One of my favorite creative prompts comes from Creative Acts for Curious People by Sarah Stein Greenberg. It’s called the dérive. Basically, you go for a walk. But instead of heading somewhere, you let your surroundings guide you. You might follow yellow things. Or straight lines. Or only turn left. The idea is to drift.

The dérive (French for “drift”) originally came from a 1950s radical avant-garde group called the Situationists. They used it to study how cities make us feel. How the layout of streets and signs affects our mood and behavior. For the Situationists, the dérive was also seen as a revolutionary technique to combat the malaise and boredom of the spectacle of capitalism.

Greenberg’s version is more personal. She says it’s great when you’re feeling stuck or bored. And she’s right. I’ve started doing dérives in my neighborhood and posting the results on Instagram. Suddenly I’m seeing things I’ve walked past a hundred times and never noticed. It’s like my brain zooms in and tunes in at the same time. I notice a theme and follow it until I’ve gathered enough for a photo collage.

If you’re looking for a little creative shake-up, I can’t recommend this practice enough.