Summarize:

It's good to know how to do things in the typical ways, especially so then you can subvert that thinking. By doing things in a way other people don't expect you'll demonstrate that you can think on your feet. That is one way people seem to judge cleverness. For example: if your professor gives you an essay assignment, ask them if you could do a creative option. Demonstrate how your option fulfills the requirements while going above and beyond. (If you're taking a class on short stories, ask if you could try your hand at writing a short story of your own using what you've learned in class, and write a follow-up piece examining your own work.) This is also about doing the unexpected. If you always go by the rules or do things exactly as you learned them it doesn't mean you're not smart, it simply means that people aren't going to see you as clever. So, don't rely on your particular intelligence and typical ways of doing things. This step ties into not always going by the book, because a lot times you'll need to think outside the box to do that. To be clever you will need to come up with creative solutions to problems. Re-conceptualize the problem. One thing that people who use creative solutions do effectively, is to re-imagine a problem. To practice this skill, take an obvious choice (like writing a plain old essay) and re-imagine how else you might approach the essay so that you still get the same information across, but in a different, more engaging way (telling a story orally, creating a collage or painting). Daydream. It turns out that daydreaming is actually incredibly beneficial to boosting creative problem-solving. The process of daydreaming helps you to form connections and recall information. This is why a lot of your best ideas may come out during the shower or right before you go to bed. If you're having difficulty with something, take a little time out to daydream. Chances are, by relaxing and letting your brain roam free, you'll come up with something creative that works. Brainstorming is another great way to foster creativity, especially in a group. Present the problem and have people give whatever ideas come into their head without passing judgement on these ideas. Have people add to the ideas as they come. You can do this on your own too, as long as you make sure to keep judgment out of the process. Fear is one of the biggest obstacles to creative thinking, which is one big aspect of cleverness. The more creative and workable your solutions and ideas, the more people will believe in your abilities. Ask yourself things like: what happens if you lose your job? what if you lose your best customer? what if you fail your class? what if the publisher doesn't buy your book? The answer to any of these questions can either free you up from fear, or it can show where you need to work on your solutions, which in turn will open up opportunities and further ideas. When you're coming up with ideas and potential solutions, don't open them up for criticism until they're more formed. Criticism and the fear of criticism can be a big creativity killer, which can kill your cleverness, too. When you're out of the brainstorming stage and better able to evaluate the ideas, that's when you get feedback and take criticism. Having problems and opportunities that are ill-defined and super vague can make it incredibly difficult to come up with punchy or creative solutions and ideas. Even if issues and things you need to deal with come to you without parameters, set some for yourself. Setting "imaginary" or "pretend" parameters can foster your ideas. For example, if you're working on a project for work pretend that you're out of money, how do you accomplish your task without it? Pretend you can't follow the rules, written or unwritten, how would you do things different? Pretend there's a fast time limit on coming up with your solution (say a 5 minute time limit)? What can you come up with in that short period of time? For example, Dr. Seuss wrote Green Eggs and Ham because of a challenge from his editor to come up with a full book in under 50 different words. That restriction helped him come up with one of the best known Dr. Seuss books.
Don't always go by the book. Think outside the box. Consider the worst that could happen. Set parameters.