Have you ever been awed watching videos of Jimi Hendrix on the guitar? Or Bob Ross creating a masterpiece in just 20 minutes? How did they do it? 

The answer is, of course, practice and creativity. 

Even if you don’t aspire to shred the guitar or paint friendly trees, the proven health benefits of creativity are extremely well documented.

 Here is how to boost your creative mind in just 5 minutes.

• Write down a single word, whatever comes to mind first. Example: Snail (don’t use this one!)

• Now, write a second word that has absolutely nothing in common with the first word. Wrack your brain to think as far out as you possibly can. We came up with — Cartography. 

• Set a timer for 5 minutes and repeat this process over and over, continuously thinking of words that have the least amount in common as possible. 

The goal isn’t necessarily to come up with the most words as possible. Instead, you want to focus on picking unique words that have the absolute least in common from the last word. 

If you want to take it a step further, pick 3 sets of words that you find the most interesting (or hilarious) and try and write a few headlines using the chosen words. Example: Well-traveled Snail Stuns Biologists, Becomes Master of Cartography.

Think of this drill as mental weightlifting; it may seem hard at first and you might not notice any immediate results. But, over time, it will become easier and you’ll start to surprise yourself with where your mind goes!