Why Creativity Needs a Box (to get out of)

The 9-dot problem is often used as a measure of creative thinking. The challenge is to connect all 9 dots with only four straight lines, without lifting your pen. 

Try it out if you want. I’ll wait here. 

Don’t worry if you couldn’t find a solution. I didn’t see it either the first time. 

Here’s the solution: 

The 9-dot problem is one of the most literal examples of “thinking outside the box”. To solve the problem you must go beyond the walls of the imaginary box. We have to get outside the limits of our thinking. 

What I find so interesting, is that without the imaginary box, there would be nothing for us to think outside of. Without the limitations, there’s less inspiration for creativity. 

The Role of Restrictions in Creativity

We often associate creativity with freedom—doing whatever you want, whenever you want. A blank canvas. A clean slate. But too much freedom is paralyzing. 

I’m a big fan of Harry Mack. He’s a freestyle rap genius who takes random suggestions from the audience and transforms them into poetry and rhythm. His work is a thing of beauty (check some out here)

I’ve seen enough of these videos to recognize a pattern. Harry usually starts his performance by asking someone for a creative, challenging word. 

And for some people this task is the hardest challenge they’ve faced all day. 

No sleight to them! You can try it yourself. 

Choose a creative, challenging word. Go ahead.

Notice how long it takes you to go through all of the options before you land on something that might be passable as “creative”. Did you feel paralysis by analysis? 

Now, choose a creative, challenging word that starts with the letter E.

How did you do? Were you able to find a word FASTER when you added restrictions to the game? 

You might also find that the word you came up with in the second round feels more original or creative than the word you captured in the first round. 

There may also be a greater sense of internal satisfaction with round two. When you navigate  around the extra limitation (i.e coming up with a word that starts with the letter “E”) your brain rewards you with some feel-good neurotransmitters. 

Lots of people have told us that creativity operates best within limits. Constraints help to focus our creative energy, and figure out what needs to get done.  They help to give us a starting place. Like coming up with a word that begins with the letter “e”. Or like the constraints of the 9-dot problem. 

The restrictions inspire us to think of ways within, around, and between those restrictions. In fact, without any restrictions, we might struggle to create anything at all.

But it’s easy to forget this sometimes. 

Limitations Inspire Innovations

Recently one of my entrepreneurial friends was in a bit of a financial bind. Sales were down, and business was slow. And despite all the freedom in his calendar, he was feeling stuck. 

He had a number of ideas for new products, any one of them might have been successful, but none of them were guarantees and so my friend couldn’t decide what to do first. He felt the paralysis of analysis. There were too many possibilities. 

Faced with mounting expenses—childcare, groceries, the rising cost of living—his sense of freedom was running out. But rather than letting it paralyze him, he used it as a powerful motivator.

He decided to impose some strict restrictions on himself: “I need to make $6,000 in 9 days. The people most likely to buy from me are those who’ve already bought from me. So I need to create an offer for them. I need to come up with a solution to their problem.”

“As soon as the limits on the problem were clear, the goal became crystal,” he told me. 

Within minutes he’d identified a new way he could serve his past clients. He put together an offer, sent it out in an email, and made 4 sales at $4000 a piece - $16,000 in less than 3 days, almost doubling his target in a third of the amount of time. 

My entrepreneurial friend’s story illustrates an important truth: too much freedom can hinder creativity. In the space of too many possibilities we can become overwhelmed and fail to take action.

But adding limits, constraints, and restrictions can help us unlock our creative and productive inner genius.

Next time you’re tasked with solving a problem, clarify the limitations of the problem and maybe add a few more to ignite your creative engine. 

Maybe you need to come up with a new marketing campaign for a stalling product or service? See what ideas come up when you restrict yourself to a $1000 budget.

Maybe you are looking for ways to enhance collaboration and build more trust on your team. What ideas rise to the surface when you tell yourself that anything you come up with has to take less than 10 minutes a day?

Maybe you’re trying to write a business plan, a brand strategy, or a best seller. How would the process change if you limit yourself to writing for 10 minutes at a time? 

Embrace Restrictions to Unlock Your Creativity

In my younger years, I believed creativity was all about freedom. But now I see that restrictions—whether time constraints, project limits, or specific goals—can actually activate our creative genius. By imposing clear challenges and embracing the necessity to perform, we increase our chances of breakthroughs.

I’ve applied these principles to my own work, and the results have been incredible. My productivity has skyrocketed, and I’m generating more ideas—both good and bad, but that’s the nature of creativity. It’s all about playing, experimenting, and taking action.

Incorporate constraints into your creative process. Adding specific limitations can spark unexpected creativity and fuel the engine to get things done.