Most of us have a standard image of a creator in our heads. She seems to be that one person who does nothing but remains drowned in her thoughts and slouched on her chair. Suddenly a spark of creativity brings her into life and a masterpiece follows suit. But the reality is quite the opposite.

Stephen King agrees with this observation. The bestselling author of more than 50 titles reminds us that our job is limited to showing up. To be at the desk from nine to five or seven to three or whatever our working day looks like. Only then we’d be ready to recognize ideas when they show up.

That means coming up with good ideas isn’t a novelty on a few can muster. Instead, it’s a skill the masses can learn by daily practice and which they can then use to discover every opportunity life has to offer and solve problems it will inevitably throw up.

Here are multiple highly effective tips to be creative every working day:
1. Ask better questions
Most of us spend our lives asking questions in the same manner as those around us ask. Only a few have the ability to ask the same questions differently. Let me give you the example of Howard Shultz. You might remember him as the person who founded Starbucks.

Howard turned Starbucks into a global phenomenon not by asking, “How can I recreate the spirit of Italian espresso bar everywhere?” What he did was ask, “How can I create an environment which is comfortable and relaxing and where people would come to enjoy great coffee?”

Here are a few tips using which you too can ask better questions besides your UVC lamp:
 Write variations of the question that comes into your mind: Let’s say you’re planning to convince your child to read more books. Instead of asking “How can I turn him into a bookworm?” you might ask a question such as “How do I make my library irresistible for my little one?”

 Be specific when asking questions: Let’s carry on the example given in the previous paragraph. The question “How can I turn my child into a bookworm” isn’t specific. The one that follows it is. Aim to hit the nail on the head when you’re inquiring yourself.

 Use simple and direct language: Avoid asking questions tangential to what you’re supposed to do. Your inquiries should be free of big and complicated words. They should also be crisp, clear, and short. Don’t let your questions wander into the third line.

 Avoid double-barreled questions: Here’s an example of a double-barreled question: “Will the project I’m working on be over by tonight and will my boss like it?” Such inquiries are problematic because their answer will lead you into two different directions.

2. Work outside your comfort zone
What is the key difference between an office worker and Ernest Hemingway? An average office worker repeats the same work every day. Mr. Hemingway had to get outside of his comfort zone because he knew nobody would pay to read two similar books.

That’s why I want you to work outside your comfort zone. Set deadlines that your mind tells you are too difficult to meet. Impose a word limit that you believe isn’t enough to write the whole piece. Here’s an example of how that will help you out.

Dr. Seuss was once thrown a difficult challenge by his editor. He was told to use less than 50 words and still come up with a book. Some authors might have dismissed the challenge. Dr. Seuss took it seriously and came up with Green Eggs and Ham.

The great football/soccer coaches are also bounded by restrictions. Despite having more than seven players on the bench, they can bring in only 3 during the match. This forces them to bring in only those players who have the best chance to turnaround the game in their favor.

3. Say ‘Yes’ often
Most gurus would tell you to say ‘No’ as often as possible. They dish out this advice with the thinking that we shouldn’t let others bulldoze us on their way to their goals. What they don’t realize, however, is that saying no to every challenge and opportunity traps us in our comfort zone.

Let me give you an example. Imagine a student who has just graduated and is looking for a job. She has that one position in her mind which she likes to attain. While she tries to land that job offer, she says no to every other job opportunity that is coming her way.

Will she succeed in getting that job? She might. Will this approach make her more creative? It won’t. She would have said no to so many opportunities, most of which might have taken her out of her comfort zone, that by the time she lands that job her creative brain cells won’t be functioning.

Which is the reason why I want you to say ‘Yes’ more often. This openness to new projects would inevitably land those tasks on your table which would take you out of your comfort zone. You’d then have no choice but to be creative under your UVC led.

4. Dim the lights
According to recent research, dim light gives way to innovation and sparks freedom of thought. The researchers reached this conclusion after doing six experiments on 114 German undergraduates. All of whom were told to sit down in groups of two or three in office-like environments.

All the rooms had everything in common except the amount of illumination. While some had only 150 lux (dim light fixture) hanging from the ceiling, others had 500 lux (recommended light fixture). Still other rooms had 1,500 lux (bright light fixture) lighting up the interior.

The participants seated in each of the three rooms were given 15 minutes to acclimatize themselves with the surroundings. They were then presented with problems whose solution required the answerer to change their perception. Only then could they answer the questions written in front of them.

Here’s what the final results showed: students who sat in the dimly lit office-like environment solved more problems correctly than their peers sitting in the brightly lit space. That’s not all. They also felt less inhibited and freer than their counterparts under intense illumination.

5. Become an expert
What unites Bill Gates, Andrew Carnegie, John Lennon and Steve Jobs? Your first response to this question is that all of them were extremely famous. Some of you might point to their ridiculous wealth as the common factor between the quartet. There’s one more factor that unites the four.

All of them spent more than 10,000 hours learning their crafts. You can learn more about how they did it by perusing Malcolm Gladwell’s ‘Outliers’. But here’s what you need to know now: their expertise in what they did made the four legends mentioned above extremely creative in it.

In other words, if you want to be creative in any field, you must put in the hours, 10,000 of them, to be an expert in it. Putting in so much effort would open your mind to so many avenues of information that it would be able to function at a higher level than a layman.
Here’s how you can become an expert in your field:
 Micro-specialize: Unless you work as a front receptionist, your job shouldn’t be to please every client that comes in through your company’s doors. It should instead be focused on a small number of clients.

 Share your knowledge: Most of the uber-successful people I know are mentors to several young professionals. They tell me that it’s a two-way street: both the mentor and the mentee learn from each other and become better at what they do.

 Stay up to date: Make sure you read at least one article every day related to your field. Get the subscription of leading publications in your field and devour them from cover to cover. Try to build rapport with persons who are leaders in your industry.

Conclusion
Most of us think of creativity as something that comes out of the blue. That is never the case. Instead, if you look at the definition of creativity in your average dictionary, it would be defined as a strategy that makes ‘novel’ use of ‘existing’ tools. The tools are there; you just have to find a way to restructure them in a manner not many people before you have done.

Can you do that on a daily basis? You surely can provided you act on the five tips mentioned above. All of them are highly practical and you can act on them without bringing a drastic change to your daily routine. Yet they are incredibly useful and, if followed properly, would get your creative juices flowing.