Having ideas
How to have ideas that are good enough to do something with
The key to having good ideas is to have lots of ideas. Most of them will be terrible and that’s absolutely fine. There will be gold, but you will need to pan for it.
The best way to get going is to set a deadline. Time pressure can be liberating because it forces distractions out of your head.
Find a problem you want to solve. Set a timer for 5 minutes and generate as many ideas as possible. The goal is quantity. Leave them alone for a bit, then look through with fresh eyes. The ideas that have anything in them will jump out. And if they don’t, then try again.
This tactic gets you out of the trap of not starting because you haven’t had an earth-shattering idea yet. This mindset can paralyse you. The truth is that ideas lead places, often where you don’t expect, but for that to happen you have to start.
