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Music can keep things engaging. Rewarding yourself also helps make things more enjoyable. Both of these can be used with technology.

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Technology can allow breaks to be more enjoyable.

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Technology can help make things that might be boring fun. Because technology allows you to look at different perspectives, it can help keep things more enjoyable.

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This article was co-authored by Paul Chernyak, LPC. Paul Chernyak is a Licensed Professional Counselor in Chicago. He graduated from the American School of Professional Psychology in 2011.

There are 12 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page.

How you deal with challenges will often determine your success and happiness. If you're stuck on how to solve a problem, try defining it and breaking it into smaller pieces. Choose whether to approach the problem logically or whether you should think about how the outcome might make you feel. Find ways to creatively approach your problems by working with other people and approaching the problem from a different perspective.

Community Q&A

If you start feeling overwhelmed or frustrated, take a breather. Realize that every problem has a solution, but sometimes you're so wrapped up in it that you can't see anything but the problem.

Don't turn away from your problems. It will come back sooner or later and it will be more difficult to solve. Common sense can help to reduce the size of the problem.

About This Article

This article was co-authored by Paul Chernyak, LPC. Paul Chernyak is a Licensed Professional Counselor in Chicago. He graduated from the American School of Professional Psychology in 2011.

Updated: December 28, 2019

To solve a problem, start by brainstorming and writing down any solutions you can think of. Then, go through your list of solutions and cross off any that aren't plausible. Once you know what realistic options you have, choose one of them that makes the most sense for your situation. If the solution is long or complex, try breaking it up into smaller, more manageable steps so you don't get overwhelmed. Then, focus on one step at a time until you've solved your problem. To learn how to manage your emotions when you're solving a particularly difficult problem, scroll down.

Thanks to all authors for creating a page that has been read 1,179,737 times.

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How you deal with challenges will often determine your success and happiness. If you're stuck on how to solve a problem, try defining it and breaking it into smaller pieces. Choose whether to approach the problem logically or whether you...

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Seven Steps for Effective Problem Solving in the Workplace

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Problem-solving and decision-making. Ask anyone in the workplace if these activities are part of their day and they answer 'Yes!' But how many of us have had training in problem-solving?

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Record producer and "fifth Beatle" George Martin died yesterday, and in his obituary was a link to an interview in which he talked about approaching the recording studio like a painter (emphasis mine):

"When I joined EMI the criterion by which recordings were judged was their faithfulness to the original. If you made a recording that was so good that you couldn't tell the difference between the recording and the actual performance, that was the acme. And I questioned that. I thought, O.K., we're all taking photographs of an existing event. But we don't have to make a photograph; we can paint. And that prompted me to experiment."

Here's producer (and former art student) Brian Eno, quoted in Geeta Dayal's book on Another Green World:

[when] I make a record, very often I work rather like a painter. I put something on, and that looks nearly right, so I modify it a little bit. Then I put something else on top of that, and that requires the first thing to be changed a little bit, and so on. I'm always adding and subtracting. Now this is obviously a very different way of working from any traditional compositional manner; it's much more like a painting.

Back to George Martin:

'Nowadays people don't think of aural images, because we're so incredibly conditioned by television and computer screens. But in those days there was no television, or very little, and when people listened to records they could imagine what was going on. So you would create a sound picture by means of - well, if a couple was walking in the park, you'd have a little crunch of gravel, birds in the background, the faint hum of traffic.

Filed under: recording

Dean Sabatino pointed me to this fantastic video of Daniel Lanois playing the pedal steel:

Which led me down the " Lanois in the studio " YouTube rabbit hole.

Here he is playing with a trio for a Tiny Desk concert:

Here's another great video of him playing live at KEXP:

Lanois has, of course, produced a ton of records, including two of my favorite Bob Dylan albums (Oh Mercy and Time Out Of Mind).

Here's the 2007 documentary, Here Is What Is, which captures him making the album of the same name (it contains one of my favorite Brian Eno quotes):

Maybe one of my favorite tracks of his is one he did with Eno, "Deep Blue Day" from Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks:

Beautiful things grow out of shit. Nobody ever believes that. Everyone thinks that Beethoven had his string quartets completely in his head-they somehow appeared there and formed in his head-and all he had to do was write them down and they would be manifest to the world. But what I think is so interesting, and would really be a lesson that everybody should learn, is that things come out of nothing. Things evolve out of nothing. You know, the tiniest seed in the right situation turns into the most beautiful forest. And then the most promising seed in the wrong situation turns into nothing. I think this would be important for people to understand, because it gives people confidence in their own lives to know that's how things work.

If you walk around with the idea that there are some people who are so gifted-they have these wonderful things in their head but and you're not one of them, you're just sort of a normal person, you could never do anything like that-then you live a different kind of life. You could have another kind of life where you could say, well, I know that things come from nothing very much, start from unpromising beginnings, and I'm an unpromising beginning, and I could start something.

I noticed that touring - which is wonderful in some ways - is absolutely confining in other ways. It's so difficult... you just can't think about anything else. You try your hardest: You take books with you and word processors, and you're definitely going to do something with the time. And you never do. It's so easy for it to become your exclusive life, this one and a half hours every evening that you play. And I just thought, "I'm losing touch with what I really like doing." What I really like doing is what I call Import and Export. I like taking ideas from one place and putting them into another place and seeing what happens when you do that. I think you could probably sum up nearly everything I've done under that umbrella. Understanding something that's happening in painting, say, and then seeing how that applies to music. Or understanding something that's happening in experimental music and seeing what that could be like if you used it as a base for popular music. It's a research job, a lot of it. You spend a lot of time sitting around, fiddling around with things, quite undramatically, and finally something clicks into place and you think, "Oh, thats really worth doing." The time spent researching is a big part of it. I never imagined a pop star life that would've permitted that.

"Scenius" is a term coined by musician and producer Brian Eno to counter "The Lone Genius Myth," or the idea that innovation in art and culture comes from Great Men working in solitude. Here's what I wrote about it in my book, Show Your Work!:

There's a healthier way of thinking about creativity that the musician Brian Eno refers to as "scenius." Under this model, great ideas are often birthed by a group of creative individuals-artists, curators, thinkers, theorists, and other tastemakers-who make up an "ecology of talent." If you look back closely at history, many of the people who we think of as lone geniuses were actually part of "a whole scene of people who were supporting each other, looking at each other's work, copying from each other, stealing ideas, and contributing ideas." Scenius doesn't take away from the achievements of those great individuals: it just acknowledges that good work isn't created in a vacuum, and that creativity is always, in some sense, a collaboration, the result of a mind connected to other minds.

What I love about the idea of scenius is that it makes room in the story of creativity for the rest of us: the people who don't consider ourselves geniuses. Being a valuable part of a scenius is not necessarily about how smart or talented you are, but about what you have to contribute-the ideas you share, the quality of the connections you make, and the conversations you start. If we forget about genius and think more about how we can nurture and contribute to a scenius, we can adjust our own expectations and the expectations of the worlds we want to accept us. We can stop asking what others can do for us, and start asking what we can do for others.

