Expand Your Know-How
If you want to excel at something, learn as much about it as possible. "It doesn't do much good to simply say 'I'm going to be a painter,' " says neuropsychologist Dr Rex Jung."You have to know about colour blending and brush strokes." Biology backs this: When we're being creative, our frontal cortex (the part of the brain where memory is stored and retrieved) is activated. That makes sense, because in order to come up with ideas, you need to have info from which to draw. "The more you try, the more knowledge you'll have at your disposal when dreaming things up," he says.
Make Problems for Yourself
Challenge your brain by coming up with what-ifs. You might ask yourself, What if I had to throw an impromptu dinner and all the guests were vegans? Or, What if I needed to look great for an event but didn't have time for a blow-dry?
"By inventing problems and then figuring out solutions to them, you build brainpower," says Dr Mark Runco, a creativity researcher at the University of Georgia, US.
Pick a Letter, Any Letter
"This puzzle exercises both sides of your brain," says psychologist Dr Shelley Carson. Set a timer for three minutes, then jot down all the nouns you can think of that start with a certain letter.
Set the timer for another three minutes and think of two categories the nouns would fit into-it might be places (Florida, France, forest) or parts of the body (finger, foot, face). When you're done, set the timer for three minutes again; re-ategorise the words into two more groups.