A couple of things that happened over the past week has stimulated my thought process about having more fun on a daily basis. The quote by Richard Branson “A business has to be involving, it has to be fun, and it has to exercise your creative instincts.” that was tweeted, an email that I read over the weekend “Should my marketing be wacky?” and the image that accompanies this blog post, that whilst may be a bit on the edge for some people it made me laugh out loud…..
We all get so involved in everyday tasks and to-do lists that we can sometimes forget that we should be having fun and enjoying real belly laughs whilst working.. and through fun can come creativity, which in turn will make your business stand out. So what can you do in your environment to help stimulate fun and exercise creativity?
The email that I received over the weekend about wacky marketing talked about a company that provide childrens products, they have introduced a slide into the main meeting area so you have to ‘slide in’. (The author of the email is Graham Jones, I thoroughly recommend you subscribe!) Now while that may not be something that you can do in your working environment lets think of some things you could achieve, as its much easier to be productive, creative and happy at work in a colourful environment, small things will make a difference and even if you have a home office you can easily achieve these things:
- Write your memos and notes and messages in different coloured pens – the more colours you use every day the better
- Create a ‘white board wall’ – you can paint your wall with a special white board paint, scribble on it, doodle on it, you can always wipe it off!
- Music, get an uplifting music list together and play it at full volume, dance to your favourites as if no-one is looking
- As a child you used toys to express your creativity and expand your imagination and more importantly have a bit of fun. Who says you can’t have toys at work that you can use when you need to take a break, who knows what ideas will begin to spark
- Stimulate all of your senses, treat yourself to your favourite food, get some essential oils burning.
- Have bean bags scattered – or different types of chairs, couches… they don’t have to be office chairs which tend to be dull and boring
- Plaster your walls with happy images, they’ll always make you smile.
The one key element of successful creativity is humour, everyone likes to enjoy themselves and share a joke…make sure you incorporate this into your everyday working life, it will open doors to new innovative ways of working and creative marketing ideas, which in turn will help grow your business.