The rest of the book is basically about how you can operate best within a scenius. Read more here.

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Record producer and "fifth Beatle" George Martin died yesterday, and in his obituary was a link to an interview in which he talked about approaching the recording studio like a painter (emphasis mine): "When I joined EMI the criterion by which recordings were judged was their faithfulness to the original.

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reflect and then refract
reflect and use your findings to bend your perspective

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Look at your vision again

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Looking at others to help yourself

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Sometimes I feel like I am in a rut. Things are not going bad, they are just going. I am going about my day-to-day activities and I need something to give me a boost. I need something to rejuvenate me. Some people get their boost from a cup of coffee, others get a boost from...

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ADHD or not, lots of us have trouble engaging with boring everyday chores-those never-ending tasks that hold our lives together. But it doesn't have to be this way! Use these 9 simple strategies to turn dreary into fun.

1.) Add music and dance. I admit it-the inspiration for this post was this morning's laundry folding session. Ear buds and a great play list found me dancing around the laundry room while folding sheets, shirts and more. Other tasks that lend itself to adding music include doing dinner dishes (why not blast Radio Paradise and dance together?) and carpooling to school with the kids. Put some tunes on and sing your way to school!

2.) Chunk it up. The overwhelming nature of big projects can make them feel particularly unapproachable. To make them easier and more rewarding, chunk them into smaller tasks. Clean one drawer in your dresser a week; sort bills for taxes one day then record each pile separately over time; rework your website one or two pages at a time.

3.) Race the clock. This is a particularly good trick for those with ADHD who benefit from the additional adrenaline boost of a race. Set your timer for 10 or 15 minutes, then do something you hate as fast as possible. This is a great trick for picking up the house. Make it even easier by using bins for storage rather than little spaces. The large muscle gestures needed to toss stuff into bins add to the 'fun' factor.

4.) Go ahead-reward yourself! I save this one for particularly big or physical projects...those "I know I really have to do this, but really don't want to" tasks such as planting bushes in the spring. As part of my project I make sure to leave time for my reward after planning, that might be a long soak in a hot bath. You might celebrate completing a long exam period with a special candlelight dinner out or a party...anything that is out of the ordinary for you, but special.

5.) Do it as partners. Done the right way, partnering around tasks can provide a sense of companionship and accomplishment. In our house that means a nightly kitchen routine in which my husband cleans all the dishes and I'm responsible for putting away the food and cleaning the counters. Our well-defined, discreet tasks mean we have equal status (no one person is in charge, dictating to the other!) and we can be efficient. As an added bonus, we get to talk to each other...or crank up the tunes and dance around the kitchen (see #1!) Other tasks that lend themselves to partnering include prepping for a party and shopping for holiday gifts.

6.) Do it with friends. Go ahead, egg each other on! Want to lose 5 pounds? Get a group of friends to set weight-loss goals and follow your progress together. Need to keep exercising? Register for a class with a friend so you are both more likely to go. You might even have time for coffee afterwards (see #4, "rewards"!)

7.) Make it a special ritual. Some everyday tasks can be made more fun by increasing their importance as part of your relationship. Don't love getting out of bed in the morning? Create a ritual around making and delivering coffee to your partner (with an "I love you," of course-it's a happy way to start the day!) Couples also use this idea to improve the sometimes contentious task of coordinating chores -by doing it on their morning walk with their dogs, or over drinks or coffee once a week.

8.) Use nature as an ally. Do you know that physical movement improves focus? Coordinating tasks while walking the dogs, mentioned above, is an example of using nature to make something more fun, as well as more productive. Setting aside an hour on a particularly beautiful spring day can turn the chore of weeding into a pleasure.

9.) Listen to a story. Perhaps nothing helps you pass the time more quickly than getting engrossed in a good story. Put an audiobook on your headset when you clean out the garage, or on the radio for that 9-hour drive (assuming you don't find it too distracting!) Pay bills electronically while you are watching a movie. Before you know it, you're done!

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Overwhelmed with things to do? Use these strategies to make checking things off your list something to look forward to.

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~ By Mel Bost

By three methods we may learn wisdom:

First, by reflection, which is noblest;

Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and

Third by experience, which is bitterest.

Those of you who have seen the movie "The Ron Clark Story" already know about the remarkable efforts of a dedicated teacher in inner city New York who developed a learning atmosphere for his elementary students, which contributed to them excelling in the classroom at the highest level in every subject. Subsequent to Ron Clark's success in the New York schools, he visited every state to talk with students, teachers and school administrators about what he had learned and how his students performed.

What he found in his journeys were the same characteristics everywhere that he had identified to be success factors in his own classroom experiences. He found dedicated teachers and students and administrators everywhere who displayed some key attributes which, when tapped fully, created a learning experience that resulted in success and a learning environment that could not be denied regardless of the social setting or the prior experiences of the students and teachers.

When he wrote his second book "The Excellent Eleven," he focused on eleven characteristics of high performing classroom, living and learning environments that contributed to student success. One of those characteristics was "Reflection." Ron used reflection to instil emotion in the students' experiences with their present day studies. At the end of every major section of work, he had the students write down their impressions of what they had just experienced and how it affected them. What types of things were going on their lives at the same time, what emotions they felt as they mastered each subject, what relationships they experienced. Many of the students remarked that, after reading their own reflections a significant time later than the actual events, they were amazed at the "images" the reflections created in their minds and the tendency to revisit those images as they experienced new, more challenging situations and environments.

"Reflection" is something we don't usually allow ourselves to experience because we are too busy getting on to the next task at hand, too busy hurrying to the next assignment that we don't pay attention fully to what we have created in the last assignment, too busy grappling with the next hurdle because it is there rather than analysing why we felt a certain way about our work just completed.

Yet reflection is the very essence of what many of Ron Clark's students stated as being the most significant experiences they remember and the most often called upon thoughts when they faced really formidable challenges in future years.

If you are a project manager or a project team member, make time to "reflect" in a written form at regular intervals what you feel about your experiences on projects, what observations you experienced when facing new hurdles, what paths of accomplishment you have just taken to reach a successful plateau, what thoughts you would share with another person who might be faced with a similar challenge.

The words of Confucius on wisdom will resonate in your mind over and over as you attempt new and more challenging tasks. "Reflection" will help you to tackle all things that seem formidable. Sharing those reflections with others will help cement relationships that are so valuable to the maintenance of the community of project managers and team members going forward.
Mel Bost has been actively involved in organising and developing the processes, standards and procedures for Program Management Offices (PMO) for two major corporations, ConocoPhillips and Tosco Corporation. He has worked closely with the PMO Executive Council in Washington DC to define Best Practices for the project management processes for the PMOs. This activity has resulted in translating the PMO Best Practices of companies like American Express, Proctor and Gamble, Eli Lilly and others into actionable organisational structures for those corporations. In addition, he was asked to work with two other ConocoPhillips ventures; Duke Energy Field Services (DEFS) and LUKOIL (a Russian subsidiary) to assist in developing PMO organisations from a "grass roots" starting point. His "blueprint" for such organisation has resulted in these two ventures leapfrogging several traditional iterations in PMO development to achieve meaningful results in a much shorter time frame. Read more advice from Mel on his blog PMO Expert

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Why is 'Reflection' So Important to Project Lessons Learned?

