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Litemind Readers’ Project: Send Your Best Personal Excellence Tip (US$800 in Prizes)

Luciano Passuello — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 10:16:15 +0000

It has been a year since the last collaborative project, and since such projects are always fun, I figured — why not run a new one? The good news is that this time participation won’t be limited to bloggers: all Litemind readers can participate and have a chance to win.

Read on to learn how you can participate and be in the run to win 5 prizes, totaling more than US$ 800 in software and cash grants.

Theme

To participate, simply tell us your very best personal excellence tip.

What do I mean by ‘personal excellence tip’? It’s that one secret, that one practical advice you can give — the one that you know for sure makes the greatest positive contribution to your life.

It may be a tip for increasing productivity or heightening creativity, or maybe a tactic you use to deal with procrastination or perfectionism. Maybe it’s a rule of thumb or a personal mantra that you live by. Maybe it’s something that makes you think more clearly. A specific technique or idea or something that you feel really makes a positive impact on your life? I don’t know what it is — you’re the one to tell.

Entries will be chosen by the participants themselves, who will vote on the best entries following criteria such as usefulness and originality.

As an example: If I were to participate (I won’t, obviously), I would send a tip such as this one:

Use time boxes. Instead of working on a task until it’s done, commit to work on it for a specific amount of time instead. I use this concept every day, and it works wonders to keep me focused, counter perfectionism and avoid the feeling of being overwhelmed by daunting tasks (details).

(It has the structure ‘Title’, ‘brief description’, ‘why I use it or how I benefit from using it’.)

Easy, uh? Now all you need is to show us what you’ve got by sending your tip.

Prizes

There will be some cool prizes for the best tips, as well as some prizes given randomly, so that anyone who participates has a chance to win something.

First Prize

A MindManager 8 Windows License (US$ 349 value, free trial available), plus
US$ 100. (That is, the winner takes home a US$449 package!)

MindManager 8 is the brand new version of my mind mapping tool of choice — one which I’ve been recommending for years both for personal and business use. (The mind maps I create for this site — such as the book summaries — are made using MindManager.)

If you’re the grand winner, you also get an additional US$100. This way, if you can’t benefit from the license (e.g., you don’t use Windows), you can still benefit from the prize (and maybe give away the software license to someone else if you like).

Second Prize

An iMindMap 3 Ultimate Windows License (US$ 295 value, free trial available), plus
US$ 30

I recently started trialing Tony Buzan’s iMindMap software, and I really like what I see. The maps created with iMindMap are very beautiful and have a very natural and ‘organic’ feel, making them look almost hand-drawn.

There’s also an extra cash prize of US$ 30 for the second prize.

Additional Prizes

Joining the two winners on the podium, 3 other participants picked at random will also take US$ 30 home each.

How to Participate

1. Sign up for the free Litemind Newsletter.
To send your tip and participate, the only requirement is that you must have signed up for the Litemind e-mail newsletter.

This serves as a validation of identity to help the contest run smoothly. It’s also a way to reward loyal readers who signed up already, and as an incentive for more people to sign up and enjoy the newsletter. If you enjoy the contents of this site, it’s a safe bet you’ll also enjoy the newsletter (and even if you don’t, you can unsubscribe after the contest is over, so there is no harm done).

To sign up for the newsletter, click here.

Note: Signing up for the newsletter is not the same thing as subscribing to get the latest articles by e-mail. If you’re not sure whether you’re subscribed or not, just try to sign up again to be sure.
Also note that you’ll only be subscribed after you click on a confirmation link that will be sent to you, so make sure you provide a valid e-mail address and that you click on the confirmation link.

2. Send your tip.
When writing your tip, give it a short, descriptive title (one sentence usually works best). Right after the title, write a short paragraph about it, either describing it a little bit or giving a quick story or personal example to illustrate it. Describe it in a way that makes it applicable to as many people as possible. Avoid tips that are too specific or limited to particular jobs or situations.

Do not use the comments section to send your entry. You’ll receive the instructions on how to send your tip after signing up for the newsletter. If you’re already signed up, you should already have received these instructions (if you didn’t get the e-mail message, please contact me and I’ll be glad to help).

Important: Only one entry will be accepted per subscriber. Entering the contest using multiple e-mail addresses is not allowed and will disqualify the participant.

