think outside the box part of speech

Think outside the box

| Grammarist

To think outside the box means to think beyond conventional ideas, to think in an original way. Related terms are thinks outside the box, thought outside the box, thinking outside the box , the adjective form is out-of-the-box thinking . The phrase originated in the United States during the late 1960s or early 1970s in the field of management consultancy. Metaphorically, the box in the phrase think outside the box represents old and hackneyed ways of addressing a problem.

Examples Fender Custom Shop thinks outside the box with cardboard Stratocaster guitar ( The Oceanside Post ) Long before the term was coined, great minds thought outside the box and made contributions. ( The Huffington Post ) Structured curriculums, graduation requirements and state assessments often keep students and teachers from finding time during the day to go outside the box to explore areas of personal interest that can be just as important in the educational process. ( The Hastings Tribune) By thinking outside the box — or in this case the pallet — the duo has helped to earn Knox Grammar School a prestigious nod in the $20 Boss Awards. ( The Daily Telegraph ) When it comes to holiday shopping, the Attleboro Arts Museum says think outside the box – the big box store, that is. ( The Sun Chronicle ) Here’s a look at some of the best box sets of the season, and some outside-the-box gift ideas for the movie lovers on your list. ( The Greensboro News & Record ) Encourage employees to think like upstarts, who develop ideas outside the box, not just as members of a successful organisation, he added, as history has shown how such organisations have had “their meal taken away from them by new players”. ( The Straits Times )

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Phrase Finder

Think outside the box

What's the meaning of the phrase 'think outside the box'.

• American origin

Think creatively, unimpeded by orthodox or conventional constraints.

What's the origin of the phrase 'Think outside the box'?

‘Think outside the box’ originated in the USA in the late 1960s/early 1970s. It has become something of a cliche, especially in the business world, where ‘thinking outside the box’ has become so hackeyed as to be rather meaningless.

Various authors from the world of management consultancy claim to have introduced the phrase. The earliest citation that I have found comes from the weekly magazine of the US aviation industry – Aviation Week & Space Technology , July 1975:

“We must step back and see if the solutions to our problems lie outside the box.”

The ‘box’, with its implication of rigidity and squareness, symbolises constrained and unimaginative thinking. This is in contrast to the open and unrestricted ‘ out of the box ‘ or ‘ blue-sky’ thinking. This latter phrase dates from a little earlier, for example, this piece from the Iowa newspaper the Oelwein Daily Register , April 1945:

“Real thinking. Speculation. Pushing out in the blue. Finding out [the facts] was what put me onto the theory of blue-sky thinking.”

The encouragement to look for solutions from outside our usual thinking patterns was championed in the UK by Edward De Bono, the psychologist and inventor, who coined the term Lateral Thinking in 1967 and went on to develop it as a method of structured creativity.

So, what’s this box? It turns out that, rather than being metaphorical, the reference was to a specific box – in the form of a two-dimensional square. Sam Loyd’s Cyclopedia of 5000 Puzzles, Tricks, and Conundrums (With Answers) , 1914, included a puzzle, known as the ‘Nine Dots Puzzle’, which was posed like this:

“Draw a continuous line through the center of all the eggs so as to mark them off in the fewest number of strokes.”

Loyd was a little sloppy with the puzzle’s rules and ought to have added that the lines must be straight, although he did supply an illustration that makes the meaning clear.

The 60/70s management gurus who exhorted trainees to ‘think outside the box’ made their point by resurrecting the old ‘Nine Dots Puzzle’ as a test. Those of you who are familiar with the puzzle’s solution will see why. If you haven’t yet solved it for yourself, just click on the nine-dot image below.

The history of “Think outside the box” in printed materials

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Think Outside The Box

Meanings of “think outside the box”.

The phrase “think outside the box” means to think differently, or from a new perspective . It also means to come up with something completely unique, innovative, and unconventional.

Origin of “Think Outside The Box”

The phrase “think outside the box” is said to have originated from Aviation Week & Space Technology, in its publication of July 1995 it goes thus; “We must step back and see if the solutions to our problems lie outside the box.” Since then, it has been used by various authors in almost the same sense but in different words and forms.

Examples in Literature

Think Outside Of The Box Be Outside Of The Box by Alfreda Doyle

“To think outside of the box you must be outside of the box Catching the spectrum of rainbows Receiving the energy flowing around Mining the space before matter arrives To think outside of the box you must be outside of the box Paint brushes to apply ideas Ushering in light beams of meaning Looking for symbols of information To think outside of the box you must be outside of the box.”

This stanza explains the literal meanings of the phrase by providing logical examples. She starts by saying that if someone intends to think differently, he should bring positive changes in his thinking. These positive vibes will help him discover the new meanings of the subjects he sees in the world around him. On a deeper level, if someone wants to enjoy the multiplicity of the subjects around, he must be able to think outside the box. The phrase, though, used as a reference, also demonstrates its effectiveness when used as a repetition .