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By Mel Bost By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and Third by experience, which is bitterest.

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If you're lamenting how "boring" the niche you're writing in is, take heart ... I'm here to tell that you can make it interesting to the right audience.

The secret to making so-called boring source material work is almost shocking in its simplicity.

It's not necessarily about conducting market research, writing style, creating expensive infographics, or the having the right connections.

All of that is very useful in creating compelling content - I'd even say it's all required - but the essence of "interestingness" stems from one basic content commandment: Always ask the right questions.

Don't buy it?

Malcolm Gladwell can get over two million people to watch a video about spaghetti sauce by asking one interesting question: Why do brands sell so many styles of spaghetti sauce when they used to sell only one?

Let's take a look at why this approach works ...

There are no boring topics, only boring content creators

As an experiment, let's pick a boring topic and see what we can come up with.

How about coffee cups? Boring enough for you? Take a few moments and dig for the right questions that may reveal some interesting article topics ...

Who invented the first coffee cup and how did they get their inspiration?

What makes people think they need to drink coffee from a coffee cup and water from a glass?

When do coffee cup sales rise and what does that tell us about the American public?

Where are coffee cups made, and why not somewhere else?

Why are we drawn to novelty coffee cups with phrases like "World's Greatest Dad" on them?

How does a coffee cup get all the way from China to the US and still sell for a profit?

See what I did there?

I didn't put a great deal of thought into these, I just asked the traditional "who," "what," "when," "where," "why," and "how" questions, and spent a little bit of time pondering what would make them interesting to me.

Apply the "who," "what," "when," "where," "why," and "how" series of questions to your own niche topic, and see what you can come up with.

Find the questions that your audience is asking

Now let's start mining Q&A sites like Quora to find out what else people want to know about coffee cups.

A quick search turns up no direct search results, so we can turn our attention to coffee mugs. We discover that people want to know ...

How they can cook or bake edible mugs

Whether reusable cups or thermoses are better for the environment

Where they can find mugs shaped like a stormtrooper's head

What the best reusable coffee mug on the market is

What some iconic coffee mugs from TV, movies, and films are

Then we can turn our attention to Yahoo! Answers to find more questions people care about, like:

How fast can you accelerate without spilling your coffee mug?

What's something cool to write on my coffee mug?

How can you fix a chip in a coffee mug?

How can you repair a stainless steel coffee mug?

These may seem like incredibly mundane lists to you, but keep in mind, real people are asking these questions ... in public. If they're spending their time looking for answers, why not spend yours providing them with them on your own site?

Blogging 101, right?

12,000 results later ...

I've found all of this while limiting myself to the terms "coffee cups" and "coffee mugs."

I haven't even addressed the much more broad subject of coffee itself, which I would certainly want to do if I had a client in the coffee mug industry.

I also recommend searching forums, social networks, and other internet "hangouts" to see what kinds of questions people are asking about your subject. This, of course, is where you'd do well to learn the basics of content marketing research.

I hope you're beginning to see the potential for limitless content ideas here.

Case studies you can use

Okay, so we've shared an interesting hypothetical example, but nobody's actually made a viral post about coffee, have they?

Except, they have.

Let's take a look at a post that went viral as a result of asking the right questions about coffee.

This Cracked.com article called 4 Reasons Why Fair Trade Coffee Is a Scam answers the simple question: "Is fair trade coffee really fair?"

The result? More than 240,000 views and 6,200 likes on Facebook, as well as 547 links recorded by OpenSiteExplorer.

About coffee.

And then there's BuzzFeed's recent article: 18 Microwave Snacks You Can Cook In A Mug.

(I swear I chose coffee cups as a subject before I knew about this article.)

It counts more than 250,000 views, 42,000 Facebook likes, 1,000 tweets, and 980 email shares. Undoubtedly it all started with a simple and interesting question about coffee mugs: Is it possible to cook food in a coffee mug?

How "relationship advice" killed Osama Bin Laden

Now let's take a step away from the subject of coffee and turn to a different source: one of the most read blogs on the Internet - The Huffington Post.

Their most popular post of all time was emailed more than 18,000 times, shared on Facebook more than 65,000 times, tweeted over 3,000 times, and liked on Facebook over 253,000 times.

Surely it was the breaking news that Osama Bin Laden had been killed, or something similarly earth-shattering.

Except it wasn't. It was called Why You're Not Married.

That's it - an opinionated post built to answer a question that a lot of people care about.

No breaking news. No science to back it up (though data-driven content is always preferred). Just the right question, and a compelling answer.

The news that Osama Bin Laden had been killed?

It received half of the Facebook likes, a third of the Facebook shares, and one eighteenth of the emails that the marriage article did.

Brainstorming tools to help you find your audience

Having trouble coming up with questions that interest you? Here's a few tools and techniques to help you out:

Use a random word generator to help cure your tunnel vision.

List questions as soon as they come to mind. Don't filter them at all.

You're not doing it right unless some of the questions you come up with are completely absurd. (A bit of absurdity can work for viral content anyway.)

The best time to brainstorm is when you're having trouble focusing. This is backed up by scientific research.

Still more scientific research suggests that creativity is enhanced when you think about contradictions and embrace paradoxes.

A successful content campaign can start with a simple brainstorming session, and an appetite for asking interesting questions. If a question is interesting to you, it's probably interesting to somebody else.

Have questions of your own? Let's hear them in the comments, and don't forget to pass this along if you found it helpful. 😉

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How to Write Interesting Content for a "Boring" Topic - Copyblogger

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If you're lamenting how "boring" the niche you're writing in is, take heart ... I'm here to tell that you can make it interesting to the right audience. The secret to making so-called boring source material work is almost shocking in its simplicity.

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Please ensure you have JavaScript enabled in your browser. If you leave JavaScript disabled, you will only access a portion of the content we are providing. Here's how.

Key Info

The design process involves multiple loops and circles around your final solution. You will likely test your solution-find problems and make changes-test your new solution-find new problems and make changes-and so on, before settling on a final design.

At this point, you have created prototypes of your alternative solutions, tested those prototypes, and chosen your final design. So you're probably thinking that your project is finished! But in fact, you have yet to complete the final and most important phase of the engineering design process-test and redesign.

Test and redesign requires you to go out and test your final design with your users. Based on their feedback and their interaction with your solution, you will redesign your solution to make it better. Repeat this process of testing, determining issues, fixing the issues, and then retesting multiple times until your solution is as successful as possible. Keep in mind that minor changes this late in the design process could make or break your solution, so be sure to be thorough in your testing!

