A year ago, on a day very much like this day (yet feels a decade away), I wrote in this diary.

I asked, what if you designed your ideation exercise according to your money saving mentality?

I had plenty of responses, some of you were curious on how to do it, others enjoyed the insight they received and some didn’t see it relevant at all.
So here it is again, with some further clarification.
Let me know if it clicks this time, or not. Feedback is always the best way to develop ideas.

How do you save money?

Do you have a certain percentage of your salary put aside? Or do you have a fixed amount that you save regularly? (assuming ofcourse you’re in the habit of saving money and not spending it on every smoothy combination you can think of)
If you want to increase your idea fluency and reduce your decision fatigue at the same time, make a connection between both.
Use the same system you have for increasing your savings account to increasing the number of ideas you produce per challenge.

For example,
You either put aside 10% of your income to be saved every month or you add $50 a-week that goes in automatically. Let’s say at work, you have one week to sort out a pressing challenge. Either dedicate 10% of your time (half-a-day in a full time job) just for generating ideas, or you don’t stop until you get 50 unique ones. Every single week.

Once you stop deciding that it’s worth your time and simply follow your process, your brain will start compounding ideas regularly and automatically. You’ll end up feeling rich and highly trusting your creative muse.

Invest early. Save regularly. For both money and ideas.
Happiness multiplied,
Randah

“People don’t get talker’s block, walker’s block, plumber’s block… There’s no such thing as a writer’s block”. Those were Seth Godin’s words in one of his prompts in Akimbo’s Creative’s Workshop.

If we write daily, he suggests, regardless of the muse arriving or not, sooner or later our subconscious will help us write something that is really good. You simply do the work of writing and let the practice sort out the details.

Same advice goes to generating ideas at work.

To summon the muse, on demand, you will need to get into the habit of ideating constantly. Finding the tools or the best way that fits you is important to take your brain into this uncomfortable, yet highly creative level of producing robust ideas for challenges you’re facing daily.

People are held back by the fear of being blocked, of not moving on, or looking indecisive. When the reality is, they block themselves. 

If you accept the first ideas that come to your mind because you are focused on getting results quickly, or you can’t think of anything better, instead of producing good and imaginative solutions, then you’re building your own idea block.

This block will ensure your creative ideas don’t visit you easily the next time you want them.

And so, the cycle continues. It’s a man-made illness caused by our lazy brains and our high dependency on the muse. It doesn’t have any power over you. You are in control of your mind and the ideas it makes.  

Practice on producing more ideas than what you show the world. Don’t settle for mediocre ideas.

Here’s to breaking your idea-block barriers,

Randah

p.s. What’s your idea quota per challenge and how do you go about generating them?