Fifteen Ways to Find Novelty in Your Daily Life

by Rochelle Melander

You need novelty. Novelty activates the brain’s reward system, releasing dopamine and boosting learning, memory and motivation.

Most of us turn to social media to get our dopamine fix.

But that’s not the best thing—as we now know, social media’s addictive.

But new stuff—that’s gold for your brain. Novelty helps you adapt to change with greater confidence. It broadens your perspective, helps you feel more joyful, and improves relationships. (You can read more about it here: https://www.ciis.edu/news/novelty-keeps-your-brain-healthy)

But what if you like having everything the same? (I’m kind of like that.) Well, avoiding novelty will cost you. It can lead to feeling like life is not so engaging. You end up feeling bored, stagnant, even burned out.

You don’t have to move to Japan or jump out of an airplane to experience novelty! Here are 15 ways to find novelty into your life.

• Write in a different place or at a different time of day.

• Write in a new genre.

• Change up the game in your current genre. If you usually write nonfiction, try writing a different kind of nonfiction. If you tend to write cozy mysteries, how about writing a thriller?

• Give your current project a twist. Maybe you’re writing a novel. How could you add poetry to it? Or comics?

• Play with opposites. If you tend to write without researching, choose a project that requires research. In the same way, if you tend to over-research, choose a project that you don’t need to do much research for.

• What about outlining? Pantsers—give it a try. Outliners, try going without!

• Visit a new store, restaurant, or park in your town.

• Set up a new background for your online meetings.

• Rearrange furniture (my husband hates this idea) or rearrange rooms (he hates this more!).

• Try a new recipe.

• Eat in a different place in your house—try the kitchen counter, dining room table, or the living room floor.

• Wear clothes and shoes you rarely wear for at least one day. If you hate it, then toss it!

• Play new music while you cook or clean. (NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert is a great way to learn new music.)

• Read a totally different kind of book. (Honestly, with a library card you have access to just about anything—so try something you don’t usually pick.)

• Swap your view for one on the other side of the world: https://window-swap.com/ Or watch the birds at Cornell’s famous feeder: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/cams/cornell-lab-feederwatch/

Need more novelty? Try the Spring Writing Accountability Group. We start Monday! And you will love challenging your brain to overcome your inner critic.