User Test

The first step in user testing is to get in contact with the users of your solution. Go back to your problem statement, and remember your potential users. You will want to test your solution on this group of people. For example, if you are designing a website for kindergarten students, you will want to test your final solution with kindergarteners.

When it comes to testing, there is no such thing as too many testers! The more people that you are able to test with the more you will find out. So try to find as many users as you can who are willing to help you. A good goal to reach for is three to five users for each round of testing.

The second step, after you have located three to five users, is to present your solution to these users while the users are in the problem environment. The problem environment is the situation or atmosphere in which the problem you are trying to solve happens.

If your solution is a product, give the product to the users in the environment where they would use it. For example, if you designed a pair of sunglasses, you would give your sunglasses to the users outside while the weather is sunny. You wouldn't ask them to try the sunglasses at night or indoors, because those aren't situations where they would be using sunglasses.

If your solution is a website or software product, ask users to test it on computers. You wouldn't want to just show them pictures or explain the website, because how they interact with the computer itself is also important.

If your solution is an environment or experience, place your user in that environment or experience, and see how they react. For example, if you designed an after-school program for students, invite users to attend this program or a mock version of it. However, in many cases, having your users actually visit your designed environment or go through your designed experience will not be possible. An example is a student who designed a new school bus but obviously does not have an actual bus to use for testing. In a case like this, use a storyboard to present your solution to the users.

The third and final step of user testing is observing the interaction between the user and your solution. Record your observations in your design notebook. Watch closely as people use your product, navigate your website, or go through your designed environment or experience. Listen to what they say, but also watch what they do, see how they react, note where or when they get confused, and write down everything that happens during their interaction with the solution. Below are three questions to ask during testing. The answers will be helpful when you move onto the redesign phase of test and redesign.

1. Are your users able to overcome the problem by using or interacting with your solution?

If yes, why are they successful?

If no, what problems do they encounter that prevent them from being successful?

2. Do the users ever need to ask you any questions when using or interacting with your solution?
If yes, what questions do they ask? During what part of their interaction do they ask these questions?

3. Do the users interact with your solution exactly the way that you intended for them to?
If no, what do they do differently?

4. If you have measurable targets for your solution, did you meet them?

Redesign

After you have tested your design, you will use your findings to complete a redesign of your solution. Use the findings from testing to:

Fix any problems that occurred, and

Further polish aspects of the design that were even more successful than you originally thought.

To make these changes, look at the answers to the three major questions you asked during testing:

1. Is your user able to overcome the problem by using or interacting with your solution?
If the answer is "yes," focus on why the user was successful. What specific aspects of your design helped the user to achieve success? Should those aspects become larger parts of your design? Should you make these features more prominent or more obvious to the user? Consider emphasizing these aspects of your design. Then, in the next round of testing, see if the user is able to achieve success even more quickly and easily.

If the answer is "no," focus on the problems that users encountered during testing. What prevented them from achieving success? What changes to your design would eliminate these issues? Make these changes.

2. Does the user ever need to ask you any questions when using or interacting with your solution?
If the answer is "yes," focus on the questions that the users asked you. Why did they need to ask you a question? Were they confused? What part of the solution wasn't self-explanatory? You normally wouldn't be there to answer questions, so how can you make sure that the next users won't need to ask the same questions? Make changes that will eliminate these questions.

3. Does the user interact with your solution exactly the way that you intended for them to?
If the answer is "no," focus on what the users did that you hadn't intended to happen. Did their unexpected actions make your design more successful or less successful? If less successful, what changes could you make to your design to prevent these unexpected actions? What issues are causing the users to interact differently than intended, and how can you fix those issues? Make these changes.

4. If you have measurable targets for your solution, did you meet them?
If your design requirements call for your solution to be better, faster, or cheaper, you should measure the improvement that you made. If you met your targets, great! If not, how can you redesign your solution to improve its performance?

Once you have made changes to your design, go back and test again with your users. See if the improvements and changes you made negatively or positively affected your solution. Ask yourself the same three questions again, and then repeat the redesign again. Repeat this test and redesign process as many times as necessary to make your final solution as successful as possible. It may seem like you are doing the same thing over and over again, but with each test and redesign, you are greatly improving your project!

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The Engineering Design Process: Test and Redesign

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Please ensure you have JavaScript enabled in your browser. If you leave JavaScript disabled, you will only access a portion of the content we are providing. Here's how. The design process involves multiple loops and circles around your final solution.

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It's happened to everyone at one time or another. You're going along, producing and feeling creative, and then, suddenly, you run out of ideas. You're stuck. You search high and low for inspiration. You look back on your earlier work, searching through your past ideas, trying to locate your muse, looking for something to trigger a creative explosion. But it's all for naught. You're blocked.

Regardless of what business you're in, there's always a need for creativity. Maybe it's in how you present your products and services to your potential clients, or maybe it's the products and services themselves. Either way, you need help getting out of that creative rut.

First, Know That You're Not Really Out of Ideas

Sometimes when people get stuck, they worry that they're going to be stuck forever. What you need to know is that your brain is a virtually endless source of ideas. You're constantly feeding input into your brain, constantly giving it new information and stimulation. You practically can't avoid it. So take a deep breath and know that this rut isn't permanent.

Reduce Your Stress

Sometimes stress and anxiety can get in the way of creativity. And when you get even more stressed because you can't come up with new ideas, you make the block even stronger. Now's the time to relax and reduce your stress. Mediate, try yoga, get some exercise. Hey, if foosball is your thing, go do that. Whatever it takes. Sometimes it takes just a little bit of stress relief before you suddenly get the old creative juices flowing again.

Just Walk Away

Sometimes the best thing you can do for your creative rut is to walk away. Staring at the problem won't help you. In fact, it may very well exacerbate the situation. So walk away. Literally. Take some time off and enjoy life. New experiences and meeting new people serve to rejuvenate your spirit and revive your creative flow. So walk away, let your brain take a rest from trying to figure it all out, and experience something new. You may come back with a wealth of new ideas.

Feed Your Brain

One of the best things you can do to keep your own creativity flowing is to give your brain some good, solid input. Read great books, listen to great music, go outside and garden or just sit and listen to the birds or traffic (this one may be a little location-specific). Or do something crazy (insert appropriate disclaimers about legalities and safety here) and give your brain a totally new kind of stimulation. What works will be different for everyone, but the point is to provide your brain with the richest input that you can find.

Look At Your Industry

Sometimes it's as simple as looking at your own industry. If you've been a little lax about keeping up lately, take some time to read up on current trends and the happenings in your industry. What are people in your field talking about? What are the biggest topics and the most significant concerns for your potential clients? Finding out what these issues are and what the top people in your industry are saying about it can stimulate you to think of your business, your products, your services, and your presentation in a new way.

Look At Your Competition

While you're stepping away from your own work, that doesn't mean you have to step away from work entirely. Take some time to review your competition. What are they up to and what kinds of products and services do they offer? How do they package things differently, and how do they present themselves differently? Look for innovators and analyze what they're doing that's new and different and how they're finding ways to blaze new trails, then model their behavior so you can blaze new trails of your own.

