Picture this. You have set aside a few hours to plan what you want to achieve in the next quarter. You have everything at the ready – paper, different colored pens and pencils, hot coffee.

You sit down and open to a blank page, pen poised. Nothing. Blank mind.

Can’t think of anything to write. Can’t think of any ideas..

Don’t know where to start! Gotta think of something! I’ve set this time aside especially!

We have all been there. Sometimes the ideas flow easily. Other times they don’t. What to do…

Don’t worry, there are many different techniques you can use to get your mind working and spark the creativity fire. Here are a three you can try next time you have set aside some planning time to generate ideas of what you want to achieve in the next quarter.

1.  Brainstorming

Meaning literally to create a storm in your brain by generating ideas quickly one after the other, this technique means you need to generate your ideas and then assess the ideas to see if you have come up with any good ones. You can use a couple of techniques to brainstorm individually.

One is to write down the topic and then spend five to ten minutes listing every single associated idea with that topic. Some ideas will be thrown away and others will be modified or used. The main concept of brainstorming is to generate as many ideas as possible in a short space of time.

2.  Mindmapping

Mindmapping uses key terms and phrases and links them in a graphic way. If you tend to be a visual learner, you’ll find this technique extremely useful because you end up with a picture at the end of it. To successfully create a mindmap, you start with a clear piece of paper. YES – get away from the computer screen!

Draw a bubble, circle or box in the middle of the page and write your topic in it. Then draw several lines out from the bubble and create several smaller bubbles at the end of each line. In each secondary bubble, place a key term or phrase that relates to the topic.  Then under each secondary bubble, write as many ideas as you can that relate to that key phrase.

Once you have completed the process for each secondary bubble, you can then get out some colored pens and draw interconnecting lines to ideas that relate to each other. This can be used to give you a structure for your plan or whatever you want some fresh ideas on on and can help you divide your ideas into weeks or months that go together. Using a mindmap can not only generate ideas, but helps you link them together so that the structure of your plan flows smoothly from one idea to the next.

3.  Reframing

This is a great technique to use when you are particularly stuck for ideas. Not everything in our plans are within our comfort zone and familiar ways of thinking. Using the reframing technique can encourage you to generate ideas by reframing the question or topic you want to cover about and by helping you to see the topic from different perspectives.

You can create a simple grid, with a question or topic box in the middle of the page and four boxes around it. Then think of four people who might be related to the topic and would have a different perspective on it. If you are thinking about your marketing, for example, you might consider the perspectives of the clients, the suppliers, the competitors and alliance partners. All of these people would have a different perspective on the issues and problems relating to your marketing. Then you can make a list of what each group of people’s concerns are most likely to be.

Using the reframing technique can help you to generate many ideas on what to put in your plan. You may like to plan for different audiences, using each perspective as a starting point.

These three techniques are useful for thinking about and generating ideas on specific sections in your plan. Giving yourself time to think clearly and creatively about idea generation can also help you to think about the structure of your business and how ideas will be linked in your work. This makes you a better small business person too.

What do you do to keep the creative juices flowing? Do you set aside time each week, fortnight or month to think about and plan your business goals and achievements?

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Can you remember the last time you were happy?

Where you could not help but smile or laugh out loud? Where you had a song in your heart and a skip in your step? Where you were content and at peace with yourself and the world?

Do you think about what makes you happy?

Are you working towards or on your happiness? And if not, why not?

I think sometimes as small business owners we are concentrating so hard on starting or building our business we forget how important it is to be happy. Think about it – our business is our passion. Most of the time we love every single minute we spend working on and in our small business.  Yet if we took a moment to think about whether we are happy I wonder what the answer would be.

Take a moment now to think about it. How happy are you?

If you answered very, that’s wonderful. If you weren’t too sure here are some tips from Dr Tim Sharp of the Happiness Institute in his ebook “20 simple tips to be happy now”. Click on the link to go to the Happiness Institute website to download and read the rest of the tips.

• Tip 1 – Make happiness a priority. Where is happiness on your list of priorities? If it’s not at the top of your list then you are letting other things get in the way of you feeling good
• Tip 4 – Do things that make you happy. As Tim says it may sound obvious but we often forget to do things that make us feel good and give us pleasure. Put more happy things in your day, everyday
• Tip 8 – Utilize your strengths. Do the things you are good at and love. Don’t just focus on improving your weaknesses. By focusing on your strengths you increase your chances of success
• Tip 13 – Socialize and interact with others as much as possible. You’ll have more and better quality relationships and increase your level of happiness. This is really important for people who work from a home office
• Tip 18 – Manage your time and priorities. Make sure you are doing the things that are important. We feel much happier if we believe we have more control in our lives

These are just a few of the tips that I liked and believe to be a real contributor to happiness. Give them a try and see how they make you feel.

