Personal Brainstorming Techniques

• Setting the Stage for Creativity
• Principles
  
• Techniques
• How Others Can Enhance Your Brainstorming Activities
  

• Change Your Environment: Go somewhere different from where you do most of your work.  Find somewhere you can relax that is clean and uncluttered.
  

• Relax:  Research from cognitive scientists shows that creativity occurs during brainwave activity in the alpha range, which is distinct from the beta range where we spend most of our normal waking consciousness.  The more you can relax, the easier it will be to get into alpha and get your creativity flowing. 
  

• Music:  Music has powerful effects to quickly shift your attitude and the energy in a room overall.  Use music to lift your mood, relax, and get your creative juices flowing.  

• 1)  Get Your Materials:  This includes timers, white boards, papers, crayons, partners, and potentially many other things.  Please visit my brainstorming tools page for more ideas.
  

• 2)  State Your Intention:  What are you brainstorming for?  To identify solutions to a problem?  Places to live?  Possible careers?  Whatever it is, be crystal clear about what you want to walk away with after the brainstorming session. 
  

• 3)  Pick the Brainstorming Technique:  Identify whether you want to free-write, make a list, create a mind map, draw, write music, or use another technique.  (See the discussion below for more on techniques.)
  

• 3)  Set a Timer:  Decide how long you want to brainstorm.  I recommend at least 10-15 minutes.  Once you set the time, commit to it.  During the brainstorm, even if you have no ideas, sit there and continue to wait for ideas to come to you until time's up.

• 4)  Begin Brainstorming:  Let it flow!  Come up with as many ideas as you can.  Not as many good ideas. . .or as many brilliant ideas.  Just as many ideas as you can.  Period.  At this point, do not allow yourself to critique anything at all. Turn the internal editor off.

• 5)  When You Think You're Done. . . If you run out of steam before the timer goes off, don't stop!  Sit there and wait for ideas to come to you.  Don't try too hard to come up with something.  Just relax and intend to sit there quietly until the timer finishes.  You'll probably have several more ideas come to you. On the other hand, if the timer buzzes and you're still going, then keep going!  Once you run out of steam, again, sit there for a few minutes and relax, waiting for any final nuggets of inspiration to come to you.

• 6)  After, and Only After You've Finished Brainstorming, Evaluate Your Ideas:  Once you have all your ideas out there and you've exhausted your creativity, put your analytical, logical editor hat back on.  Look at your ideas.  Group them into categories, and select about five with the best potential.  Then, weigh the pros and cons of these top five, and use your analytical powers - as well as your intuition - to determine which ones you think best.
  

• Lists:   Use brainstorming techniques and just list your ideas on piece of paper, white board, word processor, etc. This is the simplest of all brainstorming techniques.
  

• Free-Writing:  Free-writing is an excellent technique for generating a rough draft of anything and getting as many excellent ideas as you can down.  In free writing, you simply write as much as you can, even if it's terrible or incoherent.  Then, after you've finished brainstorming, put your "editor-hat" back on and evaluate, arrange, and begin to edit.
  

• Mind Mapping:  Use mind mapping to generate a spider-like diagram of many ideas and understand how they all relate to each other.  See my page on mind mapping to learn how.

• Drawing:  Some people think in images.  Even if you're not a great artist, give this a try.  Try to brainstorm in images.  For example, if you're thinking about business ideas, draw images of the types of business you might have.  This brainstorming technique can help you get past your logical, verbal mind and into the creative, holistic right-brain.
  

• Anonymous Input:  Have each member of the group write his/her ideas down anonymously.  Collect, compile, and share them with the group.  From there, set a timer and have the group try to combine ideas to think of as many ideas as possible.  As with individual brainstorming, do not allow any critique whatsoever during this phase.

• Electronic Brainstorming:   Use a wiki, or other group collaboration software, to allow group members to see other's contributions and add their own in real-time.  If you make this anonymous, you can avoid some group behaviors that inhibit brainstorming.
  

• Group Passing:  Start with a list of ideas.  Pass the ideas sheet around the group, and each group member adds one idea.  Set a timer, say 10-15 minutes, and go around and around.  Have fun with this one. 
  

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