7 Creative Ways to Run for Fun and Productivity
We run to get in shape, to get to places, but what about getting more creative? Here are 7 creative ways to run for fun and productivity.
There are many benefits of running. Whatever your reason is to start, you’ll experience physical, mental, and emotional gains, but perhaps the most surprising are the many creative benefits of running. Running not only supports the creative mind in healthy ways, but it can also support the creative process in many unique ways.
There are five stages of the creative process. However, many creatives pay little attention to the second stage, incubation phase, where the creative steps away from the problem for it to be internalized into the unconscious mind and where unique connections form for creative thinking. This period is where most habits of creative living take place to help the creative reach eureka or aha moments. Running can be a perfect break from the creative process that combines many elements that support the incubation period and the formation of new neural connections to help you reach eureka.
Creative minds throughout history have been drawn to long walks and running to support their creative lifestyles. Writers have used running and walking habits for brainstorming, research, collaboration, and more. Artists have become runners as a new art form. The simple act of running can aid creativity in unique ways, but when you add creative elements to your runs, a whole world of creative possibilities opens up. Here are 7 unique and creative ways to run to boost creativity in your life and your creative process.
Brainstorming Run
Get Moving to Get Ideas Flowing
Do you ever feel stuck in your brainstorming sessions? Then it’s time to mix things up. There are many creative ways to boost brainstorming sessions, but one of the best ways, and my favorite, has to be a brainstorming run.
Taking your brainstorming session on a run has many creative and health benefits to get ideas flowing and cultivating long-lasting benefits. Not only can this brainstorming method help you find the creative breakthrough you’re looking for, but the benefits will support other areas of your creative life and productivity.
Creative Benefits of Running:
- Running can sharpen your focus and critical thinking skills and has been shown to have a positive, significant effect on improving cognitive functions. (2016)
- Paired with running in nature can enhance creative ways of thinking and recharge directed attention needed when developing ideas. (2015)
- Exercise can improve mood and reduce feelings of depression, anxiety, and stress. Freeing up the mind for more creative thinking. (2016)
Details
- Distance: Go at your own pace and comfort.
- Preparation:
- Know your creative problem(s)
- It’s easier to stick with one problem at a time.
- Stretch and warmup
- Know your creative problem(s)
- Running:
- Keep a problem/question in your mind.
- Explore the problem, or just let it sit in your awareness as you run. Let ideas flow freely.
- Write down ideas on your phone (i.e., Trello) or see if they stay with you until the end of the run.
Tips
- Keep the run stress free and easy. Stop and walk when you need to rest or write down ideas. Have fun with it.
- Use your phone and productivity apps to write down ideas.
- Try new trails/paths to better support the mind and increase motivation.
- Run with others to bounce ideas off each other.
- Also, use running as a break between brainstorming to clear the mind.
Photo Run
Have Fun and Capture the Visual Stories From Your Runs
Running takes you places. There are always new things to see when exploring running trails in cities and in nature. You never know what you’ll see when you run, making it a great opportunity to boost your creativity by pairing it with photography.
Now that phones are powerful and lightweight photography tools, you can easily make your runs more creative and fun. Let curiosity guide you to see the world in new ways and capture your experiences. Pairing photography with running not only benefits your creativity but can also help you stay motivated, challenged, and more.
Photography Benefits:
- Photography is a great way to broaden horizons and discover new perspectives and ways to express oneself.
- Inspires exploration and motivation.
- Strengthens curiosity and observation skills.
- Daily photography can improve well-being through self-care, community interaction, and the potential for reminiscence.
- Enhances memory and strengthens cognitive functions.
Details
- Distance: Go at your own pace and comfort.
- Preparation:
- Stretch and warmup
- Make sure your phone is charged
- Use an arm or hand band for easy access to your phone.
- Running:
- Be aware of your surroundings while running and taking photos.
- It’s ok to stop when taking a photo.
- Look for unique compositions and experiences to capture.
Tips
- Gamify your photo run by making it a scavenger hunt for specific shots to motivate and inspire play.
- Use photo runs to inspire yourself to try new trails.
- Share your photography with friends to stay accountable for your running goals, inspire others, and share creativity.
- Use photos to tell a story of your run and make it into larger compilations of your full running journey.
- Got a GoPro? Try recording your runs to make some fun and creative edits.
Mind Mapping Run
Challenge Your Mind and Build New Connections for Better Creative Thinking
Getting lost can be stressful, but it can also be good for your creative brain. With the benefits of having a smartphone with GPS these days, getting lost isn’t an issue. This creative way to run is a fun way to explore your surroundings and challenge your mind. Mind Mapping runs can also improve productivity by strengthening the creative mind with new connections and strengthening creative skills.
