when you start or run your own business by yourself, brainstorming just isn't the same! it's one of the things i miss out on because the exercise really stimulated my mind and i learned so much from colleagues!
if you find yourself getting stuck or are just tired of talking to yourself out loud, try these three solo brainstorming exercises below:
⚡️ run through a rapid freewrite session
freewriting is a writing strategy developed by peter elbow in 1973 where thoughts and ideas are written in sentence and paragraph form without stopping. it's a great brainstorming tool! i like to freewrite with a time limit to keep myself on task and give myself some focus. it's a great way to let go with your words and see where writing down your ideas gets you.
⚡️ make a mindmap
I love putting on some good music, grabbing a piece of paper and diving into mind mapping! A mind map is an easy way to brainstorm thoughts organically without worrying about order and structure and visually structure ideas to help with analysis and how ideas directly relate to your major idea or pain point.
Mind maps normally start with a central idea in the middle and then branch out using lines to other ideas, tasks, concepts, or words. The idea is you continue to branch out and map out to expand on your idea or solve that pain point! A quick example of what a mind map looks like is below.
⚡️ create specific pinterest boards for visual brainstorming
probably my favorite, hehe! I'm a visual person who is influenced by emotions, so gathering visual inspiration and ideas gets my ideas flowing and inspires action. i make a specific board for my idea and then get to work adding and editing my board until it feels really good and I've hit my goal for the board or brainstorm.
give one or all of these a try and let me know how you feel! happy brainstorming 😊