Managing Your Cleaning Supplies

I think the most creative life hacks are those that are done with cleaning supplies. Maybe that is because those are the ones that I find most useful to myself.

Like this one here with a dustpan in a sink when the sink is not big enough.

Found this and many others at LifeHack.org

Or this one to make sure your sponge is never soggy.

This was found on Kat's pintrest

There are so many creative things that can make life just a little bit easier. All you have to do is try and unlock them.

Testing Your Functional Fixedness #2

The next test of functional fixedness involves two ropes a chair and a paint can.
The ropes are longer than arms length apart and so you can not grab one end and tie it to the other. It is possible to tie the two ends together, and that is your challenge. How do you do it?

Picture from Cengage

The video from Prof Ross' youtube page will show you:

Functional Fixedness is Not Always Bad

I know I slam it a lot, but there is a very good reason why we have functional fixedness. Functional fixedness is not only one of our greatest weaknesses, it is also one of our greatest triumphs. 

This mother duck is stuck on the habit of bringing white round things into her nest.

If she did not have this fixed motion programmed into her thinking process, she could loose her chicks.

The Duck and the Ball Found on The Behavior of Imprinting

Answering the Functional Fixedness Test

If you have not read the post entitled "Testing Your Functional Fixedness" click here. This post you are reading right now will not make sense until you read the post that is in the link.

Most people who take this test do not think about the box as anything other than something that will hold the thumbtacks. The box ends up being the most important trick to this riddle. In order to keep everything from getting waxy, you pin the box to the cork board and set the candle inside. Perhaps if the list of items had extenuated the box of thumbtacks people may be able to figure it out easier.

Picture found again on David's blog

This is an important lesson though. These solutions seem so easy once we already know it. And some people may already know it after brainstorming for a little while. Not always literally like in this example, but we all have issues thinking outside of the box. Many times it is functional fixedness that is stopping us from getting there. If we could overcome functional fixedness than imagine all the problems, both simple and complex, that we would be able to solve.

Hacking Your Life with Duct Tape

The possibilities with duct tape are limitless. There are so many ways to harness the potential that only such an adhesive technology could provide. 

Picture is from gagnamite

Many people have annihilated functional fixedness while using duct tape. The slideshow below displays only a few examples of this. Leave a comment if you could think of any that I didn't get.

Finding Ideas for the Artist Date

If you cannot think of ideas for an artist date and you live in Topeka, KS I have some local ideas that you might try out.

First Friday Art Walk

The first Friday art walk is something that the city of Topeka had put together that happens (you guessed it) the first Friday of every month. You get the opportunity to be inspired by local art and maybe meet some artists that created them. Here are some of the locations involved in these festivities (brought to you by Google maps):

If Art Networking Isn't Your Cup of Tea

Think about your interests. If you like sports, go watch an event by yourself or find an open gym. If you are wanting to see a movie, you don't have to go to the theaters with someone else. The possibilities are endless and if you run out of ideas, Google is right there ready to help.

Get in touch with nature. Find a local nature trail. Go cloud watching, or star gazing. Take time to notice things in your own back yard. 

Topeka Sunset by Steve Clark

Once you get in the hang of hanging out with yourself, the ideas for the artist date will naturally start flowing. That is the best part, your creativity will start feeding onto itself. 

Giving Yourself an Artist Date

Everyone could stand to bring a little more creativity into there lives. Even if you don't consider yourself an artist humans are faced with problems that could easily be solved with a little bit of creativity. Creativity is the enemy of functional fixedness.

Picture from Hunter's Writings

Enter the artist date.
The artist date is a simple adventure (originally conceived by Julia Cameron in her book The Artist's Way) you take once a week that will help arm your creativity in the battle against functional fixedness. It's not hard to do, considering the impact it will have on your life. The concept of this is to take some time for yourself. 

