This morning while reading RSS feeds and drinking coffee, I came across C.C. Chapman’s latest blog post titled, “How do you Brainstorm?” C.C. describes his hacks that he uses to brainstorm. Some of C.C.’s hacks include,
- Cranking the music.
- Writing everything down, even if it’s one word.
- Then he goes back puts thought and ideas behind what he’s written down.
I started thinking about what I constantly return to to stimulate creativity for me. Personally, I’m all about atmosphere. I always find myself overflowing with ideas in places like cafes, bookstores, art galleries, ethic eateries, foreign countries. Another launching pad to creativity is while running or exercising. It has a way of opening the creative channels.
Next, being a “list guy” I formulate everything in outlines, lists and statements. I see and visualize everything as a blueprint and a process. I usually record it in a “Moleskine Small Ruled Notebook Writing Journal” that I carry or my Levenger wallet.
Finally, periodically I’ll go back and review my ideas and thoughts and put some type of action behind them.
What do you do to stimulate creativity? What are some of the things you do to bring your idea to a reality?
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David… way too funny… I’ve been carrying a Moleskine notebook around for many years for the same reason! These days it mostly has my notes about things to blog – or my notes/responses to podcasts that I listen to.
As far as stimulating creativity, for me it usually involves stepping away from the computer and going outside. Perhaps for a walk, bike ride, or just even sitting outside in a quieter place. Alternatively, sometimes when I am suffering severe writer’s block, I find that cranking loud rock/metal music usually works well. For whatever reason, albums by The Scorpions, in particular, have helped me through a good number of deadlines.
Since attending a presentation by Tom Kelley, general manager of IDEO, I’ve adopted a method he suggested for recording ideas as they happen. He proposed two distinct inputs: an ‘idea wallet’ and a ‘bug list.’
I’ve found the latter to be my favorite. Periodically reviewing the bug list actions reveals lists of opportunities as opposed to the often less frequent sparks of creative ideation.
I continue to experiment with the mobile-web service Jott for captures, but remain devoted to a stack of 3×5′s.
Thanks for the post. I look forward to reading others’ responses to your questions.
I find doing mundane tasks a great to get creative. “Mundane tasks” are usually things I put off doing until they have to be done! But I think stepping away from what you usually do allows you to zone out a bit and get the ideas flowing again. And flowing is the operative word… one idea tends to lead to another and so on… it’s a strange carry on!
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