Lots of people wish they would come up with more ideas. Whether it’s for business or art or just simply being creative, they wish they came up with more unique ideas on their own. In fact, there are ways to work on this. Creativity is a skill like everything else. We can train our minds to come up with more original ideas every day. We do this with a number of methods.
The best method to do this is by writing down a list of ideas every day. Some people advise to write up to 10 ideas a day. I found this a little difficult and would start off with 5 ideas a day. There’s no max on the number of ideas. But at least 5 will work just fine. The idea behind this is to train your brain to come up with ideas. And we do this by practicing the exact thing we want it to do. It’s important to understand that there will be a lot of bad ideas you come up with. But that’s ok. We don’t want to limit what our mind thinks of. That is a great way to shut off our creativity. We want to welcome any idea that comes into our mind and write it down no matter how unrealistic it may seem. After a while, you will have a giant list of ideas and some are bound to be really good ones. If you write down up to 100 ideas over a matter of months, how many do you think will be great ideas? 5? 10? 20? You’ll have to try it to find out.
If you are still having trouble with coming up with great and unique ideas there is another method that I like. It’s basically called idea intercourse. This means you take two ideas and combine them resulting in a brand new and original idea. For example, if I combined a smart phone and a fridge I would get a smart fridge that has capabilities of tracking my groceries and possible ordering me new ones when I get low. That’s a real thing. Or combining a telephone and a copier to get a fax machine. Or a suitcase and a trolley to get wheeling luggage. The list is endless. Putting two products or ideas together is a great way to get your creative juices flowing when you can’t think of anything.
After about a month or so writing down your daily ideas, you can utilize the idea intercourse method to come up with even more ideas. Take two random ideas of yours at a time a see what the end result is. Another way to take advantage of idea intercourse is by talking about your ideas with other people. Friends and family can have very beneficial input in our ideas. They have a whole new set of eyes, perspectives, and thoughts that could potentially be very helpful. Bouncing ideas off one another is a form of idea intercourse. By doing so, ideas from two different sources are coming together to form a better idea. 1 + 1 = 3.
The benefit of combining two ideas often is greater than the sum. In other words, putting two ideas together to form one idea is a way to create something brand new that potentially serves multiple functions. That’s why idea intercourse is important for those trying to come up with more ideas. It’s important to practice this skill and write down ideas as they come into your head. This makes this exercise more measurable and helpful in the future when you look back on all of your ideas you came up with. Be sure to write the ideas down the moment it is sparked in your head. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had an idea and convinced myself that I’ll write it down later. Then later came and I completely forgot what it was. Have a notepad handy or use a note app on your phone to jot down ideas the instant they pop in your head. You’ll not only have them written down so you won’t forget, but you’ll also be able to track your progress of building up your idea muscles in your head. If you’re having trouble coming up with ideas, try using the idea intercourse method and maybe you’ll come up with something completely new.
Dabbl 