After such a long winter holiday, many of us are finding it difficult to get back into the swing of things at work It doesn't help that it's cold and grey most days – what do we have to look forward to? Another day of staring at a blank screen, or a colleague's blank screen, or anywhere but at the boss when they ask 'Does anyone have a solution?' (No, nobody has a solution. You've called a 9am meeting, and we're all still checking our clothes aren't on inside out.)
Luckily for you, we've come up with some problem-solving solutions to help you solve problems. And you'll really like our first piece of advice: sleep on it If there's a particular problem nagging at you, then sleeping can free up parts of your mind to discover a solution. So straight after that 9am meeting, you can go for a nap and it's totally like doing two hours of work. Right? Right.
We also like mind-maps and automatic writing. Sometimes we put the cart before the horse when we go to start writing, and think we need to have the idea before we start typing. Not so! In this day and age, we can ramble on for pages, find the solution in our ramble, and just hit delete, with not a jot of ink wasted. (I've written this piece out six times so far, although the first try was mostly 'Should I really be writing this before breakfast, I think my brain works better with Weetabix inside it, wait, does food actually reach the brain, how does the brain get fed, what IS brain food, is it like fish food…' until I had a cup of tea, and order was restored.)
Doing something different can help jerk your brain into problem-solving mode. It might come as a surprise to you that staring at a blank screen can actually lull your brain into a false sense of security. 'Is this what we're doing now?' it thinks 'I'll just take a quick mind nap then, while it's quiet.' as your conscious is banging on the (apparently soundproofed) door to your napping subconscious. Getting outside and going for a brisk walk will wake up your brain, especially when it comes to things like crossing the road, or diving out of the way of pavement cyclists. Then you can work together, with your brain, to solve the problem! (And maybe have a nap right after too. It can't hurt, right?)
You can also do automatic writing, but for your mouth. Like automatic speaking, except we just call it 'improv'. Going to an improv group will encourage your brain not to be ashamed of the first thing which comes out of your mouth, and trains you to think faster of things to say which make (a certain kind of) sense. As a bonus, you'll get a lot better at fielding questions during presentations – although shouting rabbit, carrot, horse and blowing a party horn might not go down so well.
Do you have any tried and tested methods for problem-solving? How have you woken up the creative side of your brain before?
Funny Women Players launches this weekend on the 19th of January.
