by Karen Post aka the Branding Diva
We’ve all been there. A large deadline is looming. It’s well past midnight. You don’t think your brain could possibly come up with a single idea – let alone a brilliant single idea. Panic sets in and you’re really starting to sink yourself. You find yourself identifying with this odditea that says, “sometimes my brain hurts.”
How do you avoid this yucky scenario?
I recently addressed a group of Xerox’s customers, direct marketers who use Xerox printers. My topic was “How to increase your production of big, creative useful ideas.” Here’s one useful strategy I shared with them.
Set idea quotas, with yourself or with a group of people. Request a number of ideas (minimum 3 per day) every day for a week. Don’t establish any barriers to “really big-butt ideas.” Pretend budgets don’t matter, and that there are no limits or obstacles to executing the ideas. Just let ‘em rip, like an idea machine. At the end of the week, unless you decide to go into a coma, you will have tons of baby ideas to then start connecting the dots with.
What works for you? Post some ways that juice up your creative brain.