“Think outside the box.” That advice is about as helpful under time pressure as telling a three year old to “calm down!” in the middle of a tantrum. We all want to be creative when we face tricky problems, but how?

Many creativity experts advise opening your mind to wacky ideas, and creating a sense of total freedom when you’re brainstorming. I’m here to argue for the opposite: Limitations actually help you create new ideas and solve big tricky problems. Why? My research suggests that too much freedom is actually paralyzing – it provides too many choices and our brains get overwhelmed.  Limitations, or constraints, help you unleash creativity inside your own brain, and inside your team.

I was recently interviewed on the Thrivecast podcast about using constraints to get creative in solving business problems. (All forms of creative work, from running a startup to launching a new innovation demands creative problem solving, and running an innovative accounting practice like the Thrivecast advocates is no different!)

Here are some of the tips that came out of the conversation. Give them a try.

How to use constraints to boost creativity in problem solving

1. Define the problem.Write down a problem you want to solve in your business. Maybe you want to find a way to double sales, sell to a new customer segment or have a serious problem or threat facing your business and you don’t know what to do about it. Write down the problem.
2. Create some crazy constraints. The next step is to “playfully” think of five different categories of ideas to consider that might help solve the problem – each category is a constraint, or a limitation that helps your think about the problem from a new perspective. One category might be ideas that could get you arrested. One category might be ideas you can’t afford. Another would be ideas that involve other people. How about ideas that use no technology? A last might be ideas inspired by the movie Frozen. The purpose of the crazy constraints is to force your brain to examine ideas and concepts in a new and different way.
3. Get it on paper. Now it’s time to start writing ideas in each of the five categories you’ve chosen. Set a crazy time constraint. For example, you have three minutes to list as many ideas as possible in each of category. Keep your pen moving! When you get stuck, don’t think… Write ‘ideas ideas ideas…” until you get a new one. There is no wrong answer, there is only wrong process. Take a one-minute break between each category. No analytical thinking allowed. No planning or judging yourself or your ideas as good, bad, possible, impossible. Complete all five “ideation sprints”.
4. Get picky. Is it interesting? Is it smart? Read the ideas you wrote down and put a star next to the ones that seem interesting to you. Not good, interesting. (And you know it’s interesting when you read it and you get a little bit nervous.) Now read the list again and circle the ideas that sound smart. What you’re looking for here is an idea that is both interesting and smart.
5. Go a little deeper. Select three of the ideas, preferably the ones that you consider both interesting and smart, and write a one pager on each of the three ideas. You are basically describing those three ideas in more detail. It can still be a little messy. You’re trying to see if you have the “brain juice” to turn your ideas into reality. It helps you determine if you want to create an action plan to make it happen.

xo,