3. Submissions close on Thursday, November 27 2008, at midnight (GMT-12 — which means that if it’s still November 27 2008 wherever you are in the world, you’re good to go).

4. On December 1, I’ll publish a post with the final list of entries. A pre-selection of entries may be necessary (see additional rules below), so check if your entry made it to the final list.

5. The participants who made it to the final list will have until Monday, December 8 2008 (midnight, GMT-12) to cast votes on their favorite entries, using the comments section on that post. They must pick at least 5 favorite entries, and as many as they like.

6. On December 10 2008, the winners will be announced. Every time an entry gets mentioned as a favorite, it gets one point. The two entries with the most points get first and second prizes, respectively. If there’s a draw, the entry that was submitted first gets ranked higher. I’ll also announce the random winners (see below for randomness criteria).

Additional Rules and Guidelines (aka ‘The Fine Print’)

Here are some additional points (in no particular order) to make sure this contest runs as smoothly as possible:

As you probably noticed, the entry requirements are pretty relaxed. Although I’m leaving the judgment of their quality to the participants themselves, I reserve the right to remove or edit entries that I find to be offensive, irrelevant, too long, poorly written or inappropriate for the contest or the site.
I have no idea how many participants will take part in the project — there may be just a few, but there may also be a lot. For this reason, to keep things manageable for me and for the participants, I chose to limit the final list of entries to 100. That means that, if necessary, I’ll do a pre-selection to keep the number of entries to 100 at most.
One entry per participant only will be accepted. If there’s suspicion of any kind of fraud — either in the submission or in the voting — I reserve the right to disqualify any candidate at any time. I don’t believe it will ever get to this, but it doesn’t hurt to be clear about this.
If more than one participant sends the same tip, in very similar forms, I will keep only the one that was sent first.
To be eligible for the prizes, in addition to be in the final list, you need to cast your votes by the deadline, otherwise the votes for your own entry will be discarded. Also, you can’t vote on your own entry.
The cash prizes will be paid via Paypal or as Amazon Gift Cards, winner’s choice.
This contest is not open to immediate associates of Litemind, its sponsors or any of the organizations or subsidiaries associated with this contest.
Criteria for Random Draw. To make sure the random draw is fair, I will use the following procedure, which makes the drawing authenticity verifiable by anyone:
1. I will enter the list with the names in Random.Org, which is a known, trustworthy third-party, assigning numbers starting from 1, in the order the entries are listed in the post.
2. I will use random.org random sequence generator, using as the seed for randomness Amazon’s stock last trading price for December 9 2008. (I happen to like Amazon.com).
3. The first three numbers in the results will be the winners. If any of these is already one of the winners, I’ll pick the next number and so on.
If you’re a blogger or have an online resource to share about the tip, you’ll have the chance to provide a URL to go along with the tip — but bear in mind that the tip must stand on its own, i.e., one should not need to access the link to be able to understand the tip.
To increase your chance of winning, please keep the entries as short as possible. Bear in mind that many people only skim (especially if there are too many entries), so make sure to make a good impression quickly. (Use 60 words or so total as a guideline.)
My decisions are final and no correspondence will be entered into.

Whew! Hopefully I covered everything. Oh, one last thing: don’t forget to have fun. Seriously! These projects can be very enjoyable and you always learn a thing or two…

Good luck!

Sign up for the Litemind Newsletter to join now.

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Einstein’s Secret to Amazing Problem Solving (and 10 Specific Ways You Can Use It)

Luciano Passuello — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 12:32:17 +0000

Einstein is quoted as having said that if he had one hour to save the world he would spend fifty-five minutes defining the problem and only five minutes finding the solution.

This quote does illustrate an important point: before jumping right into solving a problem, we should step back and invest time and effort to improve our understanding of it. Here are 10 strategies you can use to see problems from many different perspectives and master what is the most important step in problem solving: clearly defining the problem in the first place!

The Problem Is To Know What the Problem Is

The definition of the problem will be the focal point of all your problem-solving efforts. As such, it makes sense to devote as much attention and dedication to problem definition as possible. What usually happens is that as soon as we have a problem to work on we’re so eager to get to solutions that we neglect spending any time refining it.