Have you ever felt a surge of energy when finding your way around a new place while traveling? Our brains are naturally drawn to problem-solving and the rewards from it. The chemicals created in the body, like endorphins and dopamine, can fuel creative thinking, as well as support other areas of healthy living.
When we’re lost and exploring somewhere new, we encounter novel stimuli. These novel stimuli can improve memory, concentration, visualization, and other cognitive functions. When paired with running, figuring out new trails has been found to boost motivation and keep things fun so you can maintain a healthy running habit.
Details
- Distance: Go at your own pace and comfort.
- Preparation:
- Stretch and warm up.
- Make sure your phone is charged.
- Use an arm or hand band to not drop your phone.
- Use trail and running apps to find a new place to run.
- Save your starting position on your phone, so you can find your way back if you get too lost.
- Running:
- Part 1: Get Lost
- Don’t run a direct or planned route.
- Make turns whenever you feel like it or follow curiosity.
- Have a set mid-point distance for when it’s time to turn back.
- Part 2: Find Your Way Back
- Use your memory and spatial mapping to find your way back.
- Only use your phone if you feel really lost.
- Part 1: Get Lost
Tips
- The best way to practice this creative way to run is by finding a new trail or changing your usual running path.
- Gamify your run to help you get lost with running apps like Zombies, Run!
- While running, try to create a map in your mind to use on the second part of your run to find your way back.
- Randomize your run – Pick random turns to make, go with the flow, etc.
- Join friends or family members that run to try their unique running paths.
- Get creative with your imaginative map – What does it look like in your mind? What milestones can you create? Can you guess the distance just using the map in your mind?
- If you do get lost and need to use your phone, try the path again next time to see if you can find your way using the map in your mind.
Problem-Solving Run
Train Creative Skills by Turning Your Run Into a Problem That You Must Solve to Finish
As mentioned before, running can sharpen your focus and critical thinking skills, which can help with brainstorming and other parts of the creative process. Another way to use this creative benefit of running is to improve creative skills like problem-solving.
Turn your run into a problem-solving exercise to strengthen your creative mind and keep your healthy habit fresh and exciting.
How do you make a run a problem-solving exercise?
You make your run a problem that needs to be solved through running.
This could be done through gamification, like apps that can make your run a game, or you can try different methods of running that change a normal route into a challenging obstacle. The point is to create a problem that needs to be solved and challenge yourself in new and creative ways.
Details
- Distance: Go at your own pace and comfort.
- Preparation:
- Create a problem
- Set a clear goal
- Add constraints as needed
- Have fun
- Problem-Solving Run Examples:
- Casual or regular parkour – Use your environment to get around in creative ways
- Obstacle course – Join or create your own
- Gamification – Create your own rules or use an app
- Errand – Find an errand that can be accomplished by running to it and back
- Plogging Run – Set a goal of picking up a certain amount of trash before you end your run.
Tips
- Pair with other creatives ways to run by adding constraints and challenges.
- Create a 30-day challenge, with each day being a different kind of creative running workout.
- Create a playlist that needs to complete before your run ends.
- Create fun rewards for hitting your running goals and completing your problem-solving run.
- Run to your favorite restaurant.
- Try a different running breathing ratio.
- Join a running club, which usually has unique monthly challenges.
Gamification Run
Turn Your Run Into a Creative Way to Have Fun, Play, Stay Motivated, and Be Challenged
It’s no secret running and maintaining a running habit can be a challenge. Maybe it’s a bad day that makes you want to stop. Maybe you get bored or tired after running the same route. Maybe it’s a creative block holding you back.
The mind wants to be rewarded. If thoughts are telling you it’s too hard, and you don’t see the benefits right away, you may stop. So how can you overcome these intrusive thoughts until you’ve built the mindset and habit to maintain the habit during tough instances? One answer is gamification.
Creative Benefits of Gamification
- Aids in cognitive development
- Increases level of engagement
- Makes learning fun and interactive
- Improves retention
- Support autonomy
There’s a reason gamification is so popular and essential in education. Children love games. When playing a game, the brain can find enjoyment and reward us with dopamine, which feels great and motivates us to play more. Adding this element to learning and other habits creates a reward system to do the same and build the mindset so that even if the habit is a challenge over time, you will have a new perspective on it.
With running, there are many ways to add gamification that can support you on a bad day as well as a good one to not only support the healthy habit but also creativity.
How to Gamify Your Run
- Define the Meaning/Calling – Games have meaning and feel epic when players are emotionally involved. Know your why.
