Divergent Thinking: The Mental Muscle Behind Consistent Creativity | Nick Wignall

Is the ability to generate many ideas or solutions from a single idea or piece of information. 

It’s thought to be one of, if not the most, important factor in creativity.

Is the ability to take many pieces of information or data and generate one solution. 

It is largely taught and encouraged in schools and workplaces.

1. The Many Uses Exercise: Pick an ordinary object, set a timer for 5 minutes and try to come up with as many alternative uses for a paperclip as you can.
2. 10 New Ideas: Every day for a week, try to come up with 10 new ideas within a specific topic or category.
3. Daily Headlines: Imagine that your day was a news story in the New York Times. What would the headline be? 
4. Articles on Trial: Challenge the conclusion of articles you read by coming up with one question you’d like to ask the author.
5. Start to notice your automatic thoughts and generate alternatives to them.