Alright, you glorious bunch. This is the first of many creative exercises I’ll be sharing with you to turn your mind into a creative idea generating Behemoth.
At first glance, you'd be forgiven for thinking that I’ve started this series with a bit of a weak one. You might think this one lacks a bit of oomph or pizazz or any other glittery adjective you care to throw at it. But I wanted to share this one with you first because I've been using it for almost 2 years now, and I've found it incredible.
Before you start your work day, set a timer for 10 minutes and force yourself to write down 10 ideas.
That's it.
The ten things can be whatever you want and they can change from day to day.
- 10 things to fix around the house
- 10 titles for blog articles
- 10 hobbies you want to try
For me, I mostly write down content ideas or things I want to design or draw. After almost 2 years of forcing myself to think of 10 things as fast as I can every day, it has without a doubt trained my brain to conjure up concepts and make connections better than I've ever done before.
I first heard about this idea from a guy called James Altucher. He started using it to open doors in his career by writing lists of 10 people he wanted to reach out to, followed by lists of 10 hooks he could use when he reached out to them.
One thing worth noting before you begin, is to remove any importance you might attach to these ideas. If you come up with 10 awful ideas, who cares. No one has to see them. If you're having a bad day and you only think of 5, don't beat yourself up, it happens. Fill the remaining 5 with random items in your house.
You might even find the 10 minute time constraint hugely unhelpful so you extend it to something that works for you or scrap it completely. I landed on 10 minutes so my mind doesn't wonder, something it really enjoys doing annoyingly.
Grab a notepad or use an app on your phone. Give it a try for at least a month to see how you get on.
If you want to do these along with me everyday, I’ll be sharing my daily ‘10 ideas’ entries in a private thread in the chat section.
And if you’re up for it, you can share yours too.
I personally think I'll continue using this method until the day I expire, or at least until my 'best before' date.
If you want to do a bit more reading into James Altucher's story, you can check it out here.
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