- Add Gamelike Elements – Goals, Rules, Challenges, Constraints, Personalization, Points of Measurement (Progress), Rewards, Social Pressure, Competition/Cooperation, Narrative, Autonomy, Personalization, Curiosity, Time Pressure, Consequences
- Create a Feedback Loop – Games are measured by progress and feedback. Know where you’re going and how you’re doing.
- Modify, Review, Repeat – Motivation and engagement change like the creative process. Continue to modify and keep the game fresh with new elements.
Tips
Running Gamification Apps
- Zombies, Run! – Turn your runs into apocalyptic missions
- Pokémon GO – Catch Pokémon and run to Pokemon stops
- Pikmin Bloom – Make every step an addition to your Pikmin garden
- PaceDJ – Turn your running pace into music BPMs
Gamification Runs
- Scavenger Hunt – Make your run a mission of discovery (Create a list of things to find on your run).
- Partner Run – Turn your run into a run game of tag or other types of competition with a partner.
- Pair with other creative ways to run by adding rules, challenges, rewards, points, etc.
- Join a club on apps like Strava to be motivated by challenges and leaderboards.
Meditation Run
Find Inner Peace and Clarity of Mind Through Relaxing, Moving Meditation
A meditation run is a moving meditation where you unite your mind and body with breath and movement to be fully present in the moment.
When most people think of meditation, they think of stillness, but anyone that has broken through the wall of running and gotten lost in the motion has experienced the relaxing meditative state of running.
Moving meditation comes in many forms, from walking meditation to dancing. When applying this type of meditation to running, the goal is to become mindful and aware of your own body and the motion of the run. Let thoughts drift off. Get lost in the rhythm of your breath and footsteps. Find calm and focus in the movement.
Details
- Distance: Go at your own pace and comfort.
- Preparation:
- Use warm-up to relax the mind, even take 5-10 min to meditate in stillness before you begin.
- Set an intention.
- Listen to relaxing music or nothing at all.
- Running:
- Focus on your breathing.
- When thoughts come up, imagine them falling behind as you run forward.
- End your run with another short meditation in stillness and stretching.
Tips
- Use affirmations or a mantra to focus your mind.
- Count your footfalls.
- Celebrate and express gratitude for your run and effort.
- Try journaling after your run to explore emotions and thoughts that came up.
- Practice this running meditation with and without music to see where your awareness goes.
- Try to stay present in the moment, don’t look at your watch.
- Listen and feel your body – focus on good posture and relaxed breathing.
Creative Running Journal
Explore Thoughts, Track Progress, and Express Your Running on the Page
What do famous creative minds and top athletes have in common? They keep journals.
Keeping a journal has many benefits for a creative and healthy lifestyle. Whether you’re supporting your goals and progress or diving deeper into your mental health and creativity, journaling is a helpful daily habit.
For creative runners, not only is keeping a running journal a great way to track your progress and motivate yourself, but it’s also a great way to train and boost creativity. In its basic form, a running journal is a written record of observations on your running experiences. It can be used to improve awareness of yourself as well as the world around you.
Leonardo da Vinci might have not been a runner, but one of his favorite creative habits was walking with a curiosity journal, writing down his thoughts and observations about the world, which would inspire creative thinking and some of his most famous ideas and projects.
For the average runner, a running journal plays a crucial role as a training tool, but for the creative runner, it can take on many more unique forms of training and self-expression.
Details
Preparation:
- Prepare journal pages beforehand with a journal template.
- Find a journaling style that works for you (bullet, sketch, digital, etc.).
- Create your creative running mindset by writing goals down before the run. Include short-term, medium, and long-term goals.
Running:
- Use digital apps and tools to write down ideas or thoughts during the run (Trello, voice memos, etc.).
- Pay attention to how you feel. What challenges came up? What helped your run? What helped your creativity?
After Run:
- Pair journaling with your cool down (i.e., stretching).
Tips
Pair With Other Creative Ways to Run
- Explore ideas from your brainstorming runs.
- Explore thoughts from your meditation runs.
- Track points, rewards, and goals with gamification runs.
Get Creative With Your Running Journal
- GPS Painting – Use GPS running apps to make artwork out of your runs. (i.e., lennymaughan, a street artist that turns runs into art)
- Try different forms of journaling – bullet, photo, sketching, etc.
- Track other elements – Food, ideas, etc.
Zach is an international writer, photographer, filmmaker, martial artist, and creator of Creative Enso, the Zen art of creative living. His goal is to empower and inspire creatives to live healthier, happier, and more creative lifestyles.
