3 Ways to Keep Your Creative Juices Flowing When You're Always Busy

As a small-business owner, it can be difficult to find time to engage in activities that strengthen the brain's innovation muscles, such as committing to a six-month course of study, attending weekly networking meetings at your local business club, or engaging in nightly journaling and tinkering. These activities consume a significant amount of time. However, you don't need a lot of time to keep your creative juices flowing.

By incorporating brain-boosting and creativity-boosting activities into your daily routine, you can boost your brainpower constantly and on the go. Here are three activities that I recommend to busy business owners:

1. Give your ideas a place to live.

When you're out and about, reading newspapers and magazines, or surfing the web, there are simple tools that can help you notice and collect new ideas and inspiration. Simply jotting down ideas wherever you are, from the low-tech pad and pen to Evernote, a capturing software available on iPhone, Mac, PC, mobile phones, and Firefox, gives your inspiration a place to live. Evernote, for example, syncs these notes to your other devices. Similarly, Backpack is a flexible "to-do list" application that makes it simple to capture data and thoughts. Backpack items can be viewed on your desktop using a dashboard widget.

Allow yourself 30 minutes to an hour each week to review what you've collected; you might be surprised at the ideas you've generated.

2. Get around on foot.

We all have to go somewhere during the day. If possible, why not make one trip on foot? According to research, even a 20-minute walk can clear your mind and make room for new ideas. Many of our most productive ideas come to us when we're not at our desks, not when we're trying to force them out. A clinical study conducted at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign discovered that those who walk have a net increase in the efficiency of the connections within the brain's structures.

And why not turn your walk into an event? According to John P. Trougakos, an assistant management professor at the University of Toronto Scarborough and the Rotman School of Management said people should take dedicated lunch breaks every day to recharge not only with nutrition but also with a change of scenery.

3. Engage in stimulating interactions with people and places.

Happy hour drinks may appear to be a minor aspect of office culture, but they are a great way to interact with others in a casual, low-stress setting.

If you work for yourself, you might even consider organizing your own happy hour, where you go to a local cafe or bar (but don't drink too much) around 5 or 6 p.m. for 45 minutes or an hour with the sole purpose of socializing. According to a Harvard study, sharing information about ourselves activates our brain's pleasure centers. More brain activity equals greater creativity!

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