Thinking Outside the Box by Tracy Timothy

Take your place upon your throne Enjoy the ride Cut through the tape If you’re so longing to escape? See the bigger picture Money don’t make ya richer! Be chilled instead of **** Only true love, will make you richer It is on the outside of the box.

These lines use the phrase as a metaphor for a happy life. The speaker urges us to enjoy our life by looking at different perspectives. People nowadays try to find solace and comfort in worldly pursuits and money. However, the speaker states that money does not bring any color or happiness in our life. It is only true love that provides us with comfort, we, as human beings, long for. Unfortunately, only a few people understand this philosophy of life. Therefore, the singer states that if we want to enjoy the ride of life, we need to think outside the box. The phrase has been given in the last line to show its use as a metaphor for life.

Outside the Box: A Book of Poems by Karma Wilson

Written by Karma Wilson, the book, Outside the Box, is a treat for readers of all ages. The writer has beautifully presented before us a perfect blend of happiness, sorrow, and surprise in the form of this work. This book provides delight and entertainment to both; parents and children. Each and every poetic piece provides them a chance to look at the bigger picture of the things; it enables them to think about the different shades of meanings. The phrase shows its meanings clearly when used as the title of the book.

Thinking outside The Box: How to Think Creatively By Applying Critical Thinking and Lateral Thinking by Bruce Walker

Bruce Walker, an American physician, and writer, attempts to explain the true meanings of the phrase. The text revolves around tips and encouragement; the writer suggests to us how to apply creative thinking to our daily life. He addresses the misconception people to follow that only writers, artists, physicians, businessmen, and other trained persons could have different and creative approaches in life. To him, every individual is unique, creative, and innovative. We only need to learn how we can stimulate our unused creative abilities to life.

Examples in Sentences

Example #1: “I always encourage my students to go for solutions which are outside the box. It makes them innovative and helps them with problem-solving.”

Example #2: “ My friend has spent his precious life in performing a routine job work. I never expected that he would think outside the box and change the monotonous routine of his life.”

Example #3 : “Like many other students Sam was also trying to copy the points provided in the guided books. I encouraged him to think outside the box and make a difference in the class.”

Example #4: “When I was attempting to solve my assignment, I thought of my friend’s suggestion. Then I thought of other students that they would have different ideas too. Thus, I intended to go outside the box and expressed my thoughts in a pictorial form.”

Example #5: “The employees were asked to think outside the box and put forth new imaginative and innovative projects.”

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Think outside the box

English Idiom

• small-audio#toggle" class="inline-block w-6 h-6 bg-purple-500 text-white text-xs rounded-full items-center justify-center"> To solve the declining sales issue, the marketing team had to think outside the box and launch a virtual reality campaign.
• small-audio#toggle" class="inline-block w-6 h-6 bg-purple-500 text-white text-xs rounded-full items-center justify-center"> When faced with an unexpected budget cut, the project manager thought outside the box and found alternative funding through crowdfunding.
• small-audio#toggle" class="inline-block w-6 h-6 bg-purple-500 text-white text-xs rounded-full items-center justify-center"> The architect thought outside the box and designed a building that generates its own energy using solar panels and wind turbines.
• small-audio#toggle" class="inline-block w-6 h-6 bg-purple-500 text-white text-xs rounded-full items-center justify-center"> To engage students more effectively, the teacher thought outside the box and incorporated game-based learning into the curriculum.
• small-audio#toggle" class="inline-block w-6 h-6 bg-purple-500 text-white text-xs rounded-full items-center justify-center"> Instead of traditional advertising, the startup thought outside the box and used viral social media challenges to promote their product.
• small-audio#toggle" class="inline-block w-6 h-6 bg-purple-500 text-white text-xs rounded-full items-center justify-center"> The engineer thought outside the box and created a water filtration system using materials that were considered waste.
• small-audio#toggle" class="inline-block w-6 h-6 bg-purple-500 text-white text-xs rounded-full items-center justify-center"> Faced with a tight deadline, the software developer thought outside the box and used an open-source framework to speed up the project.
• small-audio#toggle" class="inline-block w-6 h-6 bg-purple-500 text-white text-xs rounded-full items-center justify-center"> To increase public transport usage, the city planner thought outside the box and introduced a bike-sharing program integrated with bus routes.
• small-audio#toggle" class="inline-block w-6 h-6 bg-purple-500 text-white text-xs rounded-full items-center justify-center"> The chef thought outside the box and combined unexpected ingredients to create a new signature dish that became an instant hit.
• small-audio#toggle" class="inline-block w-6 h-6 bg-purple-500 text-white text-xs rounded-full items-center justify-center"> The author thought outside the box and wrote a novel that could be read in any order, offering a unique experience each time.

