{"id":1239,"date":"2018-09-14T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-09-14T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jhanderson.biz\/?p=1239"},"modified":"2019-01-03T00:27:53","modified_gmt":"2019-01-03T00:27:53","slug":"how-mapping-can-improve-your-creativity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jhanderson.biz\/index.php\/2018\/09\/14\/how-mapping-can-improve-your-creativity\/","title":{"rendered":"How mapping can improve your creativity"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"When you\u2019re confronted with a challenging workplace problem and need to get out of habitual patterns of thought, draw a map.<\/p>\n

As John Medina points out in Brain Rules<\/a><\/em>, human brains developed in an ancestral environment that required constant motion\u2014up to 12 miles a day of walking. His point is that exercise is necessary for improving thinking skills. While I wouldn\u2019t dispute that, it\u2019s also true that drawing maps puts your imagination into motion. Mapping activates your spatial awareness and gives you access to dimensions of thinking that aren\u2019t available when you\u2019re trying to power through a difficult problem with your thought-stream alone. Creating mental space: that\u2019s one of the key benefits of drawing a map.<\/p>\n

In Sylvie and Bruno Concluded<\/a><\/em>, Lewis Carroll explores the question of mapping and scale:<\/p>\n

We very soon got to six yards to the mile. Then we tried a hundred yards to the mile. And then came the grandest idea of all! We actually made a map of the country, on the scale of a mile to the mile! It has never been spread out, yet, the farmers objected: they said it would cover the whole country, and shut out the sunlight! So we now use the country itself, as its own map, and I assure you it does nearly as well.<\/p>\n

Carroll\u2019s 1:1 scale is wonderfully absurd: it points out that maps have value because they don\u2019t show everything<\/em>. They distill the complexities of a landscape down to their significant essences. Mapping is choice-making, and when you put pen to paper to articulate the contours of the dilemma you\u2019re facing, you are editing out the trivial so you can see what really matters.<\/p>\n

Drawing a map can also put you in touch with a sense of adventure. Like an explorer or a treasure-seeker, you\u2019re not just burdened with a tedious difficulty: you\u2019re on a path of discovery, peering through a mysterious landscape, making sense of it, determining what you know and what you don\u2019t know, and beginning to trace out the path that will take you where you need to go.<\/p>\n

Try It:<\/em> Render a current creative challenge you are facing in two-dimensional space. You can draw simple thought bubbles, use basic geometric shapes, or sketch an imaginary landscape. The specifics of what you draw, and its artistic merit, is far less important than the activity of creating a sense of space and movement, making choices as to what\u2019s important to represent, and cultivating a sense of adventure and curiosity in the face of the unknown.<\/p>\n

Image: Erik (HASH) Hersman<\/a>,\u00a0https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/2.0\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When you\u2019re confronted with a challenging workplace problem and need to get out of habitual patterns of thought, draw a map. As John Medina points out in Brain Rules, human brains developed in an ancestral environment that required constant motion\u2014up to 12 miles a day of walking. His point is that exercise is necessary for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1257,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-creativity","category-tips-for-your-at-work"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jhanderson.biz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jhanderson.biz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jhanderson.biz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jhanderson.biz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jhanderson.biz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1239"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/jhanderson.biz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1239\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1549,"href":"https:\/\/jhanderson.biz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1239\/revisions\/1549"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jhanderson.biz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jhanderson.biz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jhanderson.biz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jhanderson.biz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}