Look Outside Your Industry

Sometimes industries can get pretty insulated from the rest of the world. When that happens, the ideas in that industry get revamped, recycled, and re-run over and over again. Some of the best innovations have happened when people have merged ideas or ways of doing things from another industry with their own. It takes just one person looking outside the industry to see how other industries are doing something different to transform an industry and how they operate.

You Never Know When Or Where Inspiration Will Hit

Ideas can hit you at any time, in any place. You never know where you'll get a fantastic idea, and you don't want to take chances on forgetting something fantastic. I keep a pocket-sized Moleskine notebook with me at all times so I can jot down ideas at a moment's notice. I occasionally have to pull my car over on the side of the road for a moment to write down an article title or a new product I want to create. Creativity can hit when you least expect it, so the best course of action is always to be prepared.

We've all had moments when we feel abandoned by our creativity. When that happens, don't panic. Your brain may need its roadblocks eliminated, or it might just need some new input. Remain calm, remember that there are many ways to re-stimulate those neurons, and get started!

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It's happened to everyone at one time or another. You're going along, producing and feeling creative, and then, suddenly, you run out of ideas. You're stuck. You search high and low for inspiration. You look back on your earlier work, searching through your past ideas, trying to locate your muse, looking for something to trigger a creative explosion.

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One of my most boring jobs was writing jackets for science books at a publishing house. The job was fine, but there's not much you can do to make liquid chromatography or macromolecular crystallography sound awesome. Unfortunately for writers, that's no excuse for content writing that puts readers to sleep.

We'd all like to write the next Coca-Cola campaign, but for now, some of us have to stick with content writing that covers less-than-dazzling topics. In many cases, the client expects you to know how to make the topic sound fun. If you're up for the challenge, it can be done. Here are five ways to turn your boring topic into scintillating content.

1. Learn more about the topic.

One reason I couldn't make the scientific gobbledy-gook in my past job interesting is because I didn't understand it well enough to put it in my own words. Let that be a lesson to any content writing professional - know what you write.

If you're not into cars, carburetors may seem like the most boring topic in the world. But studies show that the more you know about something, the more interesting it is to you. Thus, if you start doing research on topics you normally wouldn't care for, those topics generate more interest on your part, which motivates you to learn more, which helps you learn to write about them in a compelling way.

2. Choose an angle that everyone can relate to.

Seinfeld became a classic because it was about nothing, but it was the kind of nothing we've all faced, from waiting for a table at a Chinese restaurant to being annoyed by workplace birthday parties. Take this been-there-too approach when looking for a way to make a boring topic interesting.

Good content writing requires the ability to connect with your readers, so talk about the topic as if it had affected you. If you have to write about the mechanisms of an irritating oil called urushiol, you'll generate more attention if you include an anecdote about that summer you itched incessantly from the prime source of urushiol: poison ivy.

3. Connect the topic to today's headlines.

Most Americans don't care much about quantitative easing. In the wake of the 2008 recession, however, their ears perked up when the Federal Reserve talked about it as a way to stimulate the economy. If you want your boring topic to sizzle, find a way to tie it to the news of the day.

This actually happens all the time. Experts on infectious diseases don't get much press until there's an outbreak of influenza or some other communicable disease. The intricacies of criminal law are only interesting when a sensational murder trial is on Court TV. To make your content just as hot, scan the papers for a captivating story and connect it to your content.

4. Find a way to make the reader participate.

Teachers and college professors alike have realized that their lectures aren't getting through to their students. They don't take it personally; they just know that people don't respond as well to a one-way conversation. When it comes to content writing, boring topics are a lot less boring when the readers can take part in the discussion.

Obviously, you have to write the content, so write it to prompt readers to participate. Include an interactive survey, where readers must give detailed answers to thoughtful questions. Require them to complete a short quiz after each section before they can move on to the next. If readers are part of the topic, they're more likely to pay attention.

5. Make the topic more visual.

Do you remember those filmstrips where you watched an animated figure eat food and then digest it? That was the filmmaker's way of making the digestive process more interesting. Luckily, you're never too old to appreciate a video or photo that presents a boring topic in a visual context.

Infographics are a great way to show long-term trends, regional or demographic breakdowns, and other representations of dry statistical data. If you have to describe a long and complicated process, skip the typing and draw a storyboard instead. When a boring topic is also tough to follow, visuals make it easier - and more fun - to grasp.

In a perfect world, content writing jobs would always focus on the glitz and glamour. Until that day, though, follow these steps to add a little glitz and glamour to everyday topics."

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.

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5 Creative Ways To Make Boring Topics Beautiful

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One of my most boring jobs was writing jackets for science books at a publishing house. The job was fine, but there's not much you can do to make liquid chromatography or macromolecular crystallography sound awesome. Unfortunately for writers, that's no excuse for content writing that puts readers to sleep.

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4 Simple Ideas To Use Technology To Engage Students
by Rachelle Dene Poth

Fall is an exciting time of the year.

Summer provides an opportunity to relax, but is also a time to explore new ideas and reflect on the previous year. We have to ask ourselves what worked and what did not. With the start of each school year, teachers begin by establishing classroom procedures, getting to know the students, and then starting their instruction.

Even with the best plans thought out in advance, things can come up that limit our time to try something new. There is nothing wrong with sticking to some of the same instructional strategies and using some of the same tools that were used last year. We all have methods and tools we use that are beneficial to our students. But summer does offer an opportunity to think about some new things to bring to our classroom and our students at the start of the new school year.

Because time is a factor, it can seem overwhelming to try too many new things at once. It is helpful to think about maybe just slightly altering how we used a certain tool or presented a topic in the prior year. Start by focusing on one thing at a time and see how it goes. The most important part is to remember that we want to implement something that will positively benefit our students. It should be something that has a true purpose and will amplify the learning experiences and potential for our students.

Below are a few ideas that I have used in my classroom which have been fun for the students and had positive effects on their learning.
4 Simple Ideas To Use Technology To Engage Students Idea: Use infographics to create an engaging syllabus
Instead of creating your course syllabus on paper and handing it out to your students, try creating an infographic to post online through your class website or LMS if you have one. It will be easier to read, model a sense of enthusiasm for your own craft, and separate your classroom from others in the eyes of students/parents/admin.

With a graphic, you can also print and laminate the infographic to keep it accessible in your classroom. There are many tools to choose from for creating one and many options for implementing them into your course. In order to create one you simply take the information from your document and paste it into the infographic.

There are many choices available for templates, icons, fonts and much more. As an alternative to having your students complete assignments or projects which traditionally are done on paper or using a Word document, have them create something creative and visual using one of the infographic tools available. It will be a more engaging, visual way to share information, have a more authentic learning experience, and they can be created rather quickly.

