15 Constraints enhance creativity

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One strategy to enhance your creativity is to constrain your resources. One example of this is if you limit yourself in how much time you have to complete a task, you will have to be more creative. The resources that can be constrained may be different as appropriate to the task at hand. Perhaps it is funding, materials or people that need to be limited. This works because of the point of diminishing returns, where too many resources just add to the costs of completing a task and not the benefits of the results.

Some examples:

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• Working within a limited budget or timeline as opposed to no budget or due dates.

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• Trying to accomplish a task with a small team of only five people. Have you ever tried to get more than 12 people to agree on the same thing?

One of the reasons for this is when you have more resources available, you have more options that you have to consider and deal with. With the extra time, you often over think things and second guess your earlier decisions…