Creative slumps are something we face regularly, no matter if it’s at work or in our own personal lives. But did you know that just like improving our fitness levels through exercise, you can also hone your own creativity?

With International Artist Day right around the corner on 25 October, here are three ways you can take a leaf from artists and exercise your creative muscles:

First, tidy up your surroundings for clarity of mind. Organizing your space is an important step to improve your creativity. You can start small and try using Post-it® Flags  to label and organize your items. And as your space gets cleaned up, your mind will declutter as well.

Next, draw your ideas out! Even simple doodling can activate the creative portions of your brain and can sharpen memory and recall, which are essential to shaping ideas.

Do you struggle with brainstorming effectively? Try limiting your idea sessions to a set amount of time. Constraints often force us to source and put together different information to generate new and creative ideas, increasing productivity of such sessions.

Give yourself 10 minutes to jot down as many approaches to a project as possible. If you come up with a direction you like, take another 10 minutes to build on it, and repeat as much as you want until you feel satisfied by the results.

If you find yourself being less creative during the pandemic, you’re not alone. A global study of over 145,000 workers found that 29% reported they could not collaborate on creative work while working from home.

Brainstorming tools could help solve such challenges. For instance, the free Post-it® App allows you to instantly capture and share notes with your team without recaps or delays. With the app’s Brainstorm Session feature, you can brainstorm ideas, capture notes and organize them on a shared board in real-time. These ideas can then be exported into different formats for sorting and refining.

Outside of work and study, it’s important to let your creativity run free. Being creative does not require masterpieces or intricate artwork.

For instance, you can start with this simple origami fox bookmark:

1. Take a piece of Post-it® Note.

2. With the adhesive side facing you, fold from the non-adhesive side down about 1/3 of the way.

3. Fold it back in half.

4. Unfold it.

5. Using the unfolded line as a guide, fold it diagonally following the vertical centre line on the right side.

6. Repeat previous step on the left side.

7. Flip the Post-it® Note around and fold the right edge to the vertical centre line to create a point.

8. Fold the left edge to the vertical centre line to create a point on the other side.

9. Flip it around.

10. Draw in the details of the fox.

11. And you’re done! ?

Looking for more? Try decorating with Post-it® Notes, or surprise your significant other by creating your very own bouquet of flowers.

Craving for more? There are endless ideas you can try on the Post-it® Brand website. With just a humble Post-it® Note, you can explore without limits. This International Artist Day, unleash your inner artist and let your creativity bloom!