Those of us working in creative marketing roles know how important it is to come to work with fresh and innovative concepts. We’re charged with developing unique content that communicates our brand and motivates engagement, which requires us to constantly be thinking outside the box. So it can feel especially disheartening when we lose our momentum and our stream of great ideas suddenly runs dry.
Creative ruts are far more common than you think and can be due to many factors — such as burnout or boredom. Even though you may enjoy your work environment and relish the opportunity to collaborate with your colleagues, constantly churning out creative content can leave you feeling mentally fatigued. This can create a vicious cycle that places you in a serious funk — it’s hard enough to be productive without feeling physically, emotionally, and mentally exhausted.
Thankfully, we already have the shovels to dig ourselves out of this rut. We can create a work culture that inspires creativity by implementing practices that help us feel both rejuvenated and get those creative juices flowing. These activities allow us to take our mind off the immediate task and develop new skills — leaving us feeling refreshed, reinvigorated, and re-energized to hit the ground running.
So, whether you’re lacking innovative ideas or simply trying to avoid burnout in the first place, keep reading to learn about office activities you can incorporate into your daily work environment to inspire more creative marketing ideas.
Implement a Daily Meditation Practice
Did you know that meditation can improve your creativity? It can also help relieve stress and anxiety, allowing you to avoid triggers that hinder your ability to do your job. In short, taking just a few moments out of the day to practice being in a calm and quiet space can lead to many benefits that will help you be more productive and efficient in your role.
If you don’t know where to start, YouTube is a great resource for guided meditation videos. Or, you can access helpful apps directly from your phone to gradually adopt a meditation practice that works best for you. Headspace users build the length of their guided meditation as they continue to make progress, which allows them to develop this skill over time.
Ask Your Peers an Interesting Question on an Internal Blog Post
Sometimes, all you need to inspire your next great idea is to start asking questions and collecting feedback. Thanks to the dozens of collaboration tools aimed at facilitating workplace collaboration, the process of reaching out to gather answers from a broad audience is easier than ever before. Next time you’re feeling stuck, take advantage of these resources by writing a blog post that encourages your team members to chime in and help you find a solution.
At Act-On, our team uses Jive — an internal community where we encourage our peers to both share their work and initiate threads on a variety of topics. This tool creates a sense of togetherness within our team and serves as a space to get people talking and sharing about topics they enjoy outside of work. Our team members regularly write about personal and professional experiences and interests and then invite colleagues to contribute their own opinions.
Hold a Bakeoff (Or Some Other Contest)
Nothing sparks joy and creativity better than asking your peers to engage in an activity that takes them away from their computer and encourages them to explore other talents. Doing this makes work seem less like work (even if only for a few moments), and adding a competitive aspect motivates your colleagues to bring their “A” game.
My fellow Act-Onians are always coming up with unique contests to celebrate special occasions and, sometimes, just for fun. Most recently, we held a bakeoff in honor of National Pie Day and encouraged employees to contribute their best and tastiest creations. Although some people went with more traditional choices like apple and pecan pie (it never hurts to stick to the basics), others went all out with their presentation.
This activity wasn’t specifically meant to spark the next great idea, but it did create a fun, inspired environment, which always helps fuel the creative process. You never know when your colleague’s unique creation will inspire your next campaign.
Create a Mood Board
A mood board is a great way to gather inspiration when you’re looking for your next big idea. You can create a physical mood board that sits somewhere in your office or online through a digital tool like Pinterest. Once you decide on your format, create a board dedicated to a specific project or topic you want to explore, and encourage your colleagues to share visuals related to that theme over a certain period of time.
Once that timeframe is over, schedule a meeting for your team to review and analyze the final product. This will help you identify common themes within your group, as well as those ideas that help you think about the topic in a different way. Afterward, use the insights you’ve gathered to help you develop your next big campaign or project.
Fun Office Activities Lead to More Creative Marketing Campaigns
These practices help inspire creativity, enable you to approach the workplace in a very different way, and eliminate the stress of having to come into the room with a winning idea. Let us know if you plan to incorporate any of these practices into your daily office life or if you have any of your own ideas to share. Once we get enough responses, we’ll create our own crowd-sourced mood board to share!