In my most recent Pluralsight course on innovation, one of my tips was to go on some kind of outing. The idea is that when you get out of your regular environment, and see different things and ideas and designs and solutions and even different problems, you can get out of a thinking rut. And hopefully, that brings some level of innovation to you.
I experienced that on my five week trip to Europe, and a recent trip to Hawaii. But you don’t have to go far to get out of a creative rut. If you always show at a certain grocery store, shake it up a little. I find that different stores do different things… well… differently. From design to colors to floor layout to signs to stocking to product to customer service to checkout… innovation abounds all around us. Another inexpensive idea? Last summer we went camping for a week. I worked during the day at my office, but after work I’d go to the campground to be with my family. Lucky for me (and my coworkers!) my office had showers :p
In my email this morning I saw this:
Now of course, this is an ad to get local business leaders to bring their teams to the aquarium for meetings…. but there’s something there!
As a job seeker we can easily get into ruts. Same boring, unproductive thing, every day. Maybe what you need is a complete reset. Change things up. Work from a library or a coffee shop. Get out, change your attire, change the order of your schedule (do email at noon instead of at nine).
If you want to check out my innovation course, get a 30 day pass from inside JibberJobber. Email me if you have questions.