Description
Creative Brainstorming consists of writing down all the ideas you can think of in a moment. The goal is to exercise the "idea muscle" to promote creativity and mental sharpness.
Possible Benefits
- May boost creativity
- May improve mental sharpness
- May increase focus
- May improve mood
- May decrease stress
- May decrease anxiety
Required Equipment
A journal to keep track of your ideas
How to Do It
With a pen and paper, write down 10 ideas. It doesn't matter the theme, nor the quality. Focus on writing down 10 ideas no matter what they are.
The goal is to exercise your mind. Ideally, write them down in a journal, so you can check them out in the future. You never know, you might come up with some very good ideas that you can implement!
Why it works
- Brainstorming promotes divergent-thinking, which is essential for creativity.
- By suspending judgments about the quality of ideas, the mind becomes more flexible and can make use of previous knowledge and combine it to obtain new ideas.
- One study [1] found that when the quantity of ideas increases, so does the quality in the medium term.
- By exercising the ability to create ideas, one obtains greater fluidity in problem solving, which is helpful for creativity.
Time Commitment
5-10 minutes
Suggested Frequency
Daily
Time of Day
Any
Find the best time for you according to your routine
Possible Side Effects
None known.
Tips
- Habit promoted by James Altucher
- Don't ignore any idea, all are valid
- You can practice this habit with friends or family
- Do new activities, so you will have new ideas
Supporting Studies and Articles
Expand Collapse- Does quantity generate quality? Testing the fundamental principle of brainstorming. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16255388/
- Evaluation of Brainstorming Session as a Teaching-learning Tool among Postgraduate Medical Biochemistry Students. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5769163/
- Beyond Brainstorming: Exploring Convergence in Teams. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5777391/#CIT0087
- Brainstorming for breakthrough thinking. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22094610/
- Cognitive stimulation in brainstorming. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11079237/
- Better Brainstorming. https://hbr.org/2018/03/better-brainstorming
- Brainstorming and Beyond. A User-Centered Design Method. https://www.sciencedirect.com/book/9780124071575/brainstorming-and-beyond
