Think INSIDE the Box

Why the typical approach to creativity is wrong.

When trying to spark creativity, we are often told to “think outside the box” or to “color outside the lines.” On the surface, this makes obvious sense as it generally means to find a different approach to the creative endeavor of the moment.

I’m here to tell you we have it backward.

I firmly believe that constraints and restrictions fuel creativity. Jazz legend Charles Mingus once said, “You can’t improvise on nothing; you’ve gotta improvise on something.”

In studies done at Rider University on the link between constraints and creativity, students were given eight nouns and tasked with using them to write rhyming couplets – like the ones anyone would find in a typical greeting card. Similarly, another group of students were asked to write rhyming couplets without being given the restrictions of using specific nouns. The work of the individual groups was then evaluated for creativity by a non-partisan panel of experts. The results were fascinating: the group that started with the restrictions of having to use specific nouns consistently outperformed the other group.

As someone who writes weekly – and sometimes daily – this resonates deeply with me. Whenever I sit down to put digital pen to paper, I start with a blank page. Sometimes, that blank page is daunting to the point where my mind doesn’t know where to begin. To avoid this, I have a rule when I write (or create anything, for that matter): I see the beginning, and I know where it ends. Using those twin cornerstones, everything that goes between simply connects the dots. If I don’t have those dots to connect, my mind tends to wander into tangents, which decreases the velocity and quality of my productivity.

One caveat: many believe that deadlines can fuel the creative process. From my perspective, there is some truth to this, as a firm time constraint will save projects from dragging on into eternity. It’s also true that feeling a lack of pressure allows the mind to flow and discover creative solutions. My approach is simple: I make creative deadlines challenging enough to stretch and push me but not so difficult that I might buckle under the time limit.

More often than not, a blank page is simply too blank to be helpful.