Some recommendations of tools to create infographics are Canva, Piktochart, Smore and Visme.
Idea: Create interactive lessons
Students need to be actively involved in the classroom and in learning. A good way to do this is through interactive video lessons. There are many digital tools available which enable a teacher to choose a video from YouTube or other video source, and use it to create a quick interactive lesson with questions or other activities for the students to complete. The nice thing about the tools available for interactive video lessons is that there are some lessons available for public use allowing you to try them out with your class first before creating your own.

Trying one of these out first is a good way to see what the students think, and use their feedback to help guide the next steps, whether to create one and which tool to use. Offering lessons like this is great for having students complete assignments outside of the traditional "brick and mortar" classroom as part of an asynchronous lesson or in a blended or flipped learning environment. You can quickly assess students, track their progress, and hold them accountable for having watched the videos.

A few suggestions of some of the tools available are EDpuzzle, Playposit, Vizia, and even a Google document could be used with questions added in for students to complete. My suggestion is that you choose one of these options, see what is available, and then be very clear how you can use it to benefit your class. There are tutorials available on the websites which offer guidance to help you to create your first video.

Simply select a video that you would typically show in class or assign for students to watch outside of class and think about the questions you could or would ask to check their understanding. It is easy to add your video into the lesson editor, add in different question styles including true and false, multiple choice or short answer, in addition to other formats. There are also options for quizzes to be self-graded, making the data available right away.

Each tool offers different features which add extra benefits to learning. For example, you can also see how long it took the student to view the video and if they tried to skip through it, depending on which tool you choose.
Idea: Student Created Lessons
Instead of the teacher creating the lessons, you could also have the students create lessons to share with the class. When I did this with my students, they sent their completed video lessons to me and I completed the lesson. It gave them an opportunity to see what teachers see and an opportunity to provide feedback to their "student." By doing this, the students learned in a more authentic way because they decided which video to use, created the questions and as a result, it reinforced the material; it was more personal for them.

Teachers learn by seeing the type of content the students choose and can use this information to guide the next steps in the lesson. The class as a whole learns and benefits by having more resources available for practice and students can become more proficient in the content. One other great thing besides improved learning is that it can be fun for students to create these videos as well.

And fun is good, yes?
Idea: Use engaging digital quizzes & tools
There are a variety of tools to use for creating quizzes and lessons for students to complete in and outside of class.

In many cases, you can upload your own documents or PowerPoint presentations into the lesson, and keep everything organized in one place. Using some formative assessment tools like Formative, Kahoot, Nearpod, Quizizz, and Quizlet to name a few, are ways to have some fun with the students and add to the learning resources available for your classes.

Students enjoy creating their own quizzes and lessons, having a choice in the tool and types of questions included, and being able to further develop their technology skills in the process. These activities are all highly beneficial to student growth. By giving students more choices, we empower them in the classroom.
Conclusion
When used with a purpose, there a lot of ways that technology helps teachers and students. Using technology saves time, makes feedback available immediately, and gives students the chance to be creators and have a choice. It also promotes learning outside of the traditional classroom setting, which reserves the time in class to do other activities, to clear up any misunderstandings and to spend time getting to know the students and giving individual feedback.

Once you decide on one of these ideas, give it some time, see how it goes, and then think about taking the next step. Be sure to involve the students in the conversation because their input is vital and it matters. When students feel valued, learning is more meaningful and this leads to many positive results. Teachers and students working together, creating lessons, providing feedback, will add to a positive classroom culture.

Perhaps one of these areas is the next step that you could take, try and see how your students respond. It was a nice change in my classroom, my students were creative, engaged, and really enjoyed the chance to lead. The learning that occurred was more meaningful and they recalled the content information much more when they created their own product or recalled the work of one of their classmates.

Either way, it was a much more meaningful experience, and something that I will continue to do this school year to grow my classroom.
4 Simple Ideas To Use Technology To Engage Students; image attribution flickr user flickeringbrad

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4 Simple Ideas To Use Technology To Engage Students by Rachelle Dene Poth Fall is an exciting time of the year. Summer provides an opportunity to relax, but is also a time to explore new ideas and reflect on the previous year. We have to ask ourselves what worked and what did not.

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What makes the difference between a good idea and a great idea? Good ideas come along all the time and help people solve minor problems in work and daily life. Great ideas appear a little less frequently and require a little more work to execute. Great ideas aren't necessarily the result of highly-paid think tanks or drug-induced vision quests in the desert. Often they are unexpected moments of inspiration that help keep the napkin companies in business.

The big challenge of generating great ideas is freeing yourself from the conventional, mundane thoughts that occupy most of your brain time. Here are seven tips to help you open your mind and stimulate your great idea generator.
1. Engage in Observation Sessions
Great ideas won't happen in a vacuum. You need some way of getting your brain to think in new and creative ways. Commit time to specific sessions where you stimulate your brain into thinking differently. Being a New Yorker, my favorite method is people watching. A simple walk through Manhattan can introduce me to exciting activity and behavior that makes me think anew. Any crowded urban area, mall or zoo can do the same.
2. Socialize Outside Your Normal Circles
Hanging around with the same friends and colleagues can get you in a thinking rut. Take advantage of all those LinkedIn connections and start some exciting conversations. New people don't know all your thought patterns and old stories, so you'll have to revisit your existing inner monologues. The refreshing perspectives will help to surface new thinking and possibly a lightning bolt or two.
3. Read More Books
Books are wonderful for creating new thoughts and stimulating great ideas. For a long time, I didn't read much. When I added business books to my routine, it helped me learn more and expand my way of thinking. But several years ago, I started again reading fiction and histories. These stories really got me out of my daily headspace and activated my idea generator. Even if you can't make the time for a novel, go hunt down a bookstore and spend an hour browsing. You'll find plenty of thought stimulation.
4. Randomly Surf the Web
Google is great when you know what you are looking for, but the best way to generate new ideas is with unexpected learning. Take an hour each week and go on a web journey. Start with the I'm Feeling Lucky button and just take it from there. Try to pick the stranger and more obscure references as you surf and stretch your brain a bit.
5. Keep a Regular Journal
A journal is great for recording thoughts, feelings and the history of your life. It also is a great way to structure and develop ideation habits. If you don't keep a journal, start today. If you already do, simply add the practice of finishing every entry with: Here is my new idea for the day ...
6. Meditate
It's hard to come up with great ideas when your mind is crowded with everyday thoughts and concerns. You need quiet space. Meditation will help you clear your mind of daily business and stress. Then you can quietly focus on your future -- or solving world issues. Commit to two hour-long sessions every week and soon you'll find new ideas flowing.
7. Use Structured Exercises
Structure breeds creativity. Simple exercises can get your brain working in a focused manner to yield great ideas. My favorite comes from author and Baylor University professor Dr. Blaine McCormick. With a partner, take ten minutes (timed) to come up with 42 ideas on a specific topic or problem. You may only think of 30 or 35 but no matter. You'll find that there are at least two or three gems in the list.

