Create a Vision Board

If you need to spend time digging deeper into something, whether it is to solve a problem, or come up with something creative, try creating a vision board. This isn’t a novel concept, some of our first projects in school involved creating big poster boards. However, a lot of us have forgotten how useful of a tool this actually is.

Let’s take a step back and talk about why it works. First, getting everything down in front of you in one place does wonders for creating associations. Instead of spending our brain power recalling information, you can dedicate your energy to finding those hidden relationships subtle similarities that help solve the puzzle.  Also, your capability to process the information increases when the thoughts are presented in a tangible way, because by nature it activates more areas of your brain. 

To give it a try, when you have something big you want to figure out, you need to be prepared. The limiting factor in this equation is having the resources to create a good visual representation of your thoughts. So, something you could do proactively is to have sticky notes, colored pens, a poster board, and all necessary tools on hand so you can jump right into it when it is time. This is exactly why a lot of companies have whiteboards readily accessible throughout the office.

The visual representation can take a bunch of different forms. Whether it is scrapbooking, writing ideas on stickies, or drawing charts and webs, try to find the way that makes the most sense to you. The bigger and more colorful the presentation, the better!