Brainstorming Tips

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Caught with a problem you cannot solve? Need new ideas and solutions? The process of brainstorming requires you to think out of the box that is keeping you in the problem.

The idea for this post was triggered by a question from a reader, who asked me on my thoughts of the best brainstorming methods to achieve the best results. Because brainstorming is applicable to all kinds of contexts and there is no one size fits all method, I thought it’ll be more helpful to write a post on the different possible types of brainstorming techniques we can use instead.

Here is a list of 25 brainstorming techniques you can use to get out of the situation you are in! From this list, you can assess what’s the best method for the issue you are facing and apply it accordingly.

Time Travel.

How would you deal with this if you were in a different time period? 10 years ago? 100 years ago? 1,000 years ago? 10,000 years ago? How about in the future? 10 years later? 100 years later? 1,000 years later? 10,000 years later?

Teleportation:

What if you were facing this problem in a different place? Different country? Different geographic region? Different universe? Different plane of existence? How would you handle it?

Attribute change.

How would you think about this if you were a different gender? Age? Race? Intellect? Height? Weight? Nationality? Your Sanity? With each attribute change, you become exposed to a new spectrum of thinking you were subconsciously closed off from.

Rolestorming.

What would you do if you were someone else? Your parent? Your teacher? Your manager? Your partner? Your best friend? Your enemy? Etc?

Iconic Figures.

This is a spinoff of rolestorming. What if you were an iconic figure of the past? Buddha? Jesus? Krishna? Albert Einstein? Thomas Edison? Mother Theresa? Princess Diana? Winston Churchill? Adolf Hitler? How about the present? Barack Obama? Steve Jobs? Bill Gates? Warren Buffet? Steven Spielberg? Etc? How would you think about your situation?

Superpowers.

This is another spinoff of rolestorming. What if you suddenly have superpowers? Superman? Spiderman? Wonderwoman? X-Men? The Hulk? One of the Fantastic Four? What would you do?

Gap Filling.

Identify your current spot – Point A – and your end goal – Point B. What is the gap that exists between A and B? What are all the things you need to fill up this gap? List them down and find out what it takes to get them.

Group Ideation.

Have a group brainstorming session! Get a group of people and start ideating together. More brains are better than one! Let the creative juices flow together!

Mind Map 

Great tool to work out as many ideas as you can in hierarchical tree and cluster format. Start off with your goal in the center, branch out into the major sub-topics, continue to branch out into as many sub-sub-topics as needed.

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Medici Effect 

Refers to how ideas in seemingly unrelated topics/fields intersect. Put your goal alongside similar goals in different areas/contexts and identify parallel themes/solutions. For example, if your goal is to be an award winning artist, look at award winning musicians, educators, game developers, computer makers, businessmen, etc. Are there any commonalities that lie among all of them that you can apply to your situation? What worked for each of them that you can adopt?

SWOT Analysis.

Do a SWOT of your situation – What are the Strengths? Weaknesses? Opportunities? Threats? The analysis will open you up to ideas you may not be aware before.

Brain Writing.

Get a group of people and have them write their ideas on their own sheet of paper. After 10 minutes, rotate the sheets to different people and build off what the others wrote on their paper. Continue until everyone has written on everyone else’s sheet.

Trigger Method.

Brainstorm on as many ideas as possible. Then select the best ones and brainstorm on those ideas as ‘triggers’ for more ideas. Repeat until you find the best solution.

Variable Brainstorming. First, identify the variable in the end outcome you look to achieve. For example, if your goal is to achieve X visitors to your website, the variable is # of visitors. Second, list down all the possibilities for that variable. Different variations of visitors are gender/age/race/nationality/occupation/interests/etc. Think about the question with each different variable. For example, for Genre: How can you get more females to your website? How can you get more males to your website? For age: How can you get more teenagers to your website? How can you get more adults to your website? And so on.

Niche.

This is the next level of variable brainstorming method. From the variations of the variable you have listed, mix and match them in different ways and brainstorm against those niches. For example, using the example in #14, how can you get more male teenagers to your website? (Gender & Age) How can you get more American female adults to your website? (Nationality, Gender & Age)

Challenger.

List down all the assumptions in your situation and challenge them. For example, your goal is to brainstorm on a list of ideas for your romance novel which you want to get published. There are several assumptions you are operating in here. #1: Genre to write: Romance. Why must it be that romance? Can it be a different genre? Another assumption is for a novel. #2: Length of the story: Novel. Why must it be a novel? Can it be a short story? A series of books? #3: Medium: Book. Why must be it a book? Can it be an ebook? Mp3? Video? And so on.

Escape Thinking.