All of these methods require a commitment of time and energy, but that's the key to great ideas. You need to give your brain the time and space to work for you. If you try each of these methods, you are bound to come up with a great idea or two. Make sure you record them and set a plan of accountability. The execution is up to you.
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What makes the difference between a good idea and a great idea? Good ideas come along all the time and help people solve minor problems in work and daily life. Great ideas appear a little less frequently and require a little more work to execute.

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With the new school season, teachers are experimenting with ways to engage kids better. And parents are always looking to avoid the "pulling-out-the-hair" moments with homework. Of course, what both groups want is to make sure the kids understand the concepts and demonstrate in real-life.

Like everything else, technology can be used for better or for worse. Here are some great ways to engage the kids better and ease them into difficult-to-grasp concepts through technology.
1. Involve them in the making
Involving kids in creating little guides and survey questionnaires around concepts can be a great way to engage them. Creating a classroom community blog or a class webpage where children can put up their ideas/presentations/ survey results/pictures of projects can boost interest and engagement tremendously.
2. Get them to present abstract concepts
Abstract concepts, in subjects like science, are grasped better by using apps like the iMovie. In this example, students are encouraged to record every phase of the lab assignment and then explain what they had done. The videos are then edited by the students themselves and presented to the class or a bigger audience to demonstrate their understanding of the concept. To take it a step further, teachers can even encourage them to self-publish their work with services like Lulu or iUniverse.

iMovie for windows is also available.
3. Provide out-of-school experiences
Our school memories are filled field trips and events outside of the school than within them. Getting them to document their observations through pictures, movies and presentations encourages them to not only develop exotic skills like photography but also allows them to put down their thoughts and present it with a unique perspective.
4- Use storytelling in classroom projects
Storytelling is making a comeback as a major educational tool. Many teachers use the power of stories to connect with the child. Stories are also a great way to promote a culture of collaboration among the students. Getting students to work in groups and create stories using digital media including images, pictures and music is a great way to promote empathy, learning and co-operation in a classroom.
5. Engage with Social Media
Why not get the students to encapsulate their learning in 140 words or less? Tweeting the lesson, or having a website where students can post their ideas on using a concept innovatively can be a great idea generation tool. For example, after a lesson on "Energy", the students can collect ideas on how to use Solar energy and collate them to present "101 original ideas on using solar energy!"
6. Use Webquests
A webquest is a guide for students to search for specific information on the internet very effectively.

For example, students may be asked to serve as the caretaker of a National Park, and they might be encouraged to find information on animal species - native and foreign, care tips, eating habits, natural habitats, steps for conservation, etc. It's a great way for teachers to integrate the power of the internet into their own curriculum.
7. Create podcasts
Have the students interview a real person in a particular job. For example, what does a museum curator's job entail? Or what does a project manager in a tech company do all day? They could interview real people, put them up as podcasts and engage the entire classroom in a conversation on career choices!
8. Get them to help someone
Get students to write a "how-to" piece on a specific piece of technology that could help a person who is not tech savvy, like their grandma. For example - how to set up the iPad, or how to connect with a friend on video chat. These kinds of exercises force children to think from a user perspective and hone their own understanding of technology.
About the author:
Devishobha Chandramouli is the founder and editor of Kidskintha- a platform dedicated to helping millennial parents raise happy kids. Get your own FREE copy of the eBook " 137 Proven Productivity Hacks For The Millennial Parent" now.

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8 Ways to Use Technology to Engage Students Better

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With the new school season, teachers are experimenting with ways to engage kids better. And parents are always looking to avoid the "pulling-out-the-hair" moments with homework. Of course, what both groups want is to make sure the kids understand the concepts and demonstrate in real-life.

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Think Differently and Spark Creativity

"We need to think differently!" "This needs some fresh ideas!" "We have got to be more creative around here!" Are messages like these popping up more and more in your workplace?

Faced with complex, open-ended, ever-changing challenges, organizations realize that constant, ongoing innovation is critical to stay ahead of the competition. This is why we need to be on the lookout for new ideas that can drive innovation, and it's why the ability to think differently, generate new ideas, and spark creativity within a team becomes an important skill. You need to work actively on building and cultivating this skill, and it can be done!

Often, though, we make the mistake of assuming that good ideas just happen. Or worse still, we get caught in the mind trap that creativity is an aptitude; some people have it, others don't. Then there is the other self-defeating belief - "I am not intelligent enough to come up with good ideas."

These assumptions are rarely true. Everyone can come up with fresh, radical ideas - you just need to learn to open your mind and think differently. This article shows you how to do so.

How to Generate New Ideas

Standard idea-generation techniques concentrate on combining or adapting existing ideas. This can certainly generate results. But here, our focus is on equipping you with tools that help you leap onto a totally different plane. These approaches push your mind to forge new connections, think differently and consider new perspectives.

A word of caution - while these techniques are extremely effective, they will only succeed if they are backed by rich knowledge of the area you're working on. This means that if you are not prepared with adequate information about the issue, you are unlikely to come up with a great idea even by using the techniques listed here.

Incidentally, these techniques can be applied to spark creativity in group settings and brainstorming sessions as well.

Breaking Thought Patterns

All of us can tend to get stuck in certain thinking patterns. Breaking these thought patterns can help you get your mind unstuck and generate new ideas. There are several techniques you can use to break established thought patterns:

Challenge assumptions: For every situation, you have a set of key assumptions. Challenging these assumptions gives you a whole new spin on possibilities.
You want to buy a house but can't since you assume you don't have the money to make a down payment on the loan. Challenge the assumption. Sure, you don't have cash in the bank but couldn't you sell some of your other assets to raise the money? Could you dip into your retirement fund? Could you work overtime and build up the kitty in six months? Suddenly the picture starts looking brighter.

Reword the problem: Stating the problem differently often leads to different ideas. To reword the problem look at the issue from different angles. "Why do we need to solve the problem?", "What's the roadblock here?", "What will happen if we don't solve the problem?" These questions will give you new insights. You might come up with new ideas to solve your new problem.
In the mid 1950s, shipping companies were losing money on freighters. They decided they needed to focus on building faster and more efficient ships. However, the problem persisted. Then one consultant defined the problem differently. He said the problem the industry should consider was "how can we reduce cost?" The new problem statement generated new ideas. All aspects of shipping, including storage of cargo and loading time, were considered. The outcome of this shift in focus resulted in the container ship and the roll-on/roll-off freighter.

Think in reverse: If you feel you cannot think of anything new, try turning things upside-down. Instead of focusing on how you could solve a problem/improve operations/enhance a product, consider how could you create the problem/worsen operations/downgrade the product. The reverse ideas will come flowing in. Consider these ideas - once you've reversed them again - as possible solutions for the original challenge.

Express yourself through different media: We have multiple intelligences but somehow, when faced with workplace challenges we just tend to use our verbal reasoning ability. How about expressing the challenge through different media? Clay, music, word association games, paint, there are several ways you can express the challenge. Don't bother about solving the challenge at this point. Just express it. Different expression might spark off different thought patterns. And these new thought patterns may yield new ideas.

