I was intrigued by the concept behind Resketch notebooks — journals created with “rescued and reclaimed” paper, which creates variety with every page. “Give your brain the same blank, uniform page every time, and it follows familiar patterns,” their ad reads. “Introduce randomness, texture, and an element of surprise…this unpredictability gently challenges your mind.”
You can adapt this concept with or without purchasing Resketch. Change up the pen you use, where you sit in a meeting room (or stand, or sit on the floor), which meeting room you sit in (outside, another building, etc.). My senior staff meetings were held in a different location every time — in part to expose us to new parts of campus, but also to prevent us from falling into complacency. I’ve done session materials on a variety of colors within the same handout and changed the order in which people are called on — anything to keep from being routine.
Ruts are easy to get into and hard to abandon. Avoid that problem by regularly mixing in some simple tools to keep your creativity fresh.
