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Wait a minute, you must be thinking, how can constraint be instrumental to creativity? Isn’t creativity all about breaking free of boundaries? Well, according to several entrepreneurs and “creatives,” constraints and creativity may have more in common than you think. One Businessweek  article, written by Marissa Ann Mayer, Google’s former vice-president of search products and user experience, argues that setting certain parameters on your creative projects helps you get over that initial “beginner’s block” when starting something with a completely blank canvas. Mayer notes:

“Constraints can actually speed development. For instance, we often can get a sense of just how good a new concept is if we only prototype for a single day or week. Or we’ll keep team size to three people or fewer. By limiting how long we work on something or how many people work on it, we limit our investment. In the case of the Toolbar beta, several key features (custom buttons, shared bookmarks) were tried out in under a week. In fact, during the brainstorming phase, we came up with about five times as many ‘key features.’ Most were discarded after a week of prototyping. Since only 1 in every 5 to 10 ideas works out, the strategy of limiting the time we have to prove that an idea works allows us to try out more ideas, increasing our odds of success.”

Setting temporal parameters, as Mayer notes, is helpful, but setting constraints on resources other than time can be extremely creativity-inducing as well. Take, for example, a Wired Magazine editorial authored by Scott Dadich, a leader of the publication’s design team. Dadich notes how having his team work within limits in the earlier stages of production spurs their creative insights. He also explains how Piet Mondrian, a Dutch painter and a founding father of modernism in painting, was so successful because he limited himself to working only with 90 degree angles, much the same way that iconic jazz performer Miles Davis limited himself with one chord when working on the album Kind of Blue.

That’s all well and good, you may think, but how does this apply to me? Well, as noted various times on this blog, time is of the essence when it comes to working with your “other eight hours.” So many of us waste time on dreaming and planning, that we don’t ever get down to working. If you find yourself unable to start, and the common advice, “just start already” isn’t inspiring you, think of ways to put constraints on your project. For example, if you are wanting to start a novel, give yourself a deadline, and tell yourself that you will deal with only a couple of specific themes, a certain number of pages, and specific narrative structure. Or, say you are planning on starting a business. Whittle down your ideas by targeting a very specific set of customers and small set of products or maybe even limit yourself to one product.

There are millions of ways that you can use constraints to work in your creative favor. Even though the sky may be the limit, putting a few more limits on yourself can help you reach the sky of your dreams faster.

By-line:

Mariana Ashley is a freelance writer who particularly enjoys writing about online colleges. She loves receiving reader feedback, which can be directed to mariana.ashley031@gmail.com.

1. Post-Christmas clean up. If you didn’t get your sap and needles fix this year, give the gift of clean up. Take down the tree, lights, and ornaments. Be sure to kick them out of the house so when they return everything has been put away.
2. Entertainment. No, you don’t have to sing for them. Set them up with iTunes, and if they already have an account at Netflix, show them how easy it is to stream 1,000s of movies to their TV.
3. Accountability partner. This is when your nagging can really pay off. How would you like to have a weekly or monthly call with a good friend where you share your goals and what you’re doing to reach them? It’s a great way to stay on track and a great gift.
4. Blog. Selling out version 1.0. If you have a popular blog or lots of Facebook friends, you could give the gift of promotion. Offer to write a piece about them or their company.
5. Pitch their business. Selling out version 2.0. Do you have people on your list that have their own business? Maybe a CPA or someone who makes jewelry in their other 8 hours? If you like their work, offer to send an email or make a call to all of your friends about their business. It might lead to more business and you’re helping your friends find a great product or service.

Now it’s your turn . . . what’s your favorite FREE holiday gift you like to give?

The biggest problem with doing something all of the time is that we spend so much of it mindlessly. Being allergic to boredom, we have a neurotic desire to fill empty swaths of time with little tasks and actions that destroy our ability to concentrate. Checking our Facebook “newsfeed” or email compulsively, scrolling through online news sites looking for something interesting, or simply mentally sifting through all the uncompleted tasks we have to accomplish at work the next day, we’ve left no time to do nothing, to meditate on the moment, on the present.

Of course, doing nothing can quickly become an ambitious, creative person’s worst nightmare, if taken too far. Sitting on the couch staring at the wall for hours at a time is not the right way to do nothing. Doing nothing productively means allocating a certain amount of time every day, maybe fifteen minutes to half an hour, where you completely unplug. Don’t get online, don’t turn on that TV, don’t do anything. Breathe deeply, and focus on one thing, whether it’s the sound of traffic outside or the rise and fall of your breath. Sounds easy right? At first, you’ll find that your mind will begin to wander. You’ll start thinking about all the things you have to do. But stop yourself. After practicing this little mental exercise, you’ll find that it becomes easier and easier to do.

Once you’ve had your dose of doing nothing, you’ll find, like I did, a renewed energy and focus to all your creative pursuits. Sounds crazy, I know, but trust me. There is value in boredom, in inactivity. It helps to reset your brain and get off to a fresh start. Perhaps Friedrich Nietzsche put it best when he said:

“They [thinkers] actually require a lot of boredom if their work is to succeed. For thinkers and all sensitive spirits, boredom is that disagreeable windless calm of the soul that precedes a happy voyage and cheerful winds. They have to bear it and must wait for its effect on them. Precisely this is what lesser natures cannot achieve by any means. To ward off boredom at any cost is vulgar, no less than work without pleasure.”