What most of us don’t realize — and what supposedly Einstein might have been alluding to — is that the quality of the solutions we come up with will be in direct proportion to the quality of the description of the problem we’re trying to solve. Not only will your solutions be more abundant and of higher quality, but they’ll be achieved much, much more easily. Most importantly, you’ll have the confidence to be tackling a worthwhile problem.

Problem Definition Tools and Strategies

The good news is that getting different perspectives and angles in order to clearly define a problem is a skill that can be learned and developed. As such, there are many strategies you can use to perfect it. Here are the 10 most effective ones I know.

1. Rephrase the Problem

When a Toyota executive asked employees to brainstorm “ways to increase their productivity”, all he got back were blank stares. When he rephrased his request as “ways to make their jobs easier”, he could barely keep up with the amount of suggestions.

Words carry strong implicit meaning and, as such, play a major role in how we perceive a problem. In the example above, ‘be productive’ might seem like a sacrifice you’re doing for the company, while ‘make your job easier’ may be more like something you’re doing for your own benefit, but from which the company also benefits. In the end, the problem is still the same, but the feelings — and the points of view — associated with each of them are vastly different.

Play freely with the problem statement, rewording it several times. For a methodic approach, take single words and substitute variations. ‘Increase sales’? Try replacing ‘increase’ with ‘attract’, ‘develop’, ‘extend’, ‘repeat’ and see how your perception of the problem changes. A rich vocabulary plays an important role here, so you may want to use a thesaurus or develop your vocabulary.

2. Expose and Challenge Assumptions

Every problem — no matter how apparently simple it may be — comes with a long list of assumptions attached. Many of these assumptions may be inaccurate and could make your problem statement inadequate or even misguided.

The first step to get rid of bad assumptions is to make them explicit. Write a list and expose as many assumptions as you can — especially those that may seem the most obvious and ‘untouchable’.

That, in itself, brings more clarity to the problem at hand. But go further and test each assumption for validity: think in ways that they might not be valid and their consequences. What you will find may surprise you: that many of those bad assumptions are self-imposed — with just a bit of scrutiny you are able to safely drop them.

For example, suppose you’re about to enter the restaurant business. One of your assumptions might be ‘restaurants have a menu’. While such an assumption may seem true at first, try challenging it and maybe you’ll find some very interesting business models (such as one restaurant in which customers bring dish ideas for the chef to cook, for example).

3. Chunk Up

Each problem is a small piece of a greater problem. In the same way that you can explore a problem laterally — such as by playing with words or challenging assumptions — you can also explore it at different “altitudes”.

If you feel you’re overwhelmed with details or looking at a problem too narrowly, look at it from a more general perspective. In order to make your problem more general, ask questions such as: “What’s this a part of?”, “What’s this an example of?” or “What’s the intention behind this?”.

For a detailed explanation of how this principle works, check the article Boost Your Brainstorm Effectiveness with the Why Habit.

Another approach that helps a lot in getting a more general view of a problem is replacing words in the problem statement with hypernyms. Hypernyms are words that have a broader meaning than the given word. (For example, a hypernym of ‘car’ is ‘vehicle’). A great, free tool for finding hypernyms for a given word is WordNet (just search for a word and click on the ‘S:’ label before the word definitions).

4. Chunk Down

If each problem is part of a greater problem, it also means that each problem is composed of many smaller problems. It turns out that decomposing a problem in many smaller problems — each of them more specific than the original — can also provide greater insights about it.

‘Chunking the problem down’ (making it more specific) is especially useful if you find the problem overwhelming or daunting.

Some of the typical questions you can ask to make a problem more specific are: “What are parts of this?” or “What are examples of this?”.

Just as in ‘chunking up’, word substitution can also come to great use here. The class of words that are useful here are hyponyms: words that are stricter in meaning than the given one. (E.g. two hyponyms of ‘car’ are ‘minivan’ and ‘limousine’). WordNet can also help you finding hyponyms.

5. Find Multiple Perspectives

Before rushing to solve a problem, always make sure you look at it from different perspectives. Looking at it with different eyes is a great way to have instant insight on new, overlooked directions.

For example, if you own a business and are trying to ‘increase sales’, try to view this problem from the point of view of, say, a customer. For example, from the customer’s viewpoint, this may be a matter of adding features to your product that one would be willing to pay more for.

Rewrite your problem statement many times, each time using one of these different perspectives. How would your competition see this problem? Your employees? Your mom?

