When it comes to creativity, there are three kinds of people in the world. There are people out there who have about as much creativity in them as a dehydrated sea sponge; then those who have the potential, but haven’t yet found a method of expressing it and finally, the true creatives who make the world pleasing for the sea sponges among us.

Whether you’re a sea sponge or a creative genius, there is always going to come a time when you need to get those creative juices flowing. Originally, I thought I would write down some gems of ingenuity about meditating and hugging trees or bunnies to help creative enlightenment strike, but then Matt suggested that web tools that aid creativity might be a better direction to take. While I’m a fan of the trees and bunnies method, I did come across some great tools - here they are, ranked from awesome to awesomest.

9. Enchanted Mind
This site has a somewhat 80s feel along with a touch of new age philosophy, but also some nifty tools to amuse and inspire you.

8. Eyewire Creativity Cards
These handy cards are theoretically the solution to a creative crisis. Offering practical advice and some messages that sound like they come out of fortune cookies, these cards can be printed out, pasted on cardboard and carried around for when you need them most.

7. Favourite Website Awards
This site is a creative showcase and a gentle reminder that there are talented people out there doing some incredible stuff and that if you don’t jump on the wagon, you’re going to be left standing in the dust. No pressure.

6. Creativity Web
Including quotations, humour and affirmations (I am creative, I am creative, I am creative), this site contains tips to kick start creativity alongside practical techniques to get the right side of your brain working in double time.

5. YouTube
Sometimes, watching a really great video or a really stupid one will get you thinking. For example, witnessing a chair collapsing under the weight of the Chairman of the Finance committee on national television is enough to leave me in stitches and laughter is apparently a great remedy for writer’s block.

4. What a Great Idea
While the catch phrase, “be curious first…be critical second” is a little too Chicken Soup for the Soul for my tastes, it’s a cool concept if you unpack it a little. Even if it doesn’t help you sweep out your creative cobwebs, it’s pretty quirky.

3. Flickr
Flickr is photo sharing at its creative best. Not only can you find pretty much anything on, but there is this great new feature – Interestingness. This tool helps you to explore some of Flickr’s best and most “beautiful, amazing, moving, striking” content. If this doesn’t make your creative soul feel warm and fuzzy inside, nothing will. 

2. The Idea Lottery
Based on the idea that creativity is about finding connections between seemingly unrelated concepts, this is a site where you can define your challenge, outline its main elements, scribble in some totally unrelated ideas or concepts and then generate a lottery grid that connects these things. It hopefully will amuse you even if it doesn’t reveal the greatest invention of the 21st century. And who knows, maybe it will.

1. Jumpstart
My love of randomness compels me to rank this as the awesomest web tool that I found to aid creativity. It really is super cool. Brought to you by the same guys that brought you the Idea Lottery, this requires less effort on your part and is worth trying if only for a laugh. All you do is define your challenge and the system generates random adjectives to enlighten and inspire you and hopefully kick starting a creative thought process that could lead to a spectacular idea.