The Creativity Challenge: Design, Experiment, Test, Innovate, Build, Create, Inspire, and Unleash Your Genius

by Tanner Christensen

As seen on Inc. com

Discover your "Aha" moment--right now!

What's the best way to become more creative? Just change how you think! This book challenges you to go against your default ways of thinking in order to write, design, and build something extraordinary. Featuring more than 100 challenges, exercises, and prompts, each page guides you as you push past the way you normally see the world and uncover all-new possibilities and ideas. The Creativity Challenge teaches you that you already have immense creative potential in you--you just need to tap into it.

Whether you're feeling stumped or uninspired, these creativity prompts will help you ditch typical thinking patterns and finally unleash the possibilities hidden within your mind.

Genres: Design, Self Help, Nonfiction, Personal Development, Education

208 pages, Paperback

First published July 3, 2015

Reviews

[Becky · Rating 3 out of 5]

The creativity suggestions were okay, but I didn't feel particularly inspired with them.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was so excited when I learned that I would receive a copy of this book as a Goodreads giveaway because I am always looking for new ways to stimulate my creativity. I was not disappointed. The book itself is visually appealing with its bright blue color and its bold black and white writing on the cover.

Christensen opens with an introduction encouraging highlighting, doodling, and dog-earing pages- yay! He provides 150 tips for breaking through creative barriers. Each page offers a creative challenge exercise. The book is well researched with references to psychologists, neuroscience studies, and other creative experts.

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Disclosure: I was provided this book for free in order to conduct a review for my site TipsyWriter.com

This book would catch my eye anywhere, but if I close my eyes and imagine it, it's the sort of book that you can't help but pick up when you notice it lying there on a front table of a bookstore. Not only because of it's bright colors and easy to read layout, but because there's something about it that says, "You need this book."

Whether you're someone who considers themselves to be a "creative" or not, this book of 150+ creative prompts will have you hacking your creative genius within minutes. Although not structured like a novel or "normal" book, you'll be fighting yourself from wanting to do MORE every time you crack this one open.

If you want to feel challenge, if you want to push your creative limits, or even if you just want to inspire yourself to DO MORE - get this book. You'll learn more about your creativity with this book alone than any time behind a computer screen alone could teach you.

I'm serious, try it.


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[Magie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was hoping for more from this book. I can tell that it is decent and obviously has a wide range of exercises to help one get I to a creative mood. However for me only a handful of things seemed truly interesting or like they might help me. Either way this is a good resource to have for those really tough dry spells.

[Nubia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book in order...which is says you don't have to do. The way it presents challenges is fun and diverse but it slowly starts to get very repetitive. Even the descriptions start to use the same language for similar exercises. The book could have easily ended with about half the number of exercises.

[Kme_17 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this as a first read. A fun book. This one is a group of challenges to have more creativity, or at least get a little bit unstuck. I enjoyed the ideas. I will definitely try some of these challenges. Recommend to ones looking to have a fun way to become more creative.

[Stef · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some of the ideas were good. I appreciated that this was activity-based and prompted readers with ways they can be creative instead of talking abstractly. For whatever reason, though, I found it easy to abandon and was never excited to go back and pick up where I left off.

[Chrislin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is well written and put together. I think you can read and enjoy this book then go back to it again and again. Or better yet pass it on to someone you care about.

[Corina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Must buy a physical copy!!! So much love for this book and the idea behind it.

[Terri Fleming · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great activities for my classrooms that I can use as bell ringers. Thanks!

[mavromou · Rating 3 out of 5]

Este es un libro interesante para entrenar la creatividad dado que en el se describen 150 desafíos para desarrollar el pensamiento creativo clasificados bajo distintos conceptos como por ejemplo, divergencia, convergencia, etc...

No hace falta leer este libro en algún orden específico, y lo interesante es que varios de los desafios propuestos tienen referencias a estudios científicos...

Uno de los que sospechaba anteriormente pero no habia confirmado es el hecho de escuchar musica de Mozar ayuda al desarrollo del pensamiento creativo...

"En 1993, una investigación dirigida por la profesora Frances Rauscher Los investigadores concluyeron que escuchar las obras de Mozart (específicamente su sonata K448) durante 10 minutos condujo a un aumento en las habilidades de razonamiento espacial. En 2001, la Universidad de Illinois reafirmó la investigación inicial: Escuchar a Mozart tiene un impacto poderoso en su capacidad para pensar creativamente". The Creativity Challenge, by Tanner Christensen

[Samaa Ahmed · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have been ~reading~ or working through this book for nearly 2 years now, but it was never really compelling enough to fully capture my attention and become a project that I felt any urgency to finish. For that reason I've decided to retire it today, once and for all, and I've donated the book to my library.