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think outside the box

This page is about the idiom think outside the box

If you think outside the box, you think creatively and without being restricted by common ideas or ways of thinking.

For example

• One of the reasons Gerry can solve problems so well is that he's able to think outside the box.
• It takes a lot of imagination and creativity to think outside the box.

In the idiom "think outside the box", the box is a symbol for

Learn idioms easily with Common English Idioms PDF ebook !

Contributor: Matt Errey

word histories

“ad fontes!”

‘to think outside the box’: meaning and origin

Of American-English origin, the phrase outside the box means outside or beyond the realm of normal practice or conventional thinking .

It is chiefly used in to think outside the box , meaning to think creatively or in an unconventional manner .

In Among the New Words , published in Vol. 70, No. 4 (Winter, 1995), of American Speech (Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press), John Algeo and Adele Algeo explain that both to think outside the dots and its synonym to think outside the box

refer to a puzzle consisting of nine dots arranged in the form of a square or box of three rows with three dots each. The challenge of the puzzle is to join all nine dots with four straight lines drawn without lifting the pencil from the paper. The puzzle can be solved only by extending three of the lines outside the box implied by the three-by-three arrangement of the dots. Most would-be puzzle solvers are foiled by the invisible limitations of the form.

Both the phrases to think outside the dots and to think outside the box occur in ‘Outside the Box’ , by the U.S. political columnist Eugene Joseph Dionne Jr. (born 1952), published in The Washington Post (Washington, D.C.) of Tuesday 10 th January 1995:

Speaker Newt Gingrich 1 , fond as ever of futuristic management consultant-speak, addressed the Ways and Means Committee last week on the importance of “thinking outside the dots.” This maxim is also often rendered as “thinking outside the box.” The idea is to encourage people to junk their preconceptions. If you want to change the way the world works, you often have to abandon your ideas about how the world works.

1 The U.S. politician Newton Leroy Gingrich (born McPherson, 1943) was the 50 th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999.

In his column On Language , published in The New York Times ( New York City , New York) of Sunday 21 st May 1995 (Section 6, pages 20 and 22), William Safire 2 , after quoting E. J. Dionne Jr., gave the following explanations:

The dots and the box are related. A brain teaser used in 1984 by Development Dimensions International, management consultants, showed eight dots forming a square, or box, with a dot in the middle. “Without lifting your pencil from the paper,” the teaser went, “join all the dots with only four straight lines.” It looks like this: (I have tried to solve this and conclude that you have to be a liberal.) “To connect the dots,” wrote DDI’s Nancy Hrynkiw to Anne Soukhanov, an inquiring lexicographer, “you must go outside the nine dots, but most people automatically think that they have to stay within the nine dots.” (See page 22 for the way it’s done by visionary public servants and executives destined for the top or soon to be fired.) Thus, thinking outside the dots or outside the box, Ms. Hrynkiw explains, means “thinking about a problem without the constraints that ‘how things are now’ sometimes imposes.” According to a list of current corporate catch phrases assembled in the Nov. 4, 1994, Management magazine, thinking out of the box can be defined as “creating new processes, not just refining old formulas.” The magazine adds, “However, challenging your bosses’ processes is risky.”

This is the diagram that was published in Section 6, page 22, of The New York Times (New York City, New York) of Sunday 21 st May 1995:

2 William Safire (William Lewis Safir – 1929-2009) was a U.S. author, columnist, journalist and presidential speechwriter.

The following are three extracts from The art of creative thinking: How to be innovative and develop great ideas (London and Philadelphia: Kogan Page Limited, 2007), by the British author John Eric Adair (born 1934):

1 -: This exercise is from page 63:

On a spare piece of paper draw a square of nine dots like this: Now see if you can connect up the dots with four consecutive straight lines, that is, without taking your pencil off the paper. You have one minute to complete the task.

2 -: This is the solution, from page 127, with this comment:

The reason why you may not have been able to solve the problem is that unconsciously your mind imposed a framework around the nine circles. You have to go beyond that invisible box. From this problem, which I introduced in 1969, comes the phrase “Think outside the box!”

3 -: In the same book, John Eric Adair gives the following advice:

Think outside the box! Don’t allow yourself to be constrained by the mental limitations or straitjackets that are sometimes imposed on situations without any warrant or truth.

