This column is authored by Aditya Anand, Associate at Enterslice

It is necessary for every business, whether it is a startup or an established one, to focus on its productivity along with creativity as productivity helps in giving a solid base to it whereas creativity helps it in surviving in the market in the long run. It is more crucial in case of a startup.

But, can one be productive as well as creative at the same time?

There is much difference between these two types of individuals. A person that focuses on productivity has to focus on various things including running of operations to maximize efficiency, deadlines, and quality of the results. The creative person, on the other hand, does not accept any rule or time constraints as he/she wants to think of new ideas with a tension free mind.

Though productivity and creativity are the opposite ends of the same string still they have to work together for the success of a startup in the long run. Both of these factors have to run side-by-side as one cannot survive without the other.

It can also be said in other words that productivity is required to take the concept at a high level and giving it a real shape in any condition, whether it is an ideal condition or not. It is necessary to convert an idea into reality and make it successful in the long run. But on the other hand, creativity helps in changing the vision even for disturbing concepts so that they can be used to change the ways of working and enjoying the life for the users. Thus, creativity can help in improving your productivity as without innovative ideas it becomes impossible to produce something new for your customers.

The combination of both, productivity and creativity, is much in demand these days for two reasons – one due to the innovative work environment and secondly due to fast paced lifestyle. Though this combination seems to be impossible still there are some ways which can make it possible for you to make your startup successful in the long run.

Search for opportunities

You cannot predict when a big idea will come to your mind next time. So your pursuit for the innovative idea should not stop with the end of your working day. You can get inspiration from anything whether it is a conversation you have overheard while traveling in the train or a TV commercial. Even unexpected things can give you inspiration for a new creative idea. So you will have to remain alerted every time.

Read whatever you find

The more information you get by reading books, magazines and journals the more opportunities you get to find new and innovative ideas for your startup. So you should read as much as you can as even most successful business owners get inspired from others. A mixture of various types of thoughts and influences help in creating an idea. So you should collect creative material as much as you can so that you can churn them to extract some fruitful creative idea.

Connect with all types of people

You can improve your creativity, even if you are short of time, just by connecting with various types of people. Even with a single person, you should limit your conversation on usual matters. Instead of hesitating to talk with strangers you should come out of your comfort zone to talk on various topics, whether they are related to your line of action or not.

Change your track quickly

Most people waste too much time on finding creative ideas on one topic. The main reason behind it is that they do not change the track even if they know that they cannot get anything more in this regard. Though production oriented people will like to stick on the same track till the end but the best way to promote productivity along with creativity is to discard the old idea if it is not effective. Sticking to an ineffective idea will not only affect your productivity but also your creativity. The best solution to this problem is to divorce the unproductive idea and go for the liveliness you need to develop your business further.

So, in the long run, a startup needs productivity as well as creativity side-by-side as one will give it stability and the other will help for its survival for a long time.