Best ways to Brainstorm

Posted on May 7, 2013 by Jason Giles

One of the hardest things for me while explaining to friends what the job of a Digital Strategist entails is actually quantifying the amount of  thinking we do in a day.

We’re analyzing analytics, reading whitepapers, keeping up to date with current events to ensure that our clients accounts are always up to date with the zeitgeist in the moment and generating content for our brands. It can take a toll on the noggin. So how do we stay of top of things? Brainstorming.

We all know that each of us has our own ways of coming up with next-level ideas for their clients, here’s what does the trick for me:

Chair Spinning.

Laugh all you want. A few spins to the left, switch it up and go to the right and I end up being able to detach myself from the task at hand and focus on the big picture. Or at least until I see something that grabs my attention and forget what I was thinking about.

Staring contest with blank screen

You know how just sometimes, if you will things hard enough they’ll happen? I’m like that, but with putting ideas down. I will get into an intense staring match with my blank google doc until I get an epiphany or just start writing, I could not be making coherent sentences but eventually it’ll kickstart the ol’ brain. The emptiness of a word doc is a great motivator.

driving and/or in transit

I don’t know if anyone else gets this but moments of inspiration typically come while I’m in transit. Be it car or subway or GO Train, I tend to do my best thinking when I’m in between places. It might be the mix of entertainment going on around me (more on that in a bit), the over saturation of stimuli or a near-lethal dose of caffeine. But the best thoughts always come when I’m coming or going.

Air Drumming

At certain intervals throughout the day, to the behest of my coworkers, I am a tapping, flailing mess of a human being. This is because I’m actually really, really deep in thought or on a roll. Don’t ask why but being able to mimic the beat of a song in a series of very uncoordinated flailing motions seems to generate a few ideas.

Vulcan mind meld.

You haven’t been desperate for content until you grab a coworker’s forehead in an attempt to perform a vulcan mind meld.

Standing on your head.

Hey, if it works, right?

Scotch.

There’s always scotch.

Jason is a Digital Strategist at 88 Creative. Follow him on Twitter @Jasegiles .