Don’t be afraid of inactivity. Welcome it and control it, and it can be one of the most effective ways to recharge and get back to creating.

By-line:

This guest post is contributed by Kate Willson, who writes on the topics of top online colleges.  She welcomes your comments at her email Id: katewillson2@gmail.com.

Here are three strategies to quickly increase your low credit score.

1.      Become an authorized user on a family member’s credit card. If you have fewer than five credit cards, adding your name as an authorized user is a great strategy for quickly improving your credit score. Authorized users are allowed to use credit cards but have no contractual obligation to pay the bills.

For this reason, a person does not need to have a high credit score to qualify for authorized user status on a credit card. However, the credit card’s history will often be reported on the authorized user’s credit report, so long as the authorized user is related to the account holder.

Therefore, becoming an authorized user on a family member’s credit card is one of the quickest ways to improve a credit score. This allows you to “borrow” the account holder’s clean credit history, which will cause your low credit score to quickly increase.

2.      Find creative ways to lower your utilization rates. Your utilization rate is the balance you have on each individual credit card expressed as a percentage of the limit. If your limit is $4,000 and your balance is $2,000, your utilization rate is 50 percent. If your balance decreases to $1,000, your utilization rate drops to 25 percent.

The credit-scoring bureaus respond best to people with utilization rates below 30 percent. If you have a high utilization rate, your low credit score can start to improve by getting your utilization rate below 30 percent.

Obviously, you can lower your utilization rate by paying down your balance. You can also lower your utilization rate by transferring a portion of your credit card balances to credit cards with higher limits, or asking your credit card companies to increase your limits.

If you have fewer than five credit cards (the maximum number you should have), you could also open a new credit card that holds some of your debt. Keep in mind that opening a new credit card will cause your score to drop initially, but so long as you keep the balance below 30 percent and make timely payments, your score will start to improve in about six months.

And if you are married, be sure to read my article about how to build credit fast by transferring balances to your spouse’s credit cards.

3.      Correct your credit limits. Almost half of Americans have a credit card with a limit that is being incorrectly reported to the credit bureaus. Credit card companies often omit or misreport credit card limits to the credit-scoring bureaus. This causes your utilization rate to appear higher than it actually is. Imagine that you have a $300 balance on a credit card with a limit of $1000. Your utilization rate is 30 percent. Good news for your credit score, right?

Not so fast. If the credit card company is only reporting a $500 limit, you will appear to be carrying a 60 percent utilization rate. And this hurts your credit score.

Are you one of the many Americans suffering from this mistake? Find out by pulling your credit report from www.720ficoscore.com. If the credit card companies are inaccurately reporting any credit limit of yours, immediately begin the process of correcting this mistake by using the forms and worksheets necessary to correct this mistake.

Philip Tirone is the author of 7 Steps to a 720 Credit Score, which reveals insider strategies for increasing a low credit score.

People already know that bankruptcies, foreclosures, repossessions, and collections will hurt credit. And it’s no big secret that late payments are one of the top ten things that will hurt your credit score.

But I bet you don’t know this dirty little secret that will hurt your credit score.

The credit card companies’ secret is this: Credit card companies often omit or inaccurately report credit card limits, and this causes your score to drop. About half of all consumers are missing at least one credit limit on their credit reports. And in other instances, credit card companies intentionally report a lower limit than you have.

Why does this hurt credit?

The credit-scoring systems place a lot of weight on something called a utilization rate. The utilization rate represents your balance as a percentage of your limit. If your limit is $1000 and your balance is $300, you have a 30 percent utilization rate. If your balance increases to $500, your utilization rate would increase to 50 percent. In other words, you would be utilizing 50 percent of your available limit.

The credit-scoring formula responds more favorably to people who have a utilization rate that is no higher than 30 percent.

Now let’s imagine that you have a $300 balance on a credit card with a limit of $1000. Your utilization rate is 30 percent. Good news for your credit score, right?

Not so fast. If the credit card company is only reporting a $500 limit, you will appear to be carrying a 60 percent utilization rate. And this hurts your credit score.

There are a lot of theories as to why the credit card companies do this. One is that credit card companies buy lists of borrowers whose limits are, for example, more than $10,000. The companies then send credit card offers with enticing interest rates to the people on these lists. Their goal is to encourage borrowers to switch cards.

Your credit card company does not want your name on that list. They want to make sure that you remain a loyal customer. In an effort to keep you as a client, some experts say credit card companies report a lower credit limit than you actually have, or they do not report your limit at all.

This makes you less appealing to other credit card companies.

This might be good news for their client list, but it causes hurt credit.

Are you a victim of this scam? If so, take the following steps:

1.     Pull your credit report from www.720ficoscore.com.
2.     If the credit card companies are inaccurately reporting any credit limit of yours, immediately begin the process of correcting this mistake.

Or, simply get all the forms and worksheets necessary to correct this mistake that hurts your credit.