The other day I dug up my copy of A Whack on the Side of the Head, the great creativity book by Roger von Oech. The book is like a Chinese menu, overflowing with exotic and delicious dishes, some of them familiar and some quite unknown.

I’m leaving it front and center on my desk and hope to grab one or two exercises a day to whack myself and refresh my creativity.

Today’s pages looks at all the ways we can get “whacked:” a question you never thought about, a joke, a paradox (such as artist Paul Gauguin saying “I shut my eyes in order to see.”), a job loss, a teacher pointing out your special talent in an area you hadn’t considered or even recognizing a connection between two things that previously seemed unrelated.

And I’m starting to consider creativity as a regular part of my life everyday, like the pet cat who sometimes disappears for a few hours but always turns up for a meal or jumps in your lap just when you least expect her.

Someone on Twitter suggested an excellent post on the PsyBlog titled: “Boost Creativity: 7 Unusual Psychological Techniques.” The blog is subtitled “understand your mind” and written by Jeremy Dean, a researcher at University College London, who covers an array of topics from memory to getting big project completed.

The creativity boosters also seem to come from eclectic sources and approaches.  I especially like No. 2, Fast Forward in time. The posting reads:

“Like psychological distance, chronological distance can also boost creativity.

Forster et al. (2004) asked participants to think about what their lives would be like one year from now. They were more insightful and generated more creative solutions to problems than those who were thinking about what their lives would be like tomorrow.

Thinking about distance in both time and space seems to cue the mind to think abstractly and consequently more creatively.

◊ For insight: Project yourself forward in time; view your creative task from one, ten or a hundred years distant.”

I am not sure I have developed the vision and creativity to see 100 years ahead. But I may be able to look at my situation from a decade into the future, especially if I keep Whack-ing and practicing creative techniques.

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Check out Roger von Oech’s blog and “Whack of the Day.” He also has developed it as an iPhone app.

Read more from PsyBlog on the psychology of relationships, or practicing gratitude. This blog really rocks! I’m going to add it to my favorites, whenever I find time to reestablish that list.

“Perhaps imagination is only intelligence having fun.”  ~George Scialabba, book critic, essayist.

Imagine your life and work infused with creativity. It’s not only possible, it’s available to us with only a little effort.

Anyone can have more fun while increasing their creative and imaginative muscles. And it doesn’t take a trip to some fancy creativity camp in Sedona, Ariz., or any new software or hardware for our laptops.

All it requires is 15 minutes a day and embracing and acknowledging ourselves as creative people who are opening up to our ideas, interpretations and imaginative approaches to work and life.

Break out the poetry, the balloons, the games. Here’s my 15 ways to increase your creativity in 15 minutes or less:

1. Take a walk around the block. Take time to appreciate the beauty, the energy, the surprises there.

2. Brew a new flavor of tea, and then savor it away from your desk.

3. Meditate. If you are able, use a phrase that affirms your creativity.

4. Browse in your favorite shop for the brightest, the cheapest, the funniest item.

5. Play with your dog or cat — or child. A quick game or a run around the yard will revive your spirits.

6. List your creative projects and successes. Take a few minutes to look back at a favorite project, poem or piece of work – it will reinforce your talents and confidence — and encourage you to use them wisely today.

7. Watch the clouds go by your window. Better yet, go outside and locate the cloud dragon.

8.  Read three poems aloud. Or one chapter in some trashy novel or escapist book.

9.  Call an inspired or upbeat friend for a creativity chat.

10. Pull out your magic wand or your magic feather (ok, a colorful pencil will work too). Be a wizard for 10 minutes.

11.  Take a new route to work. Take a different street to go to the gym. Vary your way to the coffee shop. Enjoy the journey and don’t worry if you get a little lost. It’s part of your creative path.

12. If you work from home or an office with a locker room, take a shower and sing something silly.  Have notebook handy afterward for great thoughts ideas that show up.

13. Develop a daily ritual or mantra that underscores your creative abilities. Write it down. Post it on your desktop, bulletin board, mirror. Doodle it on your to do list or legal pad.

14.  Engage your brain in something frivolous. Here’s two possibilties:  A: Which cartoon character is most like me? My boss? My best friend?  And how could I make one cartoon show that captures what’s happening today, but more funny? B: Which super powers do I really really want?  And which super hero really is the one I most resemble? What would I be doing right now if I were X Man or Wonder Woman?

15. Sign up for a class at the Y, Parks & Rec, the local community college or elsewhere – something new and foreign and surprising. Something that will require effort and put you in new spaces with different kinds of people. (I admit: The class will take more tan 15 minutes – but it could bring you so much inspiration and newness, worth the time investment in creative dividends.)

Only a couple of these  ideas requires you to spend more time hunched over your computer and staring at the same piles and projects on your desk.  Instead, I’m focused on activities that encourage you to move out of  the workspace and into your new groove.

Leave work behind for 10 or 15 minutes and your brain opens up to fresh perspectives and possibilities.  That’s why my favorite creativity refresher means taking a walk outside and embracing whatever and whoever I find there.

Before I head out for a few blocks in the sunshine, I’ll close with this from PBS journalist and great thinker Bill Moyers: “Creativity is piercing the mundane to find the marvelous.”