The Rules for Dating yourself:

1. It has to be for yourself - no chores, no strict schedules, and no not enjoying yourself
2. It has to be enough time for yourself - Ok so technically, the real rules dictate that you are supposed to take 2 hours of the week for yourself. I know for me, I am more likely to not do the artist date if I use the excuse that I don't have enough time. I also have used the excuse what could I possibly do for 2 hours (answer there are a slew of things). If this time is simply too much, I say it is ok to embellish a little. For me, I feel like out of the 168 hours that I have during the week, I can at least take 1 hour out for myself.
3. It has to be by yourself - This one is the one that I struggle with myself because I am very people centered. Not to mention, if you have someone in your life that doesn't understand why you are taking this alone time, and they want to be with you every breathing second of the day, than you may receive some negative feedback from this person. I understand this because I have many people in my life who are expert guilt trippers, if I don't give them the time that they feel they deserve from me. You have to stay strong on this matter though in order to see the benefits for yourself. 

What are the benefits?

• Originality- you will have more genuine and more precise thoughts. This will help increase creativity.
• Lowered stress levels- effects similar to meditation, in fact your artist date could be meditation if you wanted to.
• Clarity of mind- your mind will get a break from everything it has to digest throughout the day by switching gears and activating the pleasure hormones inside.
• Discover yourself- this one was the most scary and most critical part of the artist date for me. I feel like I am able to enjoy this little things more and I get to discover my thoughts on things and sometimes surprise myself.

At first it will feel...well to me it just felt awkward. I figured I waste my time on so many other things, why not do this one thing for myself. What have you got to lose besides an hour?

You Are Getting Very Sleepy

Our minds work in mysterious ways. We have yet to figure out this maze of neurons and grey matter that we call a brain. Yet, psychologists have come a little bit closer to unlocking one mystery of the brain and how it works on sleep deprivation, but it is not what most people would expect. We are more likely to think of creative solutions when we are sleep deprived.

Think about it.

I know I have had an issue on my mind, and someone tells me to sleep on it. Often the opposite will end up happening, and I stay up all night problem solving. To me this is when I put so much pressure on that idea that eventually it explodes into a solution like a volcano. A volcano that is very chaotic, many solutions spew out all at once. That is how creativity often works. 

Found on "Can I Change My Life"

There are many reasons as to why this happens. The main reason is, functional fixedness finally becomes secondary to creativity. Your mind is not running as efficiently as it should and that is exactly what your creativity needs. Your brain has been preoccupied with categorizing all day. Finding neat little boxes to put things in. Once something is in a box it is hard to look at it in any other way and that is how someone can get stuck in functional fixedness. Pure analytical work is done when your brain is running on all cylinders. Often the analytical unit (the side that creates functional fixedness) of your brain conflicts with the creative side of your brain. Most people use there analytical unit more, so the creative part takes a back seat. 

This is a lot of work for your brain. The process is so taxing that when you are tired, your brain finds it not worth the energy it takes to be functionally fixed. Your brain tells yourself all day this is the way things are; this is the way things make sense. Your brain on sleep deprivation, does not have to make sense. Your brain does not have to except things as they are. Finally, your brain can start to entertain fascinating, innovative, and sometimes ridiculous solutions (even the most ridiculous solutions can sometimes be the best part of the brain storming process).

Our minds become more easily distracted, and go off on tangents. These tangents are ideas that creativity craves. You are more likely to think out of that box that your brain has spent all day organizing things in. Information is no longer crammed but is free to flow. Finally an idea surfaces. Thanks to a fatigued brain, creativity has finally managed to drown functional fixedness and you have a great problem solving idea that you will conquer your world with...or at least conquer a problem that keeps you up at night.

Testing Your Functional Fixedness

This is a classic test that shows just how functionally fixed most people are.  If you can solve this then you are probably an excellent problem solver. However, if you remain perplexed by this little riddle, then I will post how to solve it next week (or you can be like me, and cheat by Googling it).

The Candle Problem



Imagine I sit you down at a table and give you these three things:

Thanks to David Jones for the picture from his blog

1) A candlestick
2) Several Matches
3) A Box of Thumbtacks

Your challenge is to find a way to attach the candle to a corkboard in order to stop the wax from dripping on to the table. You must be able to still light the candle so that everyone can still smell its delightful scent. How do you do it? The answer can be found here.