We have all had a routine in our lives at some stage. Although it can help you be more productive during your day, routine is an enemy of creativity. This article explains why routine can restrict your creativity and presents an alternative approach to mundane everyday tasks.
Why routine is an enemy of creativity
Despite the different definitions of creativity, in its essence, it is about connecting two seemingly unrelated pieces of information in your mind. It can be knowledge that you consciously acquired, or it can be information that you unconsciously obtained.
No matter the quality of the stored information, your environment determines the very information you receive. After all, you can only absorb knowledge from your surroundings, whether it is the people you talk with or a book you read.
As a result, if you stay in one environment for a long, you would not have any new information that can help you be creative. And this is what is happening with routines. If today is similar to yesterday, there is no fertile room for creativity. That is not to say it is impossible to be creative. It just makes it unnecessarily challenging.
On the bottom line, there are millions of things happening around you at any given moment, but you only pay attention to a handful of them. For example, the sun is moving, the birds are singing, and your metabolism is working, but you often only pay attention to your cellphone.
How to approach your everyday tasks
Changing your routine is easier said than done. After all, there are daily tasks that you cannot avoid. They can be something as straightforward as brushing your teeth or even sleeping. Or it can be your work schedule which you may have little to no control or.
So the question remains: how can I be creative when I have to follow the same routine every day. Although this may sound like a dead-end challenge, there are still a few steps you can take to transform your routine into a tool to grow your creativity. And at the same time, to also grow as a person.
To start with, you can give more importance and gravitas to those mundane everyday tasks. It is all a matter of perspective, after all. A refugee would be thrilled to have the ability to brush his teeth using a mirror in his private fully-equipped bathroom. But because we have been doing that since we were born, we do not consider this privilege any important.
Another thing you can do is to accompany every mundane task with reciting affirmations or being aware of small negligible details in your environment. For example, you can notice the way a piece of dust dances in the sunlight. Or even pay attention to the shape of the light falling into the room.
There is beauty in everything. It is your choice to see it or discard it. And if you choose to see it, it can wake up an artist within you. It can unlock within you an enormous level of creativity you never thought possible.
Takeaway
- No matter the quality of the stored information, your environment determines the very information you receive. So, if today is similar to yesterday, there is less fertile room for creativity
- To use routine for your growth, you can start by giving more importance and gravitas to typical mundane everyday tasks
- There is beauty in everything. It is your choice to see it or discard it. And if you choose to see it, it can wake up an artist within you.