An early phrase, to get outside the nine-dot square , occurs in the column Viewing TV , by Hal Humphrey, published in several U.S. newspapers on Friday 13 th November 1959—for example in The Detroit Free Press (Detroit, Michigan):

I’ve been reading a new plan of action just initiated by one of our biggest advertising agencies. To protect the innocent, we will refer to this agency as Hoot, Holler & Howl. […] In a lengthy communique to all of its divisions and affiliates, Hoot, Holler & Howl has informed them to stand by for “Operation Thrust.” “Here’s how Operation Thrust will work,” reads the communique. “[…] Operation Thrust [is] a compressing of energy and time that will create a powerful, surging forward motion.” Inspirational, isn’t it? Ah, but there is more. Next we have the two principal tools of Operation Thrust—“A philosophy of excellence” and “Breakthrough thinking.” Now a philosophy of excellence is fairly self-explanatory, but some of you may not know what breakthrough thinking is exactly. Here is the Hoot, Holler & Howl definition! “Breakthrough thinking is the fresh approach, the new concept, that gets outside the nine-dot square.” I don’t know about the rest of you, but this has been my trouble all along. I’m forever getting hung up in a “nine-dot square.” There was one time when I got it down to eight dots, but then the damned thing turned into a circle.

The earliest occurrence of the phrase to think outside the dots that I have found is from the column Ottawa in Perspective , by Anthony Westell, published in The Ottawa Journal (Ottawa, Ontario) of Saturday 23 rd May 1970:

The problem, says William Davd [sic] Hopper 3 , is to think “outside the dots” about the questions of how to feed a hungry world. He means that the need is to think imaginatively, creatively, about the development of less-developed countries, and not merely to keep pouring more money and technology into patterns of foreign aid established, not very successfully, over the past 20 years.

3 William David Hopper was, from 1970 to 1978, the President of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), a Canadian federal Crown corporation.

The earliest recorded occurrence of to think outside the box is from Data Management (Data Processing Management Association) of September 1971—as quoted in the Oxford English Dictionary (3 rd edition, March 2021):

Think outside the box. If you have kept your thinking process operating inside the lines and boxes [of organization charts], then you are normal and average, for that is the way your thinking has been programmed.

The earliest occurrence of to think outside the box that I have found is from the column People’s Doctor , by Robert Mendelsohn, M.D., published in several U.S. newspapers in March 1978—for example in The Times-Picayune (New Orleans, Louisiana) of Thursday the 23 rd :

Some of my best teachers have been those who utilize the techniques of shock and surprise to rouse me out of conventional habits of thought forcing me to question accepted teaching and stimulating me to “think outside the box.”

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How to Use think outside the box in a Sentence

Think outside the box.

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'think outside the box.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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think outside the box

• think out of the box
• out of the box thinking
• think differently
• to be creative and produce something that is not usual or boring
• to come up with something that is unique and interesting
• look at the broader context of a problem, challenge etc.

Example Sentences

• The team always thinks outside the box to come up with unique advertisements for all its clients.
• This particular technology is quite out of the box in nature and should be a hit really easily.
• I teach my children to think of solutions which are outside the box . It helps them with problem solving and innovative thinking.
• In our organisation, thinking outside the box has an added advantage for all of the employees.
• This out of the box thinking has helped save many lives when travelling by the sea.
• I am trying to think outside the box to make this event a success at any cost this year.
• Sarah has spent her whole life in performing a routine job work so don’t expect that she would ever be able to think outside the box .

The phrase originates from a simile which draws a person’s thought in comparison to a box and how anything outside seems far-fetched and unachievable. It comes from the advertisement and marketing world where products compete for space in the market. Thinking outside the box helps the product life-cycle to become longer. The literary origin can be traced to the 20th century.

Share your opinions 4 Opinions

My question is to know if there is any difference between these sentences : thinking outside the box and thinking out of the box.

‒ Joseph Dantala Gokir June 23, 2024

A comparatively easy puzzle and requires out of box thinking. What letter comes in _ J, F, M, A, M, J, J, A, S, O, N, _

‒ Kishor Bharucha May 29, 2021

There’s a puzzle with 9 dots in a square or “box” pattern. Puzzle solvers are asked to “set down pen(cil) and draw exactly 4 straight lines through all 9 dots,” it is only possible if one draws a big arrow with the corners of the triangle at the head “outside the box”.

youtube.com/watch?v=XgngdrNNlgU

‒ Greg Stone August 31, 2020

I love this online book of idioms and phrase. It is very helpful and good to read.

‒ Jimmy Satugay March 3, 2019

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What It Means to Truly “Think Outside the Box”

• Sabrina Meherally

How to radically reimagine the rules society imposes on us.

Society is filled with unwritten rules that many of us are taught to follow from a young age. For example, the belief that clothing is gendered, the concept of a weekend, and even more official laws like the ban of burqas and niqabs in European countries.