This is a variation of Challenger method. Look at the assumptions behind the goal you are trying to achieve, then flip that assumption around and look at your goal from that new angle. For example, you want to earn more income from selling books. Your assumption may be ‘People buy books for themselves’. Flip the assumption around such that ‘People do NOT buy books for reading’. What will this lead to? You may end up with people buy books as gifts, for collection purposes, etc. Another assumption may be ‘People read books’. The flip side of this assumption may be people look at books (drawings). Escaping from these assumptions will bring you to a different realm of thought on how to achieve your goal.

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Introspection

It's been so long since I actually wrote a note on here. Not that I ever write a diary anymore, but if i remember correctly, during the first year in melbourne, I wrote a lot. And I know I like writing when there are things on my mind, when there are worries, stresses, frustration, anger, confusion, broken pieces in the heart, and chaos in my emotions.

It's actually a good thing that I haven't written for a while. Even though I want to write, I've always wanted to write, but over the past few months, I just don't know what to write. When I feel like writing, its just thoughts flowing around my head, shit running into each other on my mind. But over the past few months, I just don't know what to write about. I don't know what to vent about on this white space. It means my mind has been at peace right? At least all of the stuff that caused me inner frustration has disappeared.

I'm not in love. And I don't know if I want to be in one. I used to be in love. I fell in love. I fell for some guy and things didn't blossom and turn all pink. Every girl fell in love. Girls dream to fall in love. And then what? once these little innocent girls fall in love, how long does it take to mend one's inner security? Do you remember the feeling you felt when you were young, innocent, and never had a boyfriend? and then you fell in love with your first boyfriend and since then you always felt some sort of continuous urge to seek for another? Yet, you often find yourself falling for the wrong ones... but in order to fix those emotional distortions, you try to find a rebound to bounce you back on track. But did it ever fix what was lost ? Could the hole once screwed be completely covered again?

Okay, I might sound like a psycho bitch who just got over a heartbreak lol. Nah, I've gotten over my heartbreaks a long time ago. And I'm actually happy that now I am back on track. I used to fall for attention, I fell for sweet words. I fell for the comfort and romance someone showered me with. I fell for someone just for the sake of having someone there to kill my loneliness. Now, I don't need those men...those men that I actually don't want but just to keep to make myself feel good... I don't need them anymore. I don't even care if a hot player is playing games with me. I don't care if someone can shower me with presents or expensive meals. I don't care if someone can provide me temporary comfort and warmth.

I left Bangkok two years ago... because I wanted to explore the real world...the world where I live on my own, do things on my own, away from parents, be in a new environment, speak another language 24-7, be in a new place where I barely know anyone. Though my parents might not be proud of me that I have used a lot of money...shit loads of money... that I haven't finished my fcking degree... that I don't have a decent part-time job so they can stop sending me pocket money...that I choose to live in an expensive apartment... but I'm proud of myself. I'm proud of myself that I can be in another city where I barely know anyone and now I feel like this place is home. I call this place home. If I was overseas and someone asked me where I'm from, I'd say I'm from Melbourne. I'm proud of myself that I could see the world in another perspective. Not being born here and living life to the fullest here now makes me see things in a different way. I see things from an outsider perspective. And when seeing the other places I'd still continue to see things from all points of views like this. I understand their attitudes, their thinking, their way of life. And that's something education can't teach you. I know my parents still don't see what I've learned from this experience and I'm way too tired to explain to them what I've learned if all they can see is that they support me financially to get a degree here and that I should get a degree and get a good job. I don't know how to explain to them the unexplainably valuable experience from living overseas...and from being able to integrate the locals way of life into mine...and to comprehend their way of thinking as well. That's pretty amazing, isn't it?

It's a challenge. And it's fun. And if I think of moving to another country, that's going to be the way I see things. Yes moving... I don't want to go overseas for just a few weeks and walk along shopping streets and buy expensive shoes like those asian kids usually do. All they care about is shopping. If I'm going to visit a city, I have to live there for a while in order to understand the way of life and the way the locals think. It's fun to try to adjust yourself and act like one just like when I tried to change my accent from American to Aussie and now I can't even speak with an American accent anymore. Its hard to sew a habit, but once you see it as a fun challenge, you just forget about how hard it is to sew a habit.


Now that's the new challenge for me...to sew a habit ...

Competing in this competitive world with millions of people striving to be on top and above you is hard. But the hardest thing and often ignored is winning your own self, being in control of your own mind, disciplining your actions, getting rid of the bad habits and sewing the new good ones. Competing with your inner self is hard... real hard...

Do you have any tricks in successfully sewing a new habit???