Two weeks ago, this column listed five New Year’s resolutions to help you become more creative in the next year:

1. Keep a paper notebook to write ideas in.
2. List the things that bug and annoy you.
3. Commit more time to think and write ideas.
4. Frequently take a few minutes to imagine and daydream.
5. Act by turning one idea each month into a creative project leading to a tangible result.

Today we complete the list. Follow all ten resolutions, and a more creative you will emerge in the year to come.

6. Sketch more

It’s said that a picture is worth a thousand words. Writing your ideas in your notebook is a great start, but adding a simple sketch to your ideas makes them come alive and become more tangible. Many people are afraid to draw, thinking they lack the ability. But even a child can draw, and although you’re very unlikely to be a Michelangelo, you can still draw basic shapes that can be combined into sketches. In the new year, resolve to sketch more and illustrate your ideas. You will rediscover the joy the child you were had when drawing in your notebook, and you will notice that sketching will produce even more ideas and amplify your creativity. And as you gain confidence and your drawing skills improve, you will find that simply doodling will become a kind of creative thinking.

7. Experience more

Travel someplace new. Live more in your senses. Try something new, something you’ve thought about but haven’t done yet. Dare to do something wild, crazy or even a little dangerous. Steve Jobs said, “Creativity is just connecting things.” Gaining new experiences provides you with new things to connect to your existing knowledge, skills and experience, so that you have a better chance to create original solutions to your creative challenges.

8. Expand your knowledge and skills

As a complement to your new experiences, expand your knowledge and skills base — particularly outside your area of expertise. As with your new experiences, this gives you more things to connect when resolving challenges. So in this new year, take a creativity training course, take drawing lessons, learn a new language, play a new sport, or take up a new hobby. Remember — what you do is less important than that you do it with an open mind, and that you apply your new knowledge and skills to help resolve your old problems.

9. Interact more with real people

Virtual social networks such as Facebook or LinkedIn are both a blessing and a curse. It has never been easier to find and communicate with new people or old friends. But at the same time, exchanging trivia with people we don’t really know, and may not even like, reduces the time available for face-to-face human interaction. When you see people eating dinner together but messaging on their smartphones rather than talking to each other, you know what I mean. If you spend a lot of time in the virtual world, ask yourself: How deep are your virtual interactions? What do you learn from online chats? How much of it is meaningless? How much of it is simply showing off to make others jealous? Last year, reports of “Facebook fatigue” emerged in the US, as people realized the shallowness of most social network interactions. Even more importantly, they steal time without producing results. Your creative energy gets frittered away in meaningless chatter, leaving you tired and empty. So resolve to spend less time in the virtual, and more time in the real world. Resolve to meet with real people to learn more and gain new insights. And instead of wasting time online, follow through on your creative projects.

10. Create more in solitude

Creation is often a solitary task. Working without interruption on a creative project that you find interesting and challenging, where you have the necessary skills, allows you to get into creative “flow.” In this “state of optimal experience” (as psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi labeled it), you can effortlessly perform and produce results. Block out at least 2 hours to work on your creative projects. Lock your door, turn off your phone and your e-mail, and devote the time to your project. Once you’ve produced what you wanted, or have reached the end of your stamina, you can reconnect to the rest of the world, satisfied with your achievement.

Of every 4 people who make New Year’s resolutions, 3 will fail to keep them. To be the one who succeeds, follow these recommendations: Track your progress on a weekly basis. Celebrate your successes weekly. Most importantly, in all your creative endeavors throughout this next year, be sure to have fun.

© Dr. Detlef Reis 2012. This article was published in parallel in the Bangkok Post under the same title on 19 January 2012.