As a designer and artist, I expected that this book would be really exciting and fun for me to work through, but it was a bit underwhelming. Sort of interesting enough to flip through and think "perhaps that's a fun activity....for another day"

Maybe if you really need prompts to get your ~creative~ juices flowing, this is the book for you. But I feel that creativity cannot be taught or forced. For me, creativity has always come from inspiration, and unfortunately, this book failed to inspire me.

[Blue Weasel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Each page is a different challenge, so you don't have to read the book front to back. I'm not going to give it one star because it is quite possible that my disappointment in this book is partially my fault for wanting something different out of reading the book. When I think of the idea of creativity, I equate a feeling of fun with that idea. I only found a hand-full of challenges that I, myself, considered "fun". So I didn't really even do many of the challenges.

It is completely possible that some one else would enjoy this book.

[Gita Swasti · Rating 3 out of 5]

Buku ini menjadi sebuah pemicu yang bagus untuk memulai sesuatu.
Yang terpikirkan ketika menyelesaikan bukunya adalah bagaimana saya bisa membawakan contoh-contoh latihan mengasah kreativitas pada mahasiswa yang saya ajar.
Secara garis besar, Christensen memberi panduan bagaimana cara menggunakan buku ini. Ia membagi tipe-tipe tantangan kreatif ke dalam lima kategori, (1) Convergent, (2) Divergent, (3) Lateral, (4) Aesthetic, (5) Emergent. Christensen mendetilkan satu per satu latihannya. Teknik-teknik seperti ini berguna sekali ketika bingung harus memulai dari mana.

[Mika · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting and challenging prompts to get your creative juices flowing. Don't just read through — the magic happens when you apply it. I did and now I've strategized creative and fun ways to move forward in my goals. So exciting!

Much more whimsical when you invite your siblings to do it with you.

[Rajesh · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Creativity Challenge by Tanner Christensen is a quick, punchy read that jumpstarts your creative mojo. It’s packed with easy exercises to build innovative habits and rethink problem-solving. Some ideas might feel familiar or repetitive to creativity buffs, but it’s a good pick for anyone wanting a little bit of fun !!

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

A true guide if creative projects.

Many books have tried to help minds be more open. I have never seen a book that has project ideas yet you can still make the challenge your own.

[Mayra Zurita · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excelente!

[Pierre-Henry Soria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding book! Highly recommended :)

[Jate Saitthiti · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are a lot of methods to think about creativit.

[Angeline Bhavya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quick read that's more useful as a reference book to get ideas to jog your creative mind and generate new ways to think. Was a great guide to help me prepare a 'workshop' on creativity.

[Pierre-Henry Soria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing one! Highly recommended!

[Luis · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very distributed and "light" notions of creativity. No real thread of thought, no stance. Useless for someone who read more than three books about creativity.

[Emma Nogueira · Rating 3 out of 5]

Muy interesante. Los ejercicios son bastante sencillos, pero es muy bueno el inicio definiendo los tipos de creatividad y cuales ejercicios corresponden a cada uno.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great creative exercises in here.

[Tamara · Rating 3 out of 5]

This had some really good ideas for expanding and working on creativity. Some were strange, and others helpful. It also looks nice....

[Dzung Vuong · Rating 3 out of 5]

149 ideas/challenges and #150: Create your own challenge.

Many of the challenges we can use and apply immediately.

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was so much fun to use! I found myself laughing out loud, even by myself while driving, as I pursued the challenges. The book contains simple, neat ideas to get your creative juices flowing. Most of them don't take long to do. I felt like I was thinking of solutions quicker in my everyday life after completing some of the challenges. It is a source you can go back to time and again when you find yourself in a rut. You could use these ideas in a regular ed or creative dramatics classroom as well as for it's intended purpose: to jumpstart your own creativity.

(I received this in a goodreads giveaway.)

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book offers 150 different activities to use to jumpstart creative projects. Most could be used for brainstorming ideas or solutions in non-creative areas as well. Some suggestions are very simple, such as turning your project upside down to get a better idea of what areas need more work. Others are more complex such as drawing a map without using physical landmarks (just things like sounds or smells). Overall the challenges are designed to force you into looking at things in different way in order to spark ideas.