Do you want to know how to think outside the box? Would you like to learn how to apply unusual yet practical solutions to the problems you encounter in your daily life? Well, you are in the right place.
In this article, you will find tips on being creative, unconventional and unique in your approach to life. One of the reasons it is necessary to think outside the box is that sometimes the usual approach to things does not work.
And for you to break even, you have to do something different. So, how do you go about this? Let’s learn.
10 Infallible Tips To Think Outside The Box
1. Read About New Topics
If you want to know how to think outside the box, you have to be interested in reading, not just reading but reading widely.
Some people are experts in their field but are largely clueless about the subjects in another area.
To succeed as an innovative thinker, you must go out of your comfort zone when reading. This opens up your mind to the way people in different professions think. In addition, it shares how they solve problems for you to learn from.
Are you a scientist trying out a particular experiment in a lab and have repeatedly been meeting a dead end? It can help you relax and read something entirely different from science.
It must not be a book; you can watch a documentary about a historical event or read a poem.
These do not just enlarge your problem-solving ability; they also help your brain relax so you can re-fire when you next get to work.
2. Listen Objectively To Opposing Views
Most people see an argument as something terrible. They see an opposing view as something to be destroyed, as something personal and targeted against them. But an opposing view is not an attack on a person’s identity.
It is what it is – an opposing view. Many people who see opposing views as an attack on them become very close-minded people who cannot think beyond the speculations of their minds.
And this puts you at a disadvantage because it stops you from thinking critically and prevents you from thinking outside the box.
Suppose you are in a meeting with your colleagues at work, and you bring up an idea for increasing sales in one of your company’s products.
But when you expected total concurrence from your team members, you saw a colleague bring up an opposing idea. The first thing to do is not see their idea as an attack against you.
What you should do instead is to listen to their idea without fear or favor. Remove emotions and critically consider their suggestions. When you do this, you may find that your ideas can co-exist and increase sales.
3. Change the Environment
If you want to learn to think outside the box, you should change your environment. You may not know this, but the environment where you are can affect your creativity and then your ability to think outside the box.
When you are in the right environment, your imagination tends to bloom. Think of this. Why are photographs created in dark rooms? Why are libraries situated in a quiet part of town? Why do firms dealing with creativity spend much money designing an office space for their employees?
This is because they know that the environment plays an active role in our thinking. No one who wants to think critically would go to a train station or a packed stadium. They would rather go somewhere calm for ideas to flow.
You can change positions if you feel stuck and at your brain’s limit. Take a walk, visit a park. If you work from home, you can change your working position from the sitting room to the lawn, where you can watch birds chirping. This can be the difference in the environment you need.
4. Engage Your Brain Via Critical Thinking
If you want to know how to think outside the box, you must learn to engage your brain through critical thinking. Critical thinking tasks your brain to do something more complicated than it is used to.
The very first way to boost your brain via critical thinking is by putting your assumptions to the test. Ask questions. At some point, science believed that the world was flat and taught everyone to think so.
But that teaching was challenged by people who didn’t want to believe without testing for the truth. The result of that is that today we have an accurate description of how the earth is.
The next thing you must do is let your brain do extra work. When you are faced with a challenge, don’t just give up on the first try; ensure that you have thought about all possible solutions.
To learn how to think critically, you can go online and download some critical thinking tests. It is essential to be familiar with those tests because some employers evaluate the critical thinking skills of their employees before hiring them.
5. Befriend Creative People
The association is such a powerful tool that can influence a person’s life. That is why there is a phenomenon called peer pressure. The association enables most people to do things they would not have done independently.
If you befriend creative people, some of that innovative thoughts will rub off on you, and you will start to think like them. You do not need to do much; you only need to be around them while they create magic with their minds.
At the workplace, you can also be friends with the most creative people at work. You can ask them questions about their creative process and how they work.
As a team lead or a hiring manager, one of the best things you will do for your firm is not to always be the one bringing the creative ideas; instead, you should be able to identify and then bring together a group of creative problem solvers.
So that when a problem arises, they can brainstorm together and come up with a spectacular result.
6. Learn A New Skill
It may surprise you, but one of the ways to learn how to think outside the box is to learn something new. Just like reading a book in a new field, learning a skill helps you to put your brain to work.
