3 ways to find ideas even when you're stumped

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

It's four hours before the deadline. You haven't started yet. There is emptiness in my head. Every first person has been in a situation where creativity is lost over the horizon. How do you get out of the swamp and come up with an idea that works? The answer is simpler than it sounds. You just need to use the right tool at the right time.

A tool that will help you formulate an idea, even if there is a mess in your head, is called associative brainstorming.

Good ideas don't come to us on request. Applying the techniques of associative thinking, we stop thinking in a linear way, we get our thoughts out of the rut. Associations send the mind into free flight, allowing you to get creative ideas from the bins of the subconscious.

Soon you will exclaim: "Eureka!"

Important! Set specific goals for your associations. Vague tasks lead to vague results.

Dictionary associations

Word Storm is an option where, as you can imagine, the focus is on words. Write a word that relates to your project or task. And in the column opposite, write down all the words-associations that themselves pop up in memory.

Don't pop up? Start asking questions, answering them as broadly and quickly as possible. Sample list:

• What it is?
• What is it for?
• How it works?
• What comparisons can you make to a word?
• What are the antonyms?

Another way is to use the mechanism of the appearance of associations, which was described by Aristotle. According to his theory, connections between objects in our imagination arise in three ways.

1. Adjacency … When one object is perceived as accompanying another. For example, coffee is drunk with cream, sugar, cookies, lemon and so on.
2. Similarity … If one object is similar to another or acts in the same way, an association arises from this similarity. A round donut is like a wheel, and a cold shower and a spring rain are about the same feeling.
3. Contrast … In contrast to unhealthy fast food, a wholesome fresh vegetable salad is a simple example. And in general, associations based on opposition lead to the most.

If you still can't find a single word, turn to the case for help. Get the largest explanatory dictionary you can find on your shelves. Open it without looking, anywhere, and with your eyes closed, lower your finger on the page. Write down the word that will be closer to your finger, even if you don't like it or you don't know its meaning (read it in the dictionary). Five to six words will be enough to start the creative production mechanism. The impact of random words immediately evokes associations, this is an uncontrolled process. For those who do not have a dictionary, random words are invented.

Free associations

Free association is an extension of vocabulary that gives even more ideas. In accordance with this technique, you start from two words at once. Take a list of word associations, write them down in two identical columns, and see what happens when you associate words with each other. Combinations are ideas.

The more connections you can find, the more likely you are to find a good idea among them, although many of the options that come to your mind will be absurd and wild. And some of them will not be related to work at all. But it normal.

We are used to thinking strictly rationally, so we discard all ideas that seem meaningless. You need to take control of this reflex and change the attitude towards new thoughts. Every time you look at an association and think that it is meaningless, ask yourself the question: "What does it take to make sense in it?"

You have to answer, and this is the same exercise for the brain as squats and pull-ups are for muscles.

Mind map

This technique literally maps your ideas to a map, it is a simple method of visualizing and structuring information and large amounts of data.

The mind maps look like a branching tree. The main idea acts as a trunk, which is divided into associations and details. Lifehacker has already discussed how to grow such a tree.

Maps build a simple hierarchy of ideas, especially since many have been invented for them that allow you to change and rebuild maps.

(via,)