OMG I bought the best thing for $40 today!

[TaylorB]

Fellow speeders, I was wondering if any of you had some tools & tricks about brainstorming idea's?

I'm a person who everywhere I go constantly think of ideas, solutions etc. Realistic or not! haha

Anyways Today I purchased a white board for 40$ and set it up in my office! I started brainstorming my ideas on it and then leaving it up all day to see every time I walk by. That seems to have spawned new ideas!

I guess I'm just really shocked on the difference it made since I've written things down on paper but then it gets lost and cluttered on my desk or beside my bed. The whiteboard so far seems to gleam its ideas down to me from the wall!

Not to mention standing up and working is good for your chi.

Any idea's or tools you guys use to get the juices flowing?

 

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[Justin.p]

For me the #1 absolutely most important tool: SimpleNote. (http://simplenote.com/) I jot ideas down and tag them with multiple tags according to what sort of an idea they are. I have it on my laptop, desktop, iPhone, iPad, and Android phone all - so no matter when the idea comes to me (always at the worst time) - it will get recorded - and no matter when I need to reference it again - it is right there waiting for me - and easily locatable according to tags.

I know people use stuff like Evernote etc. for a similar purpose. Personally I hate having the ability to format or mark-up the text because it is very distracting. I have OCD about making text look pretty - and would waste too much time to get it "perfect".

 

[RBefort]

I dont have any at moment. I suck with ideas....cant say I exercise that part of my brain too often. However, ive thought about the whiteboard. Seems like this would be a huge motivator. Glad it is working for you. Fill that baby up!

 

[MitchC]

"Clear" is the app I use

 

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[ÉlyAna]

I'm a fan of Apple so I have iPhone, iPad, iMac, MacBook Pro ... I use Evernote, wunderlist and Note. They are all in the cloud and I can access to all my devices in real time. Really practical since I work with my husband so we can share in real time tasks, ideas, to do list or grocery list ;p

 

[Joe Cassandra]

Write every stupid, dumb, crazy thing you think of down.

Many want to filter out the bad ideas and only keep tabs on what's good. All you want to do is have your mind sharpened to keep thinking of ideas all the time. 99% will suck.

Just today I was filling up my gas and thought, "Why isn't my credit card attached to my license plate so I can just get out and start pumping instead of having to fiddle with my wallet, scan my Kroger Plus card etc. Would save me a little bit of time and be more convenient."

Perhaps it's dumb, whatever, I wrote it down on my phone right away.

It's hard to have just 1 resource for writing ideas down. You'll use paper, evernote, google drive, word etc. I use mostly my Sketchbook on Galaxy Note 3 and Google Drive updates all the time so I can pull it up on my computers wherever I am.

Don't let your mind filter, just let them all come out as they are. Then you start seeing if some of the ideas can be combined together.

Another idea I had recently that combined, I was thinking of a new type of golf club that is both a cane and club. i was also thinking about a new drink dispenser. I combined them to think of "A golf club shaped drink dispense (much like a beer tap) in your bag." Pretty cool huh?

 

[RogueInnovation]

I use a spreadsheet and put my best work for the day on a sheet

 

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[TaylorB]

Rep Transfer for repliers! <edit> apparently 10$ is the min and I only had 15$ so i'll catch the others back later! </edit> Cheers Can't buy you a beer so

I'll have to give Sketchbook a try as I'm also on a note. Never really played with that app much.

So we got:

SimpleNote
Clear
Wunderlist
Sketchbook
Evernote
Excell or similar spreadsheet

I'll give them a try, would be cool to have something mobile for the coffee shop etc.

 

[The-J]

Tomorrow.do kicks a$$. (Thanks to @chadif for this one)

It's a very simple web-based tool: put down 10 tasks for the day. Whatever you don't get done gets pushed off til tomorrow. It can sync with Google Tasks and I believe Google Calendar, which makes it really useful

What's great about this is that it's not a planning tool or a progress tool. It's a "This is the shit I need to get done today and tomorrow" tool. Very simple. It's like the sticky note you never have to throw away.

 

[Dezzamondo]

I'm an avid fan of Evernote and use that for most things. Though, a $2 pocket notepad that you carry around with you can be the most cost effective tool in your FL arsenal.

Don't forget, ideas aren't worth anything until you execute...

 

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[Bimmer]

Oh I have been thinking of buying a whiteboard for quite some time now but never got one yet. I like the idea of making wireframes or mindmaps for a clearer perspective, and also to write ideas on them so you don't forget about them. Curtently I use evernote which is great. But everytime i write doen a bunch of ideas or whatever, i still forget about them because i never open my old notes!(am i the only one doing this). Anyway, So i like the idea of constant being exposed to the whiteboard

 

[Mattie]

I believe police detectives do that to solve criminal cases. At least what I see on Television. I imagine it is a good idea.

 

[jon.a]

Okay, I have a silly one.
I use Google for spell-check. Especially the really hard words were I can't even get close.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

Been using the white board for years. In my early days, I used to use it to track my net worth with big bold black numbers. Having the number go up every single day was very motivating, even if it was only a couple of bucks.