Connect the Unconnected

Some of the best ideas seem to occur just by chance. You see something or you hear someone, often totally unconnected to the situation you are trying to resolve, and the penny drops in place. Newton and the apple, Archimedes in the bath tub; examples abound.

Why does this happen? The random element provides a new stimulus and gets our brain cells ticking. You can capitalize on this knowledge by consciously trying to connect the unconnected.

Actively seek stimuli from unexpected places and then see if you can use these stimuli to build a connection with your situation. Some techniques you could use are:

Use random input: Choose a word from the dictionary and look for novel connections between the word and your problem.

Mind map possible ideas: Put a key word or phrase in the middle of the page. Write whatever else comes in your mind on the same page. See if you can make any connections.

Pick up a picture. Consider how you can relate it to your situation.

Take an item. Ask yourself questions such as "How could this item help in addressing the challenge?", or "What attributes of this item could help us solve our challenge?"

Shift Perspective

Over the years we all build a certain type of perspective and this perspective yields a certain type of idea. If you want different ideas, you will have to shift your perspective. To do so:

Get someone else's perspective: Ask different people what they would do if faced with your challenge. You could approach friends engaged in different kind of work, your spouse, a nine-year old child, customers, suppliers, senior citizens, someone from a different culture; in essence anyone who might see things differently.

Play the "If I were" game: Ask yourself "If I were ..." how would I address this challenge? You could be anyone: a millionaire, Tiger Woods, anyone.

The idea is the person you decide to be has certain identifiable traits. And you have to use these traits to address the challenge. For instance, if you decide to play the millionaire, you might want to bring traits such as flamboyance, big thinking and risk-taking when formulating an idea. If you are Tiger Woods you would focus on things such as perfection, persistence and execution detail.

Employ Enablers

Enablers are activities and actions that assist with, rather than directly provoke, idea generation. They create a positive atmosphere. Some of the enablers that can help you get your creative juices flowing are:

Belief in yourself: Believe that you are creative, believe that ideas will come to you; positive reinforcement helps you perform better.

Creative loafing time: Nap, go for a walk, listen to music, play with your child, take a break from formal idea-generating. Your mind needs the rest, and will often come up with connections precisely when it isn't trying to make them.

Change of environment: Sometimes changing the setting changes your thought process. Go to a nearby coffee shop instead of the conference room in your office, or hold your discussion while walking together round a local park.

Shutting out distractions: Keep your thinking space both literally and mentally clutter-free. Shut off the Blackberry, close the door, divert your phone calls and then think.

Fun and humor: These are essential ingredients, especially in team settings.

Key Points

The ability to generate new ideas is an essential work skill today. You can acquire this skill by consciously practicing techniques that force your mind to forge new connections, break old thought patterns and consider new perspectives.

Along with practicing these techniques, you need to adopt enabling strategies too. These enabling strategies help in creating a positive atmosphere that boosts creativity.

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Generating New Ideas: Think Differently and Spark Creativity

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Think Differently and Spark Creativity "We need to think differently!" "This needs some fresh ideas!" "We have got to be more creative around here!" Are messages like these popping up more and more in your workplace? Faced with complex, open-ended, ever-changing challenges, organizations realize that constant, ongoing innovation is critical to stay ahead of the competition.

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If you're looking for a scapegoat for just about any of the world's issues, you probably know technology makes a good choice. I can't tell you how many times I've heard people talk about how technology and being" plugged in " is making relationships harder than ever.

For some, I'm sure that's probably true.At the end of the day, though, technology is a tool, and your relationships with other people - including your audience - depend on how you use it.

For marketers, technology presents an opportunity for you to reach and connect with your audience. Content marketing tools, for example, help you plan and craft your brand ' s most engaging messages. Social media tools help you get them into the hands of the right people. Marketing automation platforms help you streamline and automate your processes, among other things.

The only catch? You can't entirely remove the human element from the equation and let technology do it all.
Learn the Golden Equation: Technology + authenticity = engagement
If you had your choice between an engaging, personalized message from an authentic thought leader at a company and boring, automated content coming from an impersonal corporate logo, which would you prefer?It ' s no contest: We ' d all choose personalized content from real humans.

Marketers can use technology to create that content, deliver it, measure their efforts - any number of things. But tech, as ever-present as it is, won't magically result in audience engagement and stronger relationships.Like I said, it ' s a tool that needs to be used to make your job of connecting with your audience easier than before.

Sadly, too many brands forget their role in building those relationships and overlook the human elements that are necessary to make their messages resonate. They then wonder why engagement is low, assuming technology has created this huge trust barrier and made it harder to connect instead of looking in the mirror to find the root of the problem: They haven ' t humanized their brands or used the right content to communicate that.
Make the shift from me to you
Talking "at" versus talking "with": It's a big distinction. Too many companies are knee-deep in the former, pushing out information like that boorish uncle at your folks' annual Fourth of July picnic who simultaneously says everything and nothing.

In the past, brands would develop an idea or a message and push it out for everyone and their mother to see, whether those recipients truly cared to see it or not. In my business and marketing book, " Top of Mind," I call this "Me Marketing,"where marketers only push out what they want and focus on themselves in the process. ( I ' ve yet to meet one person who truly enjoys getting spammed with a ton of promotional emails that were clearly sent out en masse with no personalization at all.)

Today, effective brands and marketers are taking a different approach. They have shifted to what I call "You Marketing" and have begun creating content for the actual audience members receiving it .

There's a much greater focus on what audiences want and how they like to receive information, engage with content, and work with brands. Marketers need to listen to and authentically engage with audiences, and they need to do it on that audience's terms. Technology can help.
Pursue new technology for better relationships
One example of a tool that's taking the modern customer experience and running with it is PingPilot. Launched by SCORCH, this software aims to change the conversation between businesses and individuals by allowing people to choose their preferred means of communication. The means of conversation can change depending on the client's needs - live chat, voice, and SMS are all viable channels. Essentially, businesses move over and give consumers the keys to the car, as well as the wheel.

Over time, this allows brands and consumers to forge sincere bonds based on trust and live interactions, not chatbots or automated replies. Each touchpoint becomes an opportunity to build a better understanding of customers; data from these interactions can improve the company's marketing stack and explode lead generation, not to mention conversions.

This is a prime example of how technology actually helps build stronger personal relationships and connections, not replace them.

Everyone loves to hate something, but it's time to pull back from blaming technology left and right. Instead of cursing a technology-rich world that's made Snapchat filters and hashtags so ubiquitous you hardly notice them anymore, it's wiser to look deeper into what those selfies and hashtags mean to the people who make, view, and engage with them. Authenticity between brands and audiences has technology at its core, but it takes human hands, minds, and hearts to execute it.

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How Technology Can Help You Engage Your Audience The Right Way

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If you're looking for a scapegoat for just about any of the world's issues, you probably know technology makes a good choice. I can't tell you how many times I've heard people talk about how technology and being" plugged in " is making relationships harder than ever.