Also, imagine how people in various roles would frame the problem. How would a politician see it? A college professor? A nun? Try to find the differences and similarities on how the different roles would deal with your problem.

6. Use Effective Language Constructs

There isn’t a one-size-fits-all formula for properly crafting the perfect problem statement, but there are some language constructs that always help making it more effective:

Assume a myriad of solutions. An excellent way to start a problem statement is: “In what ways might I…”. This expression is much superior to “How can I…” as it hints that there’s a multitude of solutions, and not just one — or maybe none. As simple as this sounds, the feeling of expectancy helps your brain find solutions.
Make it positive. Negative sentences require a lot more cognitive power to process and may slow you down — or even derail your train of thought. Positive statements also help you find the real goal behind the problem and, as such, are much more motivating.
For example: instead of finding ways to ‘quit smoking’, you may find that ‘increase your energy’, ‘live longer’ and others are much more worthwhile goals.
Frame your problem in the form of a question. Our brain loves questions. If the question is powerful and engaging, our brains will do everything within their reach to answer it. We just can’t help it: Our brains will start working on the problem immediately and keep working in the background, even when we’re not aware of it.
If you’re still stuck, consider using the following formula for phrasing your problem statement:
“In what ways (action) (object) (qualifier) (end result)?”
Example: In what ways might I package (action) my book (object) more attractively (qualifier) so people will buy more of it (end result)?

7. Make It Engaging

In addition to using effective language constructs, it’s important to come up with a problem statement that truly excites you so you’re in the best frame of mind for creatively tackling the problem. If the problem looks too dull for you, invest the time adding vigor to it while still keeping it genuine. Make it enticing. Your brain will thank (and reward) you later.

One thing is to ‘increase sales’ (boring), another one is ‘wow your customers’. One thing is ‘to create a personal development blog’, another completely different is to ‘empower readers to live fully’.

8. Reverse the Problem

One trick that usually helps when you’re stuck with a problem is turning it on its head.

If you want to win, find out what would make you lose. If you are struggling finding ways to ‘increase sales’, find ways to decrease them instead. Then, all you need to do is reverse your answers. ‘Make more sales calls’ may seem an evident way of increasing sales, but sometimes we only see these ‘obvious’ answers when we look at the problem from an opposite direction.

This seemingly convoluted method may not seem intuitive at first, but turning a problem on its head can uncover rather obvious solutions to the original problem.

9. Gather Facts

Investigate causes and circumstances of the problem. Probe details about it — such as its origins and causes. Especially if you have a problem that’s too vague, investigating facts is usually more productive than trying to solve it right away.

If, for example, the problem stated by your spouse is “You never listen to me”, the solution is not obvious. However, if the statement is “You don’t make enough eye contact when I’m talking to you,” then the solution is obvious and you can skip brainstorming altogether. (You’ll still need to work on the implementation, though!)

Ask yourself questions about the problem. What is not known about it? Can you draw a diagram of the problem? What are the problem boundaries? Be curious. Ask questions and gather facts. It is said that a well-defined problem is halfway to being solved: I would add that a perfectly-defined problem is not a problem anymore.

10. Problem-Solve Your Problem Statement

I know I risk getting into an infinite loop here, but as you may have noticed, getting the right perspective of a problem is, well, a problem in itself. As such, feel free to use any creative thinking technique you know to help. There are plenty to choose from:

You may want to give yourself an Idea Quota of problem statements. Or write a List of 100 problems to solve. SCAMPER your problem definition. These are just some of dozen techniques you can try.

Of course, how much effort you invest in defining the problem in contrast to how much effort you invest in solving your actual problem is a hard balance to achieve, though one which is attainable with practice.

Personally, I don’t think that 55 minutes of defining a problem versus 5 minutes acting on it is usually a good proportion. The point is that we must be aware of how important problem defining is and correct our tendency to spend too little time on it.

In fact, when you start paying more attention to how you define your problems, you’ll probably find that it is usually much harder than solving them. But you’ll also find that the payoff is well worth the effort.

References:

Einstein’s Portrait: Yousuf Karsh.
Einstein’s Quote: Cracking Creativity.

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How to be Great: Rising Above the Talent Myth

Don Campbell — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 13:13:20 +0000

This is an article by guest writer Don Campbell of Expand2Web.

