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Brainstorming is a session of time where you record every idea you have for a particular subject, topic, product, article, etc.

Brainstorming sessions can be on anything. Want to figure out what to write about for your blog? Brainstorm it! I'm going to give you a few rules to having an effective brainstorming session.

1. Define the problem in broad terms, do not insert artificial constraints into the query you trying to answer. The question should be broad enough to generate many creative ideas. Rather than asking "How do I pick up an egg to move it to position X?" ask, "How can an egg move to location X?" The former confines the solution to something involving the egg being picked up, the latter encourages the following idea: allow the egg to hatch and let the chick walk to location X. The wording of the question will determine the quality of the ideas generated during the brainstorming session.

2. No limits on ideas. Allow yourself to throw the laws of physics out the window and cross barriers you normally set for yourself. Anything is game. This is not the time for evaluation, it's the time for crazy, wacky and out of the box thinking. The phrase "Come On, Let's Be Serious" should be banned from the session. Serious is for when there's money involved, there's no money yet - so go crazy. Wacky ideas spark different threads of thought. Those additional threads may produce the perfect answer for your team. If those ideas are evaluated out early you may never end up with the ideal solution to your problem.

3. Use time instead of count for ideas. Set your self 20-30 minutes for a brainstorming session instead of 100 ideas. The interesting ideas only come when there's little pressure and you've gone through the ordinary ones. Time instead of a count will give you time to break through to those ideas without creating the stress of producing x number of ideas. The time will eventually run out, but you could be stuck for hours trying to get 100 or 500 ideas down. Come back to the problem in another session later if you need to generate more ideas.

4. Record every idea. Every idea needs to be written or typed up so the ideas can be evaluated later or the session restarted. Nothing is evaluated at this stage, so keep everything. If there are some ideas not being recorded, you're evaluating them. Stop! You will need some tool that can capture the ideas quickly. Once you get your team on a roll, you don't want them slowed down by the tools you use.

If you follow these 4 simple guidelines for brainstorming, you should have no problem coming up with a wealth of ideas for whatever problems you are facing in your business.

"Visit my blog and learn the art & science of separating your life from your business." -Steven Lohrenz. Here is the URL: Internet Business Automation