If you’re a content creator, you are without a doubt your company’s main creative force that pushes projects onwards to completion. From concept development to final production, you’ll be a key crux in the creative ideation process and in projects coming to fruition.

And to be honest, it can be the most downright draining experience of your life akin to being milked to death (figuratively and literally).

You’re not always going to have useable ideas at hand and you definitely won’t always be in the mood to produce your best work. But here are some great methods you can employ to get those creative juices flowing (last liquid pun, we swear).

Watch a S*%t-load of Netflix:

If you haven’t watched the latest Black Mirror Bandersnatch edition, do yourself a favour and watch it tonight. The sheer genius and effort gone into creating this content masterpiece is enough to get your brain working overtime (or have you feeling completely inadequate as a creative).

Either way, tv shows or challenging movies of the like are great for spurring new ideas and helping you improve old ones. You can pick and choose elements that can become a part of a project you’re working on as well as help you start with a new undertaking.

Some shows that we love include…

Black Mirror = For storytelling Mystery Science Theatre 3000 = For content writing Abstract = For visual ideas Star Trek Deep Space Nine = For….research purposes…..

Note: Did you know that as a freelancer you can deduct tax from Netflix. So long as you prove that it’s needed to stay relevant in your industry, you can get some sweet coin for your subscription! But only if you’re an actual struggling creative (?_?)

Work Within Limits:

If you’re struggling to make something of all the opportunities at your disposal, try doing away with most of them. Actor John Cleese likened creativity to an elusive wild animal that needs to be constrained; while artist Phil Hansen, stated that his shaking hands were a constraint that actually projected his career rather than hindered it.

Ignite your creativity by putting limits on yourself. You can give yourself a shorter time frame to get your work done or aim to use less resources in order to challenge yourself. The lack of options are a sure-fire way to spark your creativity as you try to complete the task at hand by being resourceful.

Our favourite creative piece created within constraints would be Rolf Nelson’s profound haiku.

“Haikus are easy, But sometimes they don’t make sense, Refrigerator,”

Eat, Sleep, Exercise, Repeat:

The best way to keep yourself in great creative shape is by keeping yourself in great shape PERIOD.

Put away the burgers and the unnecessary long nights. The only way to make sure your mind is in optimal shape is to ensure you’re getting enough sleep, being active and eating well.

Fuel up on healthy meals and remember to workout frequently. An article in Psychology Today likened sweat to “WD-40 for the mind”, making the cogs and hinges of your brain move better to produce fresh ideas.

Here’s an incredible TED talk by Dr. Neal Barnard who talks about how certain foods and activities can help the brain. Yes, he does talk about these foods in relation to Alzheimers, but the rules still apply for brain activity. Food for thought, literally.

Think Backwards:

If you’re in an enviable position where you may have a punch line in mind but need to create a journey to reach that point, you’d best think backwards. This technique was utilised by the writers of The Grim Granary, a set of poems for big and little kids first released in 2010. A triumph of the pun-tastic, the writers would often have the final line in mind and work backwards to create more lines that would eventually set the reader up for the final spiel.

One of their most memorable pieces would have to be a poem about a sadistic doughnut. It goes…

“He was colder than icing he was sinister you see, <-End point Not soft nor warm like a doughnut should be.<-End point I once knew this doughnut, who was really, quite mean, <-End point Cause he didn’t have a heart, just empty space in-between” <- Start point

The writers are soon to release a new edition of their Tim Burton-esque poems under a different moniker this year. You can follow their progress via their Instagram here.

Force the Connection:

Like a relationship that you know is dead but you try your best to keep it alive…

Sometimes, creativity comes from forcing connections between two disparate things that don’t ordinarily go together.

Steve Jobs stated that connections are the fuel of creativity and that nothing is truly original. That takes a bit of pressure off the artist to produce something the world has never seen before. It now just means that you’ll have to make a new connection between two separate ideas to suit your needs.

For example: Sunlight and a plastic bottle have nothing to do with each other. However, based on a need for better lighting in rural Philippines, “Solar Demi” was able to make a connection between the two and create an ingenious lighting solution for families, brightening their homes and lowering the cost on their electricity bills.

While the result isn’t exactly an original idea in that he didn’t create the plastic bottle, or the sun (thanks God!), it is original because he was the only person who forced the connection and combined the two.

As content creators, we know it can be hard churning out creative ideas to help your business stay ahead of the game. Luckily for you, the team at King Content makes it our business (quite literally) to put our noggins together to create unique solutions for each of our clients. Don’t do it alone, get in touch with our team of creative geniuses today to start working on a creative plan for your business!