. And with mystery learning, you have to figure out things for yourself.

Developing a Daily Creative Habit: Gathering General Information

You’ve created a list of urgent challenges that you need to resolve to accelerate your business and your career. And I’ve introduced you to mystery learning. The next step in the process is for you to cultivate a creative habit to ensure that you regularly encounter new ideas.

Like most creativity models, in A Technique for Producing Ideas by James Webb Young, the first step of the creativity process is to gather information -- the preparation stage. There are two types of information that you gather - specific and general.

Specific Information : This is information that is relevant to the specific problem or issue that you are trying to resolve. In this case, it could be the solution to the 10 challenges you listed above.

General Information : This is information from all fields. This is a lifelong activity that you perform. This is the focus of this article.

There are four other steps of the creative process outlined in A Technique for Producing ideas. However, when you want to develop a lifelong creative habit, it’s important to focus on gathering general information. Every day, you want to fill your mind with what Rohit Bhargava calls "brainful" media.

A common way to achieve that goal is to read every day to learn something new. However, you need more structure to the practice, instead of reading everything and anything.

Ways to Gather General Information

In this article, I’ll outline three ways to build your general knowledge, so you can develop a daily creative habit. You want to build your body of knowledge, so you can draw from it to creatively problem-solve.

Read Diversely: Read Across Disciplines

This is something I used to do intentionally, but somehow I lost my way. I’ve picked out several books to get me back on track. It’s important to read across disciplines because some problems and challenges you’re facing now may have already been solved elsewhere. And if you’re not actively seeking new perspectives you may not find them. When you read across disciplines, you’re more likely to engage in intersection thinking. And you’re more likely to find the best ideas and solutions at the intersection of different disciplines, niches, and industries.

Just to be clear, you can also read diverse journal articles or respected blogs across multiple disciplines. And of course the same applies to listening to podcasts. I have a podcast called The One Problem. Guests present a problem, and they have five to eight minutes to offer a solution. The entire podcast lasts 10 minutes or less. I have 21 episodes so far on a variety of topics. People tell me they listen to the podcast while doing something else. And they love the podcast because they’re so short.

Read Book Summaries Every Day

I always say to my clients and readers that book summaries should be a complement to reading the book. You read the summary of the book first then it directs you to the sections of the book to focus on. My suggestion to read book summaries every day is not at odds with using book summaries as a complement to reading books. There are times when you'll never invest the time to read specific books. It could be that you aren’t interested in the topic, or it could be for some other reason.

It’s during these times you want to only read the summaries with the intent of feeding your mind with general information you can one day call on when problem-solving. I have a lifetime membership to 12min Book Summaries. They have summaries of many books. Some books I don’t want to invest the time to read. However, I’m willing to invest the time - 1 minutes or less - to read the summaries.

I read a couple of book summaries each day and I take notes as I go along. I read the summary as I listen to the audio at twice the speed. Taking notes is an important part of the process.

Read Avil’s Bookish Notes Every Day

I have a membership site that I don’t really publicize because I’m still building out the content. What I call a Bookish Note is much more than a book summary. The Note includes a summary of the book, but it’s so much more. Based on the wisdom and knowledge I’ve gained over the years, I bring that to each Bookish Note to benefit the reader.

I also pair the book with other books in obvious and non-obvious ways, and I include a workbook when it’s appropriate. What makes the work I do with the membership site standout is that I group the Bookish Notes by theme to create courses. When you work your way through a course, you’re possibly learning a new skill. You’re taking in “brainful” media. I’ve been told that it takes time to digest each course and that makes a lot of sense to me. I recommend that you read one or two Bookish Notes each day, and take time to digest the information.

I’m offering membership at a steep discount as I build out the content on the site. You can buy a subscription here.

Final Thoughts: How to Develop a Daily Creative Habit So You Actually Solve Problems

Obviously, there are many ways to develop a daily creative habit. However, I’ve chosen these three ways because I think they’re manageable with any work schedule. Consuming general information every day will enable you to find more creative solutions to any problem or challenge you face.

Subscribe to my membership site!

Categories: : Reading, book summaries, personal development