Most importantly, as Tim says in his extra tip – make happiness an integral part of your life.

What do you do to bring happiness into your life? I’d love you to share you thoughts.

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Running a small business takes a lot of energy. I find the more energized I feel, the more creative, innovative and productive my day tends to be. I also find I’m more ‘in the flow’  when I am feeling energetic. Here are some of my favourite ways of getting and staying energized when tackling my tasks for the day.

Get Up Out Of The Chair

If you have been sitting in your chair staring at your computer screen or notepad for some time, you’ll find that mental blocks become far more frequent. Our bodies are designed to move so get out of the chair for at least five minutes every two hours at a minimum.  Even just doing a ‘lap’ around the house (or around the block) can be enough to get energized again. Stand, stretch and move your body for a great, quick energizer.

Get Out and About

Getting some fresh air is a great way of getting energized and feeling fresh. If you have a laptop computer, go for a walk and find a nice scenic spot to sit and think and write outside.  If you don’t have a laptop, make sure you get out of the house every day to meet people, get fresh air and remember that there is a real world out there.

Small business owners working from home often end up feeling like they have become a recluse but simply getting into the world is easy. Go and buy a coffee from a local café and you’ll be more productive when you return.

Enjoy Revitalizing Music

Music can be an easy way to get energized. Play something with a bit of rhythm and you’ll be bopping along in your chair. Music also helps people to block out other distractions like the sound of traffic.

Eat, Drink and Be Merry

Whenever our blood sugar level drops, we are more likely to feel fatigued, weary and flat. Productivity tends to drop dramatically if we haven’t eaten or drunk anything for a while.  Give yourself a break and eat or drink something to keep the energy levels high.

Laugh. Whenever I have a mental block and just can’t seem to get into the task at hand, I’ll read something funny to have a mental break. It really helps get the mind working again.

Exercise (Both Physical and Mental)

The body is designed to move frequently, and unfortunately many of us lead a sedentary lifestyle. Get your body moving and you’ll find benefits including and increased attention span, feeling fresher and increased productivity. Getting the blood moving around the body from exercise stimulates the blood moving around the brain too, stimulating creativity.

Mental games and exercises can also stimulate creativity. If you are experiencing a mental block, do something different for a short time to get your mind thinking in another way or pattern. See things from a new perspective to clear your mind for better decision making on what to do next or how to best complete a task.

Use these tips to help get your energy levels higher, increase your creativity and productivity, and to enjoy your business more.

What tips do you have to keep the energy in your day?

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You may not have thought about it much before, but colours can make a big difference to how creative you are.  Psychologists have studied the effects of different colours for several years and have discovered that certain colours are more advantageous to have in rooms or environments when you are looking for creativity.

When you need to think about ideas for your small business, whether its problem solving, new products, what to write in your next article or how to grow you business you can use the colours below to spark creativity.

At the very least, you may wish to wear a shirt in the right colour as it can subtly affect your mood. Use different colour pens and pencils to increase the colour impact. If you have a choice of rooms, choose the room with the most creative colours in the paintings or prints on the walls. You may even like to use coloured paper to write on to create the perfect environment for creativity.

Here is how psychologists describe the effect of each base colour on our psychology and the impact the colour can have on your creativity:

Blue

Blue is the colour of peace and tranquillity and can increase wisdom energy, according to some colour psychologists. Studies have shown that judiciously wearing blue tones can lower blood pressure. I find it especially useful to wear a light blue shirt on a deadline day, as I find I tend to be less stressed. If you and your team has been feeling the pressures towards the end of the project, wearing a light blue shirt could provide an emphasis on stability, harmony, and order.

Many scientific studies have proven that people are more productive in a room with blue tones, which is why blue carpet is popular in meeting rooms. Lighter blues are better than darker blues though, as the darker shades of blue can evoke sadness or depression in some people. A bright blue or lighter shade of blue can exude confidence and create harmony.

Red

Although red is an energising colour, you should use it sparingly in a creative environment. A splash of red colour is more conducive to creativity than a whole wall painted in red. Typically, red enhances self-assurance and produces an illusion of fantasy.

