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Good strategies from Ben Keenan for tapping into your creativity:
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SP: Do you have any strategies or tips on how we can be more creative?

BK: Sure, here are five:

1. Get the question right.

Before you consider the possibilities, you need to knuckle down and articulate the problem you are trying to solve in a single sentence. A problem well stated is a problem half solved.

2. Stop yourself from trying to solve things right away.

Years of rote education has drilled the question answer response into all of us.

You need to suppress that part of you that wants recognition and reward, and consider all the ways into the problem. Fill a page full of little boxes and try and put a thought in every box. Not an idea, but a thought, anything and everything that might solve the problem. Your goal is to fill the page, not answer the question.

3. Things won’t make sense after a while and that is normal.

We are not wired to consider possibilities when confronted with a problem, we are wired to jump out of harms way, that’s why the creative process makes you feel flustered, and like you aren’t getting anywhere. Understanding this helps you push through it and just keep going, it’s only after things stop making sense that the really interesting thoughts arrive.

4. Go do something else.

After you’ve a had a burst for an hour or two, go do an expense report, your time sheets, something that requires your full concentration. While you are applying conscious thought to this task, your subconscious will be sifting through all knowledge you’ve offloaded about the problem.

5. Keep a pen and paper handy.

Once your subconscious has done its job, the answers will come to you thick and fast. Usually, if we are not having any luck on a solution, I’ll just go at it for an hour or so at night, sleep on it, and an idea will come to me while I’m on my way into work the next morning. We all do this without realizing we do it, it’s why your best ideas often happen in the shower.

SP: Lastly, are there any resources / training links for people who are interested in exercising their creative muscle?

BK: There are many, I am a hoarder of them at my Thought Police site and I regularly tweet about them on @warmcola.
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smartplanet ben_keenan creativity reference how_to

"THE ULTIMATE GMAIL GUIDE: Here's Everything You Need To Know To Get The Most Out Of Our Favorite Email Service"

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Not sure I'd ever use this (and I'm not keen on cluttering up lectures with live tweeting), but this is interesting:
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...how to automatically tweet useful links and tidbits of extra information during your presentation. (...)

Now I’m not a big fan of live tweet streams during keynotes. Before you know it the audience is laughing about cheap jokes in the Twitter stream instead of listening to the speaker. Not very classy or respectful.

That doesn’t mean you as a speaker can’t use Twitter to your advantage though! At the beginning of your presentation show a slide with your Twitter account (mine is @Boris) and ask people to follow you for extra information handed out during your talk.
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twitter live_tweeting how_to

Very good summary, ten points, for online/ offline integration.

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Great article (self-explanatory title) by Kevin Purdy on lifehacker.

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The title is self-explanatory.

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Blog post by Steve Sherron on why and how to do hyperlocal blogging.
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"...I am convinced that my best chance for success is going to be in my local market. I have discovered since I began this journey that local folks are starving for attention and publicity for their business or organization. Most do not understand SEO. Few have web sites. There is a gap and a need just waiting to be filled."
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Interesting tips on SEO etc.

hyper_local blogging media newspapers steve_sherron hyperlocalblogger how_to