The scariest part of creativity is getting started. There’s nothing like looking at the blank page of death and knowing where you have to go to get the ole’ procrastination excuses churning.

There are a ton of techniques to brainstorm and to grease your neural wheels. One I like to do fairly often is the mind map.

A mind map is essentially a blank page of death you beat into submission by writing and scribbling thoughts on as quick as you can.

You start with your central idea. Then you draw a line and connect that to another (hopefully related) idea. Repeat.

Maybe along the way one of those ideas sparks you into thinking of something else. Draw a line between said ideas. Soon enough, you’ve got a page filled with lines and words. Yes! You accomplished something! Right?

It’s something alright. What you’re looking at is a brain dump. The mind map keeps you from dwelling too much on any one thought. Dwelling during brainstorming sometimes turns thunder and lightning into a light drizzle. Once you’ve got all your ideas out, you can go through and pick out the choicest bits and kill the rest without stressing too much. After all, you’ve got a hundred or so to pick from. Some of them HAVE to be good.

All you need is a pen and paper. There are some online mind mapping software programs out there you can try out too if you want. Maybe I’ll try them out and review one for you.

Tags: brainstorming, ideas, creativity, get, started

Posted by Classic Jef on Friday, March 9th, 2007 at 10:50 pm.