Sometimes when we’re in a real-life problem-solving situation, it’s really difficult to do the problem-solving because we are just overloaded with too much information. My very first tip to you today is to get rid of all the information that you don’t need at that moment or at least organise it in a way that you are just taking into consideration, one thing at a time or a small chunk of things at a time. If you have everything in the whole world to try and sort through and organise that is going to be overwhelming and it is not going to help you with your problem-solving activity. This could be applied to like cleaning your room, you know, if your room is an absolute hell hole, like a complete tip then think about one corner of it at a time and work your way slowly around the room.

My second tip is an attitudinal shift. By this, I mean that you change how you are thinking at that moment. It’s tough to get into a positive problem-solving mindset if you are in a bad mood, trust me I know. I’ve been in a head funk for about three days and it’s made it difficult to crack on and do the work that I need to do.

There’s no point in attempting to do things if you’re in a bad headspace, you may need a reset because you’ve not had enough sleep. It might be that you need a reset because you have not spent enough time in nature. It might be that you need to spend some time with friends or it might be that you just need to have a quiet word with yourself and listen to some nice music which helps you to change the frame that your mind is in at that moment in time. Then think about what it is that you need to be creatively problem-solving but you’re going to need to get rid of the negativity before you do that.

The third thing is to put the problem somewhere else I don’t mean like literally give the problem to somebody else so that they can deal with it. I mean put the problem in a different scenario like just in your mind. In your mind, think about that problem in a different situation because that can help get your creativity around problem-solving up and running brilliantly. Let’s say that you are having a problem with doing your Latin homework. If you are doing it in a different room in your house does it still seem the same problem? If you’re doing it in the library where maybe you’ve got access to useful resources that could help you, does it still seem like the same problem? The point is that if you move your problem to a different physical location, there might be places where some of the solutions might be a bit easier to come by and it might help you start finding a way forward in solving the problem.

Lastly, solving the answers is most likely to come to you when your brain is relaxed and not under pressure so sometimes just like how when you’re trying to remember something you have to stop thinking about it for a minute sometimes when you’re trying to solve a problem the best way to do that creatively is to walk away from it and do something else for a while. Do not let your brain think about it, think about other stuff completely and in that stepping away from it and freeing yourself from it your unconscious mind which is a much more powerful part of your brain anyway can get to work with coming up with the solutions that you’re looking for and those are my four tips on how you can creatively solve problems.

By Gemma Bailey

www.childtherapisthertfordshire.nlp4kids.org