Comments on: Open Thread – Idea Generation

By: paid for taking survey

paid for taking survey — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 00:24:11 +0000

paid for taking survey

Quite informative article. I do work in this industry myself and have some experience in this topic, but I do not agree with you in 100%. However, you made some good points too

By: Dana Vanden Heuvel

Dana Vanden Heuvel — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 22:27:11 +0000

I’ve got a couple of ways of dealing with this. Certainly, as was suggested earlier, walking the dog and heading out for a drive are great ways to think and remove yourself from the issue at hand to focus “on” rather than “in”.

I also find that reading something unrelated works well. I’ll sometimes take a reading break, head downstairs, and pickup any one of a dozen books that I have in progress and try to put the challenge I have in the frame of reference that the book has (If it’s book on dog behaviour, or a book on woodworking, it doesn’t really matter…ideas come from everywhere!)

I’m also a big fan of creative card decks. the KnowBrainer deck, the IDEO deck, or any or a half-dozen others. They all prompt great questions which lead to thoughtful answers & ideas. Great for breaking the streak…

By: kelly

kelly — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 23:38:24 +0000

One thing that works for me is a good drive, with a large coffee and really good tunes. I find my mind really detaches and drifts well while driving to good music. A good short 40 minute drive will do the trick for me.

By: Anne Zelenka

Anne Zelenka — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 23:19:36 +0000

I get ideas all the time… the issue is capturing them more than generating them. I seem to especially get them when I’m about to get in bed, so I keep a notebook beside my bed. I probably have five ideas for blog posts sitting up there right now, so what I need is a workflow for getting it from the paper all over my house into my computer.

I get lots of ideas from reading dead tree media. I like The Economist, Business Week, The New Yorker, and the Wall Street Journal.

By: sharpshooter

sharpshooter — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 10:02:46 +0000

An activity that you really enjoy and is not a part of the work routine can work really work well. The following do the trick for me, at different times: live exuberant music, or a 15 min walk alone. Other ideas are sitting in starbucks alone with some coffee doing nothing or using a mind map to jot down some ideas. Check out freemind (freemind.sf.net) if you like to use mindmaps on your computer, though they work better on plain paper somehow. They are pretty useful to get the ideas flowing.

Hope this helps a bit. Will be curious to see more ideas.

By: Sal Cangeloso

Sal Cangeloso — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 21:35:10 +0000

I have to admit I am a chronic dog walker. I try to do it a few times a week during that post-lunch, pre-coffee break lull. Its a great way to chill out before I start to get pounded with email as I am trying to close up shop later in the day…