For "to dos", my Wunderlist stopped working when they updated it. Now I use a regular paper notepad for daily "to dos" -- there is definitely truth to concept that the neurological process of physically crossing something off a list is more effective than digitally doing it.

On a side note, has anyone used this software?

https://stacksocial.com/sales/notebook-4-the-ultimate-organizational-note-taking-tool

(Its on sale right now at Stack Social)

 

[AllenCrawley]

I miss my whiteboard. I had a 4'x8' board that I purchased from Lowes. It was a white gloss hardboard panel. Not specifically used for a whiteboard but worked perfectly as one. $10. Looks like my local Lowes sells it for about $14.

http://www.lowes.com/pd_16605-46498-300_0__?productId=3015239&Ntt=paneling&pl=1&currentURL=?Ntt=paneling&facetInfo=

I had the pleasure to meet Scott Jones, the inventor of voice mail. For a short 6 month period in 2000 I worked as a courier and got to deliver a package to his home. A portion of his home was still under construction. I got to meet him at the top of his famous staircase slide which was being installed the day I was there. Anyway, I got a quick glimpse into his whiteboard room. All wall and ceiling surfaces covered in whiteboard. Very cool.

For your infotainment, pics of the staircase slide and whiteboard room:
http://www.scottajones.com/?portfolio=digital-home

 

[Iwokeup]

My go to methods: giant whiteboards, those cheap composition books, and my phones voice recorder. Because who wants to waste time scribbling on the phone?

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

For your infotainment, pics of the staircase slide and whiteboard room:

Holy crappers!

 

[rocksolid]

Another idea I had recently that combined, I was thinking of a new type of golf club that is both a cane and club. i was also thinking about a new drink dispenser. I combined them to think of "A golf club shaped drink dispense (much like a beer tap) in your bag." Pretty cool huh?

Take it off your list

http://www.sharperimage.com/si/view...e=&network=g&gclid=CM-r86aZ-r8CFU4F7AodKUEApQ

 

[Joe Cassandra]

Take it off your list

http://www.sharperimage.com/si/view/product/Driver-Drink-Dispenser/201912?p=plist2470005&gmkt=true&p=plist2470005&utm_source=Google&utm_medium=CPC&utm_campaign=NonBranded&Keyword=adwords_labels=Outdoor and adwords_labels=Full Price and adwords_labels=$50 - $89.99&cm_mmc=CPC-_-Google-_-NonBranded-_-PLA&adpos=1o1&creative=42965762063&device=c&matchtype=&network=g&gclid=CM-r86aZ-r8CFU4F7AodKUEApQ

You missed the point......

You think every idea you write down will be original?...no idea is original anymore. Notice, it's not compressed air, so it's not a beer tap which is my idea.

So, no I won't take it off my list.

 

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[TaylorB]

Checked out that tomorrow.do ... interesting idea. GREAT website tho enjoyed that more I think!

I just saw on HGTV the guys painting a room with www.ideapaint.com

Really cool product design actually you mix this with that and this and that are the 2 names of the cans of epoxy you have to mix!

I'm tempted to do this to my entire office. just have a 4 sided think tank room!

 

[V8Bill]

Everyone here MUST have a LARGE whiteboard! I was lucky enough to have an old friend looking out for me and when he spotted a massive whiteboard about to be smashed and dumped he grabbed it, came to my house with a worker and screwed it to the wall. It covered almost the entire useable wall space to the right of my office chair and I'd just swivel around and throw ideas up on it. It was also really useful for taking notes while on a phone call. That whiteboard became the 2nd most used piece of equipment in my office (PC first) and I could easily put it down as one of the most influential tools I used to move into the fastlane.

When I first started trading options I had a hard time understanding them (as is usual) so I just drew it all out on the whiteboard until I totally understood what I was doing. It was like having unlimited horsepower (a term I heard used here once before I think) to brainstorm. I invented my own options day trading system using that whiteboard which I went on to sell hundreds of video courses for thousands of dollars each. It was the fastest wealth I'd ever personally experienced and I put it largely down to the whiteboard.

iPhone, iPad and mind map software is ok but nothing compares to the freedom of physically writing on a large white space with total almost unrestrained freedom. It's hard to explain (the OP now gets it) but I think it has to do with the physicality of all those arm movements, being able to step back and stare and really putting you in thinking mode but it's also got to do with the fact that it's massive and visible and in your face daily and changeable. Sure we can use little apps but as soon as they close they're forgotten like too much of the other high speed data flying around in our lives these days.

The whiteboard is a physical tool that WILL make a massive and instant positive difference to your life. If you're a real go getter - you'll go and get one today. Here's another tip - blue, black, red and green are the only colours you'll need (forget the purples and light blues - go for contrast and always get the torpedo tip (never the chisel point) and run a few circles on the board with your fresh marker pressing down on the tip to spread it out a bit. There's nothing worse than thin little lines you can't see. Big bold lines and diagrams are best and stick in your mind.

Seriously guys - get yourselves a massive whiteboard at least as wide as your arms can spread and preferably with as much room to stretch up as high as your arms can reach and watch your progress speed up tremendously. If you can't afford or find a big one being thrown out then at least get a small one but you'll soon fill it up. Big is better.