• The author argues that these standards belong to something called the colonial imagination — ideas born out of colonial, white supremacist, patriarchal, and hyper-capitalist values with the intention of upholding power and privilege for a select few, at the expense of everyone else.
• To rewrite these rules, we need to think outside the box. The problem is that our “out-of-the-box” thinking generally happens within the confines of the colonial imagination.
• When we talk about thinking outside the box, the real exercise and challenge is to step entirely out of those boundaries.
• The catalyst for real change exists in our ability to radically imagine new possibilities (even if they feel out of reach), to question the way things are, and to stretch the boundaries of what could be.

How often have you questioned the separation and labeling of “men’s” and “women’s” clothing in retails stores? It’s a standard that was established years ago , when most people were less conscious of (or simply didn’t care about) the harm this practice has on gender non-conforming people  — or anyone who challenges the binary. Still, big retailers continue to replicate and rely on this model. It’s now become so engrained in practice that many of us don’t question it, unless it impacts us personally.

• Sabrina Meherally is an inclusive design strategist, helping organizations create delightful, respectful, and responsible customer experiences. She is the founder of Pause and Effect and the host of the Inclusive Design podcast . Her work has been featured in Forbes and the Vancouver Tech Journal. Follow Sabrina on LinkedIn where she writes about product inclusion, racial equity, sustainability, and innovation.

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Meaning of think outside the box in English

Think outside the box.

• beyond your wildest dreams idiom
• cognitive map
• conceivable
• impute something to someone phrasal verb
• in your mind's eye idiom
• inconceivably
• lay the foundation(s) of/for idiom
• look on/upon someone/something as something phrasal verb
• retheorization
• revisualization

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Translations of think outside the box

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(in films and television) a series of drawings or images showing the planned order of images

Making the most of it (How we talk about using opportunities)

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The Famous Puzzle That Popularized the Phrase ‘Think Outside the Box’

The figurative meanings of some phrases—like close, but no cigar and cut to the chase —seem different enough from the words themselves that you might assume they were once meant literally. (And in both those cases, you’d be right.)

Thinking outside the box , meaning to think unconventionally or creatively, doesn’t fully fall into this category. Even if a literal box had never been involved, the phrase would still make sense: Conventional practices and thought processes all fit nicely into a box, and you have to venture outside of that in order to come up with innovative ideas and solutions.

When the phrase first arose in the 1970s, however, an actual box of sorts was involved. What’s known as the nine dots puzzle entails drawing a box of nine evenly spaced dots and then connecting them all with just four lines, without lifting your pencil. In trying to do so, people tend to assume that they’re not allowed to extend their lines beyond the boundaries of the grid. But, of course, the only way to solve the puzzle is to do just that. In other words, you need to think outside the box. 

It’s unclear exactly how old the nine dots puzzle is. One variation is featured in Sam Loyd’s Cyclopedia of 5000 Puzzles, Tricks, and Conundrums With Answers , published in 1914; some even credit British mathematician Henry Dudeney with having developed today’s version. 

Whatever the case, the puzzle gained popularity in the 1970s as a way for academics to illustrate how people think and work. As Forbes reports , psychologist J.P. Guilford used it in experiments in the early 1970s; leadership expert John Eric Adair claims to have introduced it in 1969.

The phrase think outside the box soon followed. The earliest known written reference, per the Oxford English Dictionary , comes from a 1971 piece in the journal Data Management . “Think outside the box,” the heading reads. “If you have kept your thinking process operating inside the lines and boxes [of organization charts], then you are normal and average, for that is the way your thinking has been programmed.”

But before think outside the box , we briefly had think outside the dots , which showed up in a June 1970 article in Alberta, Canada’s Lethbridge Herald . And in a 1959 newspaper column, as word histories reports , Hal Humphrey mentioned a method of thinking that “gets outside the nine-dot square.”

While encouraging people to think outside the dots might earn you some quizzical looks, it might leave more of an impression than the now-overused cliché of thinking outside the box.

[h/t Forbes ]

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12 Ways to Think Outside the Box (+ How to Boost Your Creativity)

Last Updated: June 7, 2024 Fact Checked

What does it mean to think "outside the box?"

Ways to think outside the box, benefits of thinking outside the box, strengthening your creative mind.

This article was co-authored by Mary Church, PhD and by wikiHow staff writer, Jennifer Mueller, JD . Dr. Mary Church is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist based in Honolulu, Hawaii. With over a decade of clinical experience, she aims to integrate evolution, genetics, and neuroscience within the practice of psychotherapy. Dr. Church holds a BS in Psychology from Eckerd College and an MS and PhD in Experimental Psychology from The University of Memphis. She completed a Post-Doctorate in Clinical Psychology at The University of Hawaii at Manoa. In addition, Dr. Church is a member of the American Evaluation Association and Hawaii-Pacific Evaluation Association. There are 15 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 825,670 times.

