Five apps to boost your creativity

Most of us crave more creativity. Mundane routines and mindless exercises often tend to zap the creative juices and leave us feeling wholly uninspired. Fortunately, there are a range of smartphone and tablet apps that have been especially developed to help users tap into their dormant creative side and harness their potential.

Idea Sketch
Any creative mind knows that inspiration often strikes at the most unexpected times. Idea sketch is a simple and intuitive tool that lets you brainstorm at a moment's notice and record these fleeting moments of inspiration.

Users can create mind maps, flow charts or concept maps to arrange and organize their thoughts into an easily digestible format. An easy-to-use design and clever color and shape coded boxes and categories make Idea Sketch the perfect tool to unleash your creativity in a pinch.

SketchBook Pro
Sometimes words simply aren't able to fully capture a creative vision. Thankfully, handheld or mobile devices offer a perfect way to sketch your ideas while on the go. SketchBook Pro is a powerful app that allows users to quickly sketch and store their visual ideas and concepts on their handheld device.

Whether it's a quick sketch or a detailed drawing, SketchBook Pro product line manager Chris Cheung says the app was designed to provide a powerful digital art set to use "whenever and wherever creativity strikes."

TED
Sometimes, nothing sparks creativity like hearing brilliant and passionate individuals talk about the things that inspire them. The world famous TED talks have become the foremost platform for the world's intellectual leaders to provide insightful and illuminating presentations on their respective fields. This free app contains over 1,100 inspirational and engaging videos on virtually every subject imaginable, from business and technology to music and art.

Idea Generator
When your mind simply draws a blank, sometimes you need a little push to get the wheels turning again. Idea generator helps plant an inchoate idea in your mind and encourages you to flesh it out yourself.

This incredibly simple app presents three separate roulette wheels that randomly generate different concepts designed to set your creative juices flowing. While the results can be hit and miss, users can customize the app by adding or deleting words from each pool.

Things
Once you've tapped into your creativity, it's time to start turning your ideas into reality. Things is a time management app that helps organize your thoughts and projects into one cohesive place, and create a schedule for putting your plans into action.

This intuitive app allows users to break down a creative project into its various components - from initial brainstorming and concept development, to meetings and production - and create a planner to help you manage it each step of the way.