Remote work is becoming more widespread day by day, setting new rules for the business environment. At the beginning of the pandemic, companies were “forced” to implement remote working policies, but now we are two years in, most companies are either turning completely remote or enacting hybrid work models.
One of the reasons companies have started to follow a remote work or a hybrid route is the greater creative activity observed during the work from home era. A 2021 study conducted by BetterUp revealed that workers had reported an increase in their creativity by 56% under remote work conditions. So, it’s a known fact that remote work can boost our creativity. However, it might be complicated sometimes, as work life and home intersect.
There are several ways to boost their creativity even further for people who have the chance to work from home. Here are five suggestions to enhance your creativity.
Bring color to your workspace
Yes, you read it right. It’s a straightforward but very effective little trick to increase your creativity when working from home. Most of the remote workers designate a place in their home as the workplace and prefer doing their jobs in that certain area. And that’s completely fine because completing tasks also requires consistency and stability. But why not juice it up a little?
An infographic prepared by Quill shows that colors can affect our work experience significantly. While colors such as blue and green establish a calm and peaceful working environment, orange and yellow might help you to increase your overall creativity. There are some minor twists to make your workspace more colorful:
- You can decorate your desk with some flowers or plants that are small enough to keep your space open.
- You can set your workplace up by a window or a balcony so that you can let nature colorize your environment.
- You can hang a picture or a drawing on your desk.
- If you have little artistry, you can even paint your own artwork for your workspace!
Find your own personal rhythm
Of course, we all are bound by working hours, but remote work allows you to go beyond those borders to create even enriched working conditions for yourself. It would be best to focus on how your mind works during different times of the day because creativity is not something you can control.
Maybe your mind is full of ideas in the early hours of the morning, or maybe you are the kind of person that blooms towards noon. You might be bubbling with ideas when the “office hours” end or you might rise like the sun in the middle of the night. You have to observe yourself and find your own rhythm for your creative process.
When you find your own rhythm, you can divide your workload accordingly. If you’re a morning bird and have several dull tasks to be completed, maybe you can choose to do them in the later hours.
Share your ideas
One of the best things about remote work is the ability to communicate with your co-workers without being bound by time and place. In the office, you have to wait for the “brainstorming” meeting to generate some ideas that usually fizzle out until the time comes and you face the difficulty of being present at the right time. But with remote work, you can overcome this obstacle very easily.
You can create a sort of a mutual file through Docs, Dropbox, etc., and let everyone in your team fill it with ideas as they come. With this, you can allow yourself and other employees to contribute to the company’s creative process, and everyone gets a chance to have a saying on the matter.
As the process becomes more inclusive, you can also quickly learn about others’ ideas and further improve your creative thinking. Implementing video conferencing through Zoom or OCTAPULL can allow the brainstorming session to be more efficient.
Make room for online courses
Training or being trained in the office environment was quite difficult because it required hiring a professional and bringing together everyone in a single place. Moreover, if you wanted to opt-in for a single training, you had to wait for your office hours to be over to attend the course. But with remote work, all of them are in the past.
If you need a course to sharpen your skills further, now you can easily take online courses free or at very affordable prices. And the best thing is that you don’t have to wait for your work to be over to attend the course. In fact, you can take the course during the day and put in an even better result for your job.
Implementing online courses might allow you to think in ways you weren’t aware of before or improve your already flourished ideas. Because creativity sometimes is about knowledge.
Work in different environments
Creating a specific workplace and committing yourself is undoubtedly a bonus for remote working; however, switching things up sometimes might help you become more creative.
Creativity is something that requires stimulation, and constantly staying in the same place might hinder it drastically. To establish a more creative working experience for yourself, you can try working in different places. Here are some possible alternative working environments:
- Try a café or a bar that’s quite enough for you to focus on but also vivid enough to enjoy a social environment. After all, we are social beings, and it might boost our creative thinking in several ways.
- Do it with a friend. You can have conversations on ideas you have, or your friends’ ideas might inspire you in general.
- Blend into nature. Places such as beaches, parks, or camps might refresh your mind and think clearly.
So, here it is. You can choose from several options to make your creative process even richer. You don’t have to apply all of them; choose what suits your mindset best and do your creativity a little favor.
