4 Steps to Finding Time for Creative Thinking
We all have goals we want to accomplish with our clients, and we can find ways to achieve them through creative thinking and innovation. Finding time to be creative in this rapid-fire world can be a challenge, but the potential results are worth every minute spent. With that in mind, here are some suggestions for making time for innovation in your schedule:
Narrow your focus– Every client presents their own unique challenge. So rather than trying to create solutions for multiple clients at once, pick just one client per week. Then ask yourself what you would like to accomplish with him or her, and why it hasn’t happened yet. . Key questions to consider include:
- What is the background?
- Is this an opportunity?
- What would I really like to accomplish?
- What’s getting in my way?
- Etc.
Generate ideas– Now that you’ve analyzed the situation, take three or four ten-minute time slots and generate some ideas. Your ideas could be practical, absurd, wishful, or even incomplete. The point of this step is just to generate ideas, not create a solution. Get all of your ideas out of your head and written down. There will be time to evaluate them later.
Evaluate and finalize– In these thirty to forty minutes of brainstorming, you will generate about 20-25 ideas. Only three to five of them will likely be worth pursuing. Once you’ve identified them, work on them to make them actionable. By the end of the week you should have some new approaches to use with your chosen client or prospect. Then develop a corresponding action plan and you will be ready to go.
Make it a routine– If you do this every other week and account for time off, by the end of the year you will have hopefully developed creative ideas for 20 clients and prospects. It all starts with those three to four ten-minute time slots that were dedicated to nothing else but thinking about a single account.
We are often just too focused on doing and not focused enough on thinking. Allowing ourselves to do think more often results in more creativity, more innovation and more new approaches to build business. We encourage you to give it a try – the results will speak for themselves.
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Has creative thinking ever helped you come up with a winning solution? Share the story with us in a comment.
