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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. Write everything down - everything needs to be recorded so it can be returned to and recorded during a later evaluation phase. As above, nothing should be evaluated at this stage. If you find yourself not recording ideas, it's because you're evaluating them. Stop evaluating and start writing! This also helps if you need to return or restart a brainstorming session. You'll know where you left off and can pick up threads started earlier. Find a tool where you can record all the ideas, fast. Speed is essential, once you're on a roll, you won't want to stop.

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.