If you've ever been told you should "think outside the box" and didn't understand exactly how to do that, you've come to the right place. We talked to research and clinical psychologist Mary Church to get the low down on what it means to think outside the box and how you can do it in your life. Stick around and you'll also learn the many benefits of thinking creatively and how you can train your brain to be more open, flexible, and creative.

Thinking Outside the Box

When you think outside the box, you throw out the usual assumptions people would make about a problem and look at it from a totally different perspective. Use techniques such as brainstorming, mind mapping, and role-playing to stimulate your creative thinking so you can more easily think outside the box.

• It's hard for a lot of people to think creatively like this because it requires you to step outside of your comfort zone and think about some potentially risky things.
• Thinking outside of the box can also cause you to question beliefs you've held for a long time. While that can be tough, it's also necessary for you to grow as a person.
• True "outside the box" thinking is actually pretty rare! Surveys have shown that fewer than 10% of people think creatively on a regular basis. [2] X Research source

• For example, if you're stumped trying to come up with a project for a class, you might take your dog to the park and try to put the project out of your mind—something might come to you once you give the left hemisphere of your brain a rest.

• If you're having a hard time letting yourself loose, try to think of a solution to your problem that would be illegal. While you're not going to actually do the illegal thing, having that idea up on the board shows you that literally everything is on the table.
• If the problem is just too broad for you to tackle, you might need to scale it back with parameters. For example, instead of brainstorming how to increase social media engagement, you could start by focusing on a single platform.

• For example, if you want to run a marathon, you might imagine that you've just finished your first marathon, then map out the steps it took you to get to that point.

• If you're not an artist or not comfortable drawing, you might also mold something in clay or build something with blocks—these activities also stimulate your visual brain and get you thinking outside of the box. [8] X Research source

• People tend to surround themselves with other people who are very similar to them because it's comfortable. Make an effort to surround yourself with people from diverse backgrounds so that you always have access to different viewpoints.

• Playing with children's toys can put you in this headspace as well and help you come up with new and innovative ideas that you never would have thought of before.

• Talking to someone who isn't making the same assumptions as you is a bit of a shortcut—you can also think through this and try to imagine what they would say, but that takes quite a bit of empathy.
• This doesn't just mean having a conversation! You can also read articles about how the problem is addressed in different fields or otherwise expose yourself to different methods.
• For example, if you're trying to come up with new plays for your football team, you might go to a rugby game and see if you can get some inspiration from some of their plays that you could adapt for your own sport.

• Going backward like this helps you see the different parts that go into something so that you can more easily see where there's a gap you could fill or a process that could use some improvement.

• If you can't get outside, walking inside can be just as beneficial, as can any other kind of movement. Getting up and moving around, even if it's just to do a few jumping jacks, will kickstart your creative mind.

• For example, if you're looking for a new and original breakfast idea, you might question why French toast is always sweet. This could lead you to the idea of creating a savory French toast dish.

Be creative without constraints. "If everyone has to think outside the box, maybe it is the box that needs fixing."

• Thinking through many possible solutions to a problem also means that you're aware of other things that might work if you try one thing and it fails.

• You won't shy away from problems that might seem too complex or too difficult because you'll know that there are different ways of looking at those things. You'll also be less afraid of failure.

• People who think creatively often seem to be very lucky, but really it's just that they're more aware.
• They're also more flexible and able to see the value in many different paths as opposed to being committed solely to one way of doing things.

• Fear can cause you to stick to well-worn paths that you know will be successful, rather than taking risks that might pay off big but require you to blaze your own trail.
• Envisioning the worst-case scenario can help you convince yourself that even that isn't bad enough that you shouldn't try the riskier move.

• Positive thinking will also improve your overall mood, and a good mood also increases your creativity. [25] X Research source
• Repeating positive affirmations each day is one way to encourage more positive thoughts and help you eliminate the negative ones.

• Alphabetizing words: Take a word—any word—and alphabetize the letters that make up that word (so, for example, "number" would be "bemnru"). This works because you're requiring your brain to do something unconventional with the letters of the word and also breaking up the word into its constituent parts—both of which are aspects of thinking outside of the box.
• Generate ideas: Pick up a household object and spend 5 minutes coming up with a list of all the different ways you could use that object. This helps your mind become more comfortable seeing unconventional uses for things.

• Eat with your hands
• Commute to work or school by a different route
• Listen to music you don't normally listen to
• Turn everything off and just sit in quiet and observe

• For example, you might learn to play a musical instrument or take a dance class.
• While classes in the arts will pretty directly stoke your creativity, don't overlook things like learning how to play a new sport or even learning a new language.

• Beyond just talking to people, you can get similar benefits by reading articles and stories from different cultures or written by people with different backgrounds.

• Mindfulness also teaches you to notice things with intention and curiosity rather than judgment, which helps you think more unconventionally. [33] X Research source

Expert Q&A

You might also like.

