Five Simple Ways To Boost Your Creativity

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Feeling like you’re in a bit of a creative funk? These five ways to boost your creativity will help rev up those creative juices in no time!

Lily just turned nine months on Friday. I have no idea where time has gone! It seems like just yesterday I was pregnant with her and we had a disaster of a house trying to get prepared for her. Now she’s here, nearly walking and we still have a disaster of a house.

But for a long time, I was pretty convinced that having a baby just zapped my creativity. Like she was born and poof! Gone. I struggled to write blog posts. I struggled to resume my creative hobbies. Honestly, I struggled to do anything that didn’t revolve around babies.

Turns out I was sleep deprived. Still am. And also a little rusty when it came to trying to boost my creativity. I had a lot of extra time towards the end of my pregnancy. I slowed down with work and responsibilities because I needed to rest. But I used that time to be creative.

I spent days creating, daydreaming of creations and planning for the future. Then Lily came and my priorities shifted. A lot. And it’s taken me a bit to get them all figured out and organized again. But now that I have, I’m SO ready to get back into creating all the things.

So here are my five favorite ways to boost your creativity.

Five Ways to Boost Your Creativity

Carry a notebook (or use something like Evernote). I have the best ideas at the most random times. Showers, middle of the night feeds, story time – essentially any time I’m not trying to be creative is prime time. I use Evernote on my phone (I lose notebooks) so I can easily jot down ideas when they come. I also got a waterproof case for it which means showers are fair game for creative thinking, too.

I like to have different lists so they’re already pre-sorted, too. A great option is the Get Things Done method, but I’ve also used simple lists like:

  • Household Projects
  • Personal
  • To Buy
  • Look Into
  • Hello Nature
  • Blog Post Ideas

Indulge in some me-time. I forgot what this felt like for a long time. Once I started taking some time for me – beyond dedicated work time – I felt whole again. And the ideas flowed a lot quicker. One of my favorite ways to indulge?

Ice cream and a good book or magazine.

Doesn’t matter the time of year, ice cream is always my favorite thing to indulge in. Especially fun flavors that remind me of small-town ice cream shops. Which is why I love Kemps.

The cool thing for me, as a Midwesterner, is that buying Kemps is buying local. Since 1914, Kemps has been bringing their delicious dairy products to the upper Midwest from Southeastern MN. And with every purchase, money goes back to the family farmers they work with. They have delicious traditional flavors (such as Chocolate, Strawberry, and Vanilla) and exclusive flavors (such as Moose Tracks, Pearson’s Salted Nut Roll, and Caribou Coffee Java Chunk) that make every break for some me time extra special.

I’m pretty grateful that one of my favorite grocery stores (Festival Foods) has a massive selection of Kemps, too!

It’s amazing how a fifteen minute break with some ice cream and a quick read is enough to break through a creativity block or fill my cup enough to bring some new ideas to the table.

Get outside. Heading outdoors is guaranteed creativity overload for me every time. It energizes me mentally and physically and clears my head of all the muck. Negative thinking, uncertainty, stress – all of it disappears. All that’s left is room for creative ideas that can be explored freely.

I’d absolutely recommend doing a physical activity (walking, hiking, kayaking, biking, etc) if you can, but it’s not required. Just sitting under a tree and taking in your surroundings can be enough to rev up those creative juices.

Do something new. Doing the same old, same old doesn’t require creative thinking. Chances are you’re probably doing things without even thinking about them. Try something new instead. It doesn’t have to be something huge like skydiving or visiting a new country, either. Try a new recipe or restaurant. Take a new route to work or the grocery store. Listen to a new band or read a book from a new to you author. Just find a way to add a new perspective to your life, big or small.

Meditate. Confession: I used to think meditating was a bunch of hooey. Like, who can clear their mind for any amount of time and just be? Not me. Must be a joke. Then I saw Eat Pray Love and empathetically shook my head yes when she was nicknamed Groceries. A few years and a whole lot of life experience later, I tried it.

And it was magical.

It took awhile, but I kept at it. I’m not anywhere near doing unguided meditation yet, but the calm I achieve after a ten minute guided session is pure zen. It’s like it clears the cobwebs away and unlocks ideas I had no idea were sitting there. I’d absolutely recommend giving it a try, especially if you are anything like I was.


Want to get really creative? Grab your phone and do a walking meditation while you go for a different walk than you normally do around your neighborhood. Come back home, get your favorite dish of ice cream and read for a bit. Then take fifteen minutes and do a brain dump of all the creative ideas you have. In about an hour, you’ll have come up with enough ideas for days!

And while we’re talking about creativity, head over to Kemps and help them come up with new ice cream flavors! Kemps will select the best flavors from the Kemps Locally Crafted Sweepstakes and produce for purchase later this year

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My flavor is a recreation of this S’more Latte in ice cream form:

  • Cold Brew Coffee Ice Cream
  • Marshmallow Swirl
  • Graham Cracker Swirl
  • Dark Espresso Nibs Mix-In
  • Marshmallow Mix-In

Now it’s time to make your own and you could have your very own flavor to indulge in during your me time! Just click through the Kemps Locally Crafted Sweepstakes entry to see all the Kemps base flavors, swirls, and mix-in toppings that you can include.

#KempsLocallyCrafted #Sweepstakes (5/1 to 5/31)


Feeling like you're in a bit of a creative funk? These five ways to boost your creativity will help rev up those creative juices in no time! Feeling like you're in a bit of a creative funk? These five ways to boost your creativity will help rev up those creative juices in no time!