I came across an image recently entitled "29 Ways to Stay Creative." As someone that relies on creativity on a daily basis, I gave it a look, because I know how awful it feels to hit a wall while working. Anything to avoid that.

There's actually some great stuff in there. I could go through each one and talk about it, but I'll save your time and my hands. The thing I like about this list is that it's not aimed at any particular field, more like life in general.

Go somewhere new? Listen to new music? It's amazing how much these actually can change your productivity. Just yesterday I had the day off and was brainstorming for some logo ideas (not for anything in particular either, just to make some hypothetical logos - harder than it sounds) and I decided to check out some new tunes on Spotify. The words in the songs, their titles, and simply the way the songs made me feel or what they made me think of, put me in a new mindset and helped me come up with ideas.

A few of my favorites though, fall into one arc. Be open, collaborate, and get feedback are all very important to me. As someone who did a good amount of freelance work after graduation, I really missed the atmosphere of working with people on a project. I made some good stuff on my own, but having people around to bounce ideas off of, or simply to give small suggestions can make the difference between good work and great work. As creative as you may be, someone else will always see what you're doing through different eyes and be able to give feedback that you'd never even considered.

Most importantly, as one of my old professors used to say, is that creativity is a muscle...If you don't use it, it will go away. Work it out like you would any other muscle and it'll get easier to use it. Ignore it, and everything will get harder (think 'being winded after a flight of stairs).

So take a minute to read through the list, and no matter what you're doing, some of these are definitely things to live by. Have fun maybe #28, but it also may just be a side effect of doing the rest of the list.