• ↑ https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/the-power-of-forgetting/201404/surprising-exercises-to-get-you-thinking-outside-the-box
• ↑ https://www.inc.com/jim-haudan/3-ways-to-make-thinking-outside-box-less-rare.html
• ↑ https://hbr.org/2011/11/how-to-think-creatively
• ↑ https://hbr.org/2023/03/5-ways-to-boost-creativity-on-your-team
• ↑ Mary Church, PhD. Research & Clinical Psychologist. Expert Interview. 6 August 2021.
• ↑ https://www.inc.com/christina-desmarais/25-ways-to-be-more-creative.html
• ↑ https://www.inc.com/jason-surfrapp/6-ways-to-boost-your-creative-thinking.html
• ↑ https://www.inc.com/ayse-birsel/this-insanely-simple-tool-is-all-you-need-to-think-more-creatively.html
• ↑ https://news.stanford.edu/2014/04/24/walking-vs-sitting-042414/
• ↑ https://www.technologyreview.com/2014/10/20/169899/isaac-asimov-asks-how-do-people-get-new-ideas/
• ↑ https://hbr.org/2022/03/what-it-means-to-truly-think-outside-the-box
• ↑ https://www.elmhurst.edu/blog/how-to-generate-ideas/
• ↑ https://hbr.org/2020/09/what-to-do-when-your-mind-always-dwells-on-the-worst-case-scenario
• ↑ https://ideas.ted.com/3-science-based-strategies-to-increase-your-creativity/
• ↑ https://christinekane.com/21-ways-to-be-more-creative/

About This Article

To think outside of the box, try to learn new things and pick up new skills as much as possible, which will broaden your horizons and help you think of unique and unusual ideas. Also, exercise your creativity by doing fun, creative projects at home that require you to be resourceful. Even just changing up your daily routine by doing things like taking a different route to work or grabbing breakfast from a new coffee shop can spark your creativity and help you think of a new way to approach an issue. To learn how to come up with creative solutions to problems, keep reading! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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Parts of Speech

What are the parts of speech, a formal definition.

Table of Contents

The Part of Speech Is Determined by the Word's Function

Are there 8 or 9 parts of speech, the nine parts of speech, (1) adjective, (3) conjunction, (4) determiner, (5) interjection, (7) preposition, (8) pronoun, why the parts of speech are important, video lesson.

• You need to dig a well . (noun)
• You look well . (adjective)
• You dance well . (adverb)
• Well , I agree. (interjection)
• My eyes will well up. (verb)
• red, happy, enormous
• Ask the boy in the red jumper.
• I live in a happy place.
• I caught a fish this morning! I mean an enormous one.
• happily, loosely, often
• They skipped happily to the counter.
• Tie the knot loosely so they can escape.
• I often walk to work.
• It is an intriguingly magic setting.
• He plays the piano extremely well.
• and, or, but
• it is a large and important city.
• Shall we run to the hills or hide in the bushes?
• I know you are lying, but I cannot prove it.
• my, those, two, many
• My dog is fine with those cats.
• There are two dogs but many cats.
• ouch, oops, eek
• Ouch , that hurt.
• Oops , it's broken.
• Eek! A mouse just ran past my foot!
• leader, town, apple
• Take me to your leader .
• I will see you in town later.
• An apple fell on his head .
• in, near, on, with
• Sarah is hiding in the box.
• I live near the train station.
• Put your hands on your head.
• She yelled with enthusiasm.
• she, we, they, that
• Joanne is smart. She is also funny.
• Our team has studied the evidence. We know the truth.
• Jack and Jill went up the hill, but they never returned.
• That is clever!
• work, be, write, exist
• Tony works down the pit now. He was unemployed.
• I will write a song for you.
• I think aliens exist .

Are you a visual learner? Do you prefer video to text? Here is a list of all our grammar videos .

Video for Each Part of Speech

The Most Important Writing Issues

The top issue related to adjectives, the top issue related to adverbs.

• Extremely annoyed, she stared menacingly at her rival.
• Infuriated, she glared at her rival.

The Top Issue Related to Conjunctions

• Burger, Fries, and a shake
• Fish, chips and peas

The Top Issue Related to Determiners

The Top Issue Related to Interjections

The top issue related to nouns, the top issue related to prepositions, the top issue related to pronouns, the top issue related to verbs.

• Crack the parts of speech to help with learning a foreign language or to take your writing to the next level.

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‘Juror No. 2’ Review: Clint Eastwood’s Modest Moral Drama Gets Us Thinking Outside the (Jury) Box

Nicholas Hoult plays a guilty man tapped to judge someone else for his own mistake in Eastwood's unlikely yet engaging courtroom drama.

