- Buddy up. If there’s someone else looking for similar progress, who has a similar mindset to you, buddy up to help encourage and motivate each other. This is a great way to ensure you have accountability that will keep you inspired and moving in the right direction.
- Small-scale innovation really works. You don’t have to focus only on the big ideas and projects to make a difference. Making lots of small, innovative changes can add up to a greater whole, from something as simple as altering the wording on your email signature to getting up an hour earlier every day.
- Look for inspiration. From travel images to movie posters or tycoon quotes, use anything that gives you a feeling of motivation to help boost your daily mood by surrounding yourself with it at the office.
- Make it visual. If you have ideas then put them into physical form, from images and graphics to prototypes – visuals make more of an impact and people are much more likely to understand what you’re trying to achieve if you present it in this way.
- Consider the option of standing up. From meetings to informal chats, standing instead of sitting changes the entire dynamic. You might find you get more done this way and that others are more efficient too.
- Identify when you’re sleepwalking. All of us have moments in the day when we’re just on autopilot. Identify the times when this happens to you and find ways to do those jobs differently so that you’re always present.
- Look around you. Make sure you spend enough time out of the office each day to feel refreshed and remain alert. Use your time outside to be fully present and notice everything around you, from the smallest blade of grass to huge buildings and the details of human faces.
- Explore the idea of a ban. You can force yourself to do things differently if you take certain things off the table. So, for example, you might ban yourself from using a word that you tend to write a lot or certain communication tools. See how innovative you can be when your regular patterns are disrupted.
- Feed creativity with creativity. Spend the first hour of your day immersed in creativity, whether that’s listening to music or podcasts, sharing ideas or doing something like sketching or singing. You’ll find your imagination sparked by this far more than just diving into your emails as soon as you wake up.
- What would Obama do? It doesn’t’ have to be a historic ex president but take your hero and think about what they would do if faced with a situation like you’re in and use that inspiration to approach it differently.
Our top 10 ways to innovate at work every day
You know what they say, only boring people get bored. No matter how mundane you find some of your every day tasks, if you apply some innovation to daily problems then you can not only get more from what you do but help to move your career forward too.