October has just begun, promising loads of fun and creativity for the weeks to come. It’s time for making room sweaters in the cupboard and adding more books to the bed stand, sipping hot chocolates and decorate homes for festive season. October is also my favourite month of the year for another reason. It is also the month for the super inspiring Inktober challenge that I love catching up to, every year on repeat, on Instagram, where artists or people inclined towards art create one sketch/art/drawing everyday for all the 31 days of the month. Creating everyday is a great way to brush up our skills and get our creative juices flowing.
But what about the people who are not comfortable with sketching or drawing?
Don’t worry!!!
I got you covered and started making list of few fun creative challenges other than drawing that you can try for this month, to unwind, unwrap and unleash and let loose those creative juices from the corners of our brain. Some are new, some are known but stick to the game and make the challenge your own. Let us get started.
Writing : This is my favourite activity as this is the easiest one to do. Just write a couple of pages or at least fill one page in your journal for the whole month. You can do it either in the morning, evening, before tea, after lunch or just before checking your Instagram for the last time of the day (wink). But do it. Write down what happened in your day or how you felt on that day or whom you met on that day or what you ate on that day. You got the idea. You can write anything as long as you are writing everyday.
Read new book/s: Book are repository of ideas and great way to look for new concepts, meet new people (on paper), get involved in the story, get inspired by the narrative or get lost on the plot. To create a challenge for this month, read book from a new genre that you haven’t read for over an year or so. Pick up two to three such books to complete in this month and let the relay reading run begin.
Start an Idea Book: This is probably the easiest one to do. Just put a small notepad handy with you throughout the month and add one new idea everyday to it. The ideas can be related to create new workouts, recipes, photos, videos or new projects to try, design ideas to explore or business ideas that you would like to pursue someday soon or after your retirement. Let the ideas keep coming everyday and store them safely in your notepad. And, when you get some free time in your day or week, go through the list. Deliberate on why you found it to be interesting and what can you do about it. Just think. Think of the possibilities and start creating an action plan.
Take Photographs: Try taking photographs everyday for this month. In case you are interested, instead of taking random pictures, select a theme to stick to and take photographs related to that theme and make it fun. Few themes to try for this project are home, plants, cars, gadgets, books, candles, windows, toys, colours, black & white, food etc. The options are just endless. Store your pictures in a separate folder in private or share them as you like it.
Invent new stories for your kids: Bed time stories are always on high demand in our home with my kid. So, to boost your creativity this month, instead of handing over a colourful story book to your kid or nephew or niece, start creating stories with an open mind, with your own mind.
Try building something: Who said Lego games or building blocks are just for kids. You, with little time everyday, can create great structures out of them and all you need is permission from your kid to borrow the toys or acceptance into their team to play along. Which option are you going for? If you have no kids at home, try creating project for yourself, something similar to what you have done during your school summer holidays, a home model or a city model, with materials and magnitude of your choice. As these cannot be completed in a day, choose a project that can be completed in a month with 5 – 15 minutes time given to it everyday.
Create new recipes: This challenge is for the people who are good with pots and knives and games with taste and flavours. Try creating new recipe everyday for a month or choose a simple cookbook or Youtube channel of your choice and replicate the dishes everyday, one dish at a time. If recipes for dinners or lunches look too tedious, try making new smoothies or mix up new salads on busy days. What do you think?
Create new looks: This option is an easy one for anyone who is interested in playing dress up games. For this challenge, create new looks from the clothes that are already in your wardrobe but never tried together before. Try new colour, pattern or style combinations and in case you are running our of ideas, try asking help from the internet style gurus out there. I am sure you will not be disappointed.
Try new workouts: When creativity can be tried in every area of life, why not try it on your workout routine? So, take a good look at your workout routine and try making little changes to it everyday. Either increase the intensity or duration of workouts or try different variations of the workouts that you do daily. Try adding weights or try mixing pilates with yoga or try changing the routes you take while you run or change the fitness channels/apps your follow for inspiration and guidance on fitness. Workout everyday and become both fit and more creative by Halloween.
Create playlists: In case you are BFF with your headphones, then this challenge is for you. Try creating new play list with 5-10 songs everyday based on your mood for day. Save them separately and see how your song library will flourish by the end of this month. You can share the lists with your friends and play them loud in the next party that you host. Either way, this challenge is fun.
So those are the ideas from me. What about you? What are you trying this month? Share your thoughts/ideas in the comments below.
Let us do this.
Little Gazette 