By Peter Debruge

Peter Debruge

Chief Film Critic

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If you think jury duty’s a drag, consider how much worse sitting in judgment could be if, on the first day of the trial, you discovered that the defendant’s been accused of a terrible crime for which you were in fact responsible. That’s the hook of Clint Eastwood ’s latest — and some fear last — feature, “ Juror No. 2 ,” a slightly preposterous but thoroughly engaging extension of the 94-year-old filmmaker’s career-long fascination with guilt, justice and the limitations of the law.

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As soon as prosecuting attorney Faith Killebrew (Toni Collette) describes the murder — a clear-cut case of domestic violence, in her opinion — Justin realizes that he was there at the roadside bar on the night in question. More troubling still, according to Justin’s flashbacks, it seems clear that the deer he hit on the way home wasn’t a deer at all, but the victim, Kendall Carter (Francesca Eastwood).

What are the odds? Best not to question. You’re either on board with the premise or you’re not in a film that takes the resulting predicament seriously, inviting audiences to ponder what they’d do in Justin’s shoes. To complicate matters, the expectant father is a recovering alcoholic, and his sponsor (Kiefer Sutherland) — who also happens to be a lawyer — advises him that if he were to come forward, no one would believe he was sober on the fateful night.

Once the trial wraps and deliberations begin, Eastwood seems to be counting on our having seen “12 Angry Men,” dangling the possibility that Justin could sway the rest of the jury to acquit — or else nudge them toward a guilty verdict, letting Kendall’s boyfriend, James Sythe (Gabriel Basso), take the fall. But Jonathan Abrams’ script has a few twists up its sleeve, which seem to fit Eastwood’s more skeptical view of the legal process.

Early on, Justin gives a short Frank Capra-worthy speech about how the defendant deserves the benefit of the doubt, but it’s clear that’s his conscience talking. Ten of the jurors are ready to convict, while Justin finds an ally in Harold (J.K. Simmons), a former police detective whose gut tells him the accused is innocent.

The trouble with swaying the others, Justin realizes, is that they’re operating on prejudices — which amounts to a pretty damning critique of the “peer” system by which juries operate. Like both the police and the prosecutor, these fictional civilians are susceptible to bias, considering only the evidence that supports their hastily reached conclusions. Of course, everything could be resolved quite quickly if Justin came clean.

Here, I was reminded of a little-seen but utterly remarkable silent film from director John M. Stahl called “The Woman Under Oath,” which challenges the sexist notion that women might be too emotional or irrational to serve on juries (the progressive drama was released in 1919, nearly two decades before New York granted the responsibility to women). In the film, 11 men are ready to convict, while the state’s first female juror insists the defendant is innocent — and she should know! In the end, she reveals that she was the killer, justifying her actions to the jury, who exonerate the suspect while keeping her secret.

That film bears mentioning for two reasons: First, “The Woman Under Oath” deserves to be rediscovered, and second, there’s nothing like putting the culprit on the jury to upend the process. In another filmmaker’s hands, the situation might play as melodrama, but Eastwood’s earnest, unfussy style makes it feel less far-fetched, centering our attention on Justin’s dilemma.

Editor Joel Cox and his son David keep cutting back to close-ups of Justin’s face, as Hoult telegraphs his turmoil through shifty eyes and nervous glances — emotions he’d surely keep hidden in real life. He’s not the only character facing a crisis of conscience here: Faith eventually starts to question her case, which could jeopardize her political ambitions, while giving Collette a chance to redeem a character who earlier read as a self-righteous obstacle to justice and now seems like its most Eastwood-worthy champion.

As always, Eastwood respects our intelligence. And yet, “Juror No. 2” registers as something of an anomaly in his oeuvre: It ranks among his quietest films, forgoing spectacle in favor of self-reflection. One could argue the whole system is on trial, and yet, the only angry man here is Eastwood, not the jurors, as Dirty Harry goes out not with a bang but an ambivalent whisper.

Reviewed at AFI Fest (closer), Oct. 27, 2024. MPA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 114 MIN.

• Production: A Warner Bros. Pictures release and presentation of a Dichotomy, Malpaso production. Producers: Clint Eastwood, Tim Moore, Jessica Meier, Adam Goodman, Matt Skiena. Executive Producers: David M. Bernstein, Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, Jeremy Bell.
• Crew: Director: Clint Eastwood. Screenplay: Jonathan Abrams. Camera: Yves Bélanger. Editors: Joel Cox, David Cox. Music: Mark Mancina.
• With: Nicholas Hoult, Toni Collette, J.K. Simmons, Chris Messina, Gabriel Basso, Zoey Deutch, Cedric Yarbrough, Leslie Bibb, Kiefer Sutherland, Amy Aquino, Adrienne C. Moore.

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