These can be feelings that are helpful when brainstorming, but because red also stimulates passion, so if you are working with a team you could end up with a team who is tense and argumentative if there is too much red around. Red can be both energising and fatiguing, so use red judiciously. Wear a red tie or scarf to add a splash of red to the environment, without the colour becoming overwhelming.

Yellow

Yellow is also a stimulating colour and can provide an energising lift to the environment. However, like red, yellow can be a fatiguing colour to the eyes, and if too much of the room is yellow can be draining rather than uplifting.

Yellow communicates happiness, warmth, and joy, but you should use yellow as an accent colour in an environment when you want creativity to shine, rather than paint the whole room yellow.

Yellow is renown for being intellectually stimulating, so it’s not a bad colour to have in some areas in your working environment. Accent a lemon yellow colour with light blue in the room to create a good colour combination for creativity. The yellow lifts your spirit and the blue provides a calming influence.

Green

Green inspires unity, motivation, concentration, and balance. It’s one of the best colours to use when you want to create a creative environment. As the colour most associated with nature, green is both restful and tranquil, and restores energy. Since colour psychologists consider green to represent fertility, using green in your creative environment could fertilise and encourage imagination.

Use light green coloured paper when you are in brainstorm mode to write notes on and see if the colour has a positive influence on your levels of concentration. (Note to self: go out and buy green paper!)

Some researchers have discovered that laying a transparent sheet of green plastic over reading material increases reading speed and comprehension, so if you are providing reading material to your team with detailed information on technical aspects of the project, try printing the data on the light green paper.

Who would have thought blue, red, yellow and green could be so useful to our businesses! So when you are next wanting to call on your creative muse, think of using colour in your environment to promote creativity, energy, and inspiration.

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Do you look forward to walking into your office each day?

Is it a place where you feel you can do your best work?

It’s important the work environment you walk into and work in every day is set up to allow you to be creative, as well as dedicated and tenacious.

Small Business owners who mostly work alone need an atmosphere that allows isolation to become creative rather than boring and dull. You spend a lot of time in your office and it should have an ambiance that is conducive to quality work.

The majority of small business owners use either a laptop or desktop computer and obviously need a good space to set up the computer. A comfortable chair with a cushioned back is a must especially if you spend a long time each day sitting in front of your computer.

Besides designing the work area for ergonomic comfort also ensure your creative side is catered for. Clutter around the computer area is not going to promote a clear mind that allows ideas to be generated easily. The environment should ward against any sorts of distractions, such as clutter, noise and bad light.

This means you need to be organised, and have a clear space to work in. If you are using books for research, have them nearby, but limit the amount of items within your immediate ‘eye space’ near the computer. Keep your files neat and up to date to avoid excess disorder.

Ensure the lighting, both natural from outside with windows and electric lights, is adequate to prevent your eyes from getting sore. On dull or grey days, you will need additional light within the room. Add a lamp near your desk area that you can turn on when natural light is not bright enough. Working in a darkly lit room is not only bad for your eyesight, but can be depressing, which is certainly not an emotion that is advantageous to doing quality work.

If noise is a problem, you may like to add to your creative atmosphere with soft background music. This helps to block out other, more distracting noises, such as traffic going past.  Music is also relaxing and soothing and aids concentration for some people. Avoid songs that you love to sing along with as this means your mind is focusing on the song and not your writing. Classical music works well as background music.

Your work environment should allow for creativity, even away from the computer.

One of my favourite tools in my office area is a large whiteboard. If you don’t have a whiteboard, buy cheap A3 art paper and blu-tack to the wall.  I use different coloured marker pens to draw and write on the board, for many different reasons. Sometimes, I use the board to brainstorm the ideas surrounding the work I’m doing. Sometimes, I simply create an outline of the tasks to be completed, to add structure to my work and make the work easier for me to complete.

Sometimes my whiteboard holds a to do list, with the most urgent or deadline items in red, as this keeps me motivated to cross off or rub out my list. This is more common on days when I just do not feel like working and need to meet deadlines. I give myself a couple of small tasks and rejoice as the to do list gets smaller on the whiteboard.  The different colour marker pens add colour to the room where I work in too.

Creating a good environment to write in is essential for successful small business owners and entrepreneurs. Find what motivates you and ensure it’s included within your surroundings. Make your work space uniquely yours, well lit, clear and free of clutter.

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