How do you brainstorm?
I am a person who often works alone on projects. During these projects like evryone else I have to brainstorm on solutions to solve various problems.
There are different methods shared online to help you brainstorm by yourself to come up with creative ideas(from which most mentioned is mind mapping).
I am curious to learn what are your preferred techniques to get your creative thoughts flowing and come up with good ideas in a most efficient way. Do you use any tools to help you with the process?
I'm a big fan of mind mapping. Taking ideas out of my head and putting them down in a visual way like this often helps me to dig deeper than I normally would just thinking.
You can use pen and paper or an app (there are hundreds of them). Personally, I use MindNode for iPad. It aligns the nodes on the screen automatically, and the colours are nice.
I start by creating a root node that describes the issue I'm facing. Something like 'Plans and Pricing for Project X'. In the next step, I put down what I already know, any research that I've already done or my current thinking. That might take about 5 to 10 minutes. At that point the magic happens. I usually get new ideas or see things that I didn't see before. I put them down to the branches where they belong and keep expanding them until I'm happy with what I've got or get stuck again.
My tool of choice is a long bike ride 🚲
This comment was deleted 7 years ago
I couldn't agree with this more.
Pry yourself away from your computer and go outside and play catch, go play a pickup game of basketball or soccer, or just go somewhere where there is human activity and you engaging with them.
You'll be surprised how that stimulates the brain.