Think of it this way. You are a programmer who writes and tests codes for optimal performance. Then one day, you come to work and discover an error in the code you wrote the previous day, and you need to find the mistake and correct it.
You spend the whole day trying to fix the issue but without success. In this scenario, what you need is to go rest.
When you are done resting, try engaging your brain in doing something entirely different from coding, something you are a beginner at. For example, you can learn to draw, paint or even play video games.
When you do this, you unknowingly activate another part of your brain. And most times, when you return to your PC, you will have a creative spark that can help you identify what the challenge is. So, you kill two birds with a stone-you’ve learnt a skill; and have solved your problem.
7. Allow Yourself To Dream
One of the downsides of being an adult is that we sometimes lose our ability to dream. Of course, we have those visions and things we want to do to better our lives and those around us. But we lose that ability to see possibility in everything.
The harsh realities of life tend to strip us of the dreams that fueled our drive during childhood. So, to know how to think outside the box, you must engage with your inner child again and dream.
Think about some of those things you thought you would become when you were older. Think about those dreams you had as a child, funny as they may sound. What you can achieve by dreaming is that freedom of thought.
Children do not see limits as adults do. And when you start thinking like them, the boundary in your mind is broken.
8. Always Ask Why
There are always groups of people fighting for change. For example, employee unions come together occasionally to ask for a change in how they are treated and how much they benefit from the government and other private employers.
But the truth is they do not. That is why when you bring up a new method of doing something, many people would attack it and prefer to maintain the status quo.
People can grow comfortable with things even when that thing is not so great. So, to break out, you must learn to ask questions. Why is this done this way? Why should I follow this line of thought? Theday you start to question things is when you start thinking outside the box.
9. Follow Your Intuition
Sometimes, you are stuck with a problem or have difficulties deciding because you are playing by the book. However, you are already following rules that guide what you are doing. And that is the limitation.
But you want to break out of that problem; you want to break out of that box. Well, doing the conventional things won’t get you the solution. So, why don’t you follow your intuition?
There is this sixth sense present in everyone that sometimes guides what you want to do. Have you ever felt the urge to do something different, and you did it and got results? And then, when you were asked how you knew what to do, you said you just knew.
That right there is your intuition. So, when everything fails, stick with your gut feelings because sometimes, that is how to think outside the box.
It takes trusting yourself consistently to be able to build your intuition. To learn how to trust yourself,
10. Use Criticism As Fuel
Earlier, we mentioned that people get irritated by opposing ideas when they should embrace them and use them to learn how to be open-minded. Open-mindedness is helpful in thinking outside the box.
Similarly, criticism should not get under your skin so much that you forget what you should use it for. When someone picks on and criticizes your idea, your response is not to sulk or get angry at them.
You should note their criticism, compare it with your idea and see if what they said is true. If it is, you can use it to improve your idea and yourself in the long run. Criticism helps you see parts of your idea that you did not evaluate well.
It gives you a new perspective and forces you to get out of your head and look at the problem or idea through the lens of another.
Thinking Outside The Box Activities For Adults
What are some thinking outside-the-box activities for adults that you can do to enhance your thinking? Here are some below:
1. A Game Of Opposites
Take out a sheet of paper and divide it into two columns and multiple rows. Write out words and their corresponding opposites. Write down as many words as you can remember.
You can google online for some more words if your vocabulary is limited. Then here is the game: draw the words and their oppositesas you conceptualize them in your mind. This game can improve your imagination and creativity.
2. Continue The Story
This one has to be done with a group, as you may not be able to enjoy it if you do it alone. Here, someone starts a story, and after a while, they end, and the next person continues.
The loop can keep going as long as the group wishes. This activity tests your ability to come up with something as quickly as possible.
3. Board Games
Board games are not just games; they are perfect tools that you can use to enhance critical thinking.
One of the most popular board games is Chess. It is important you learn Chess. You can also play scrabble, as finding those words help you think outside the box.
Conclusion
Thinking outside the box does not come easily to anyone because humans love their comfort zones.
It is often a necessity that forces us out of our comfort zones. We’d always want to stick to what we know instead of trying unconventional things.
That is why people who thought outside the box in history were always persecuted. And just like people didn’t like those unconventional humans then, people still don’t like it when you think differently but don’t let that stop you.
Thinking outside the box is your one-way ticket to improving creativity and boosting self-development.