“A genius! For 37 years I’ve practiced fourteen hours a day, and now they call me a genius!” –Pablo Sarasate (Spanish violinist)

Think of the greatest athlete, musician, artist or business professional that inspires you. The amazing talents that really stand out. Michael Jordan. Tiger Woods. Warren Buffett. They were each born with a special gift: wired from birth with talents and abilities that most of us don’t have access to, right?

Research is showing that it’s not that simple. In fact, many child prodigies don’t go on to major success in the area of their early gifts. And many of the greatest performers, athletes and business people never showed any early signs of aptitude.

So, how did they become great at what they do?

A couple of years ago I read an article by Geoffrey Colvin in Fortune, What It Takes To Be Great. The article is fascinating and delves into the question of innate abilities, usually referred as “the talent myth”.

The Research on Great Performance

In 1993, Florida State University professor K. Anders Ericsson and his colleagues published a paper on ‘expert performance’ which, along with the additional studies around the world that it inspired, made some very interesting discoveries:

Nobody is “great” without lots of work. Early aptitude is not a predictor for greatness in a given field without consistent practice over a long period of time.
The most accomplished people in any field need about 10 years of hard work before they become “world class”. They call this the 10 Year Rule.

Many of these scientists are now saying that “targeted” natural gifts do not exist at all. You are not born a CEO or chess grandmaster. Rather, greatness is achieved by hard, focused work over many years.

Charlie Parker, widely considered one of the most influential of Jazz musicians, showed no sign of musical talent as a child. He started playing saxophone at age 11, and was thrown out of his high school band because he was so bad. But this drove him to practice intensively for many years, for four years up to 15 hours a day. It was many years after that before he was noticed.

Tiger Woods started practicing golf at 18 months, and was encouraged to practice by his father. He had been practicing intensively for 15 years before winning the U.S. Amateur Championship at age 18.

But you and I both know people who work very hard. Many work for decades at a job or hobby without approaching greatness. Why don’t they become “world class”, then?

It turns out that it’s not just hard work that is required. What is required is focused, consistent practice over a long period of time. Something the researchers are calling deliberate practice.

Deliberate Practice

Truly great people in any field devote many hours to deliberate practice. Deliberate practice is an activity that goes beyond repetition. It is consistent practice where the goal is to continually improve performance, reaching beyond your current capabilities, and seeking feedback on results.

The article describes what is my favorite example of deliberate practice:

Simply hitting a bucket of balls is not deliberate practice, which is why most golfers don’t get better. Hitting an eight-iron 300 times with a goal of leaving the ball within 20 feet of the pin 80 percent of the time, continually observing results and making appropriate adjustments, and doing that for hours every day — that’s deliberate practice.

And what’s great about these findings is that we can apply them to all areas of our life. Almost any skill is improvable. Giving presentations. Sports. Negotiating. Whatever it is that you do and have a passion for, you can improve and become truly great — if you are willing to put in the work, that is.

The Deliberate Practice Formula

Approach each critical task with an explicit goal of getting much better at it. Set goals that are just beyond your level of competency.
As you do the task, focus on what’s happening and why you’re doing it the way you are.
After the task, get feedback on your performance from multiple sources. Don’t get emotional about it, and make changes in your behavior as necessary.
Continually build mental models of your situation - of your industry, your company, your career. Expand the models to encompass more factors. (A good book on the concept of mental models is The Power of Impossible Thinking by Yoram Wind and Colin Cook).
Do those steps regularly, not sporadically. Occasional practice does not work. Consistency is the key here.

What Does This All Mean?

We don’t have to be born with a special talent in order to be great at something. We just have to have the desire to constantly work at and improve our skill. This is huge: it means that you can learn to be good, or even great at nearly anything!

Most people won’t go through the long and difficult process of deliberate practice. But this is what can separate you from the pack. This is what makes great performance rare: most people either don’t believe they can do it, or aren’t willing to do the work to become truly great at their passion.

So ask yourself, what is your ‘mastery skill’? What should you work on to improve regularly, practicing, getting feedback, improving and pushing yourself to higher levels of excellence?

Is it your career? Is it a sport? Is it art or music? Now that you know that excellence is a choice, a whole world of possibilities opens up. Are you ready to pursue your dream and become “world class at it”?

Article Mind Map

When I read something that I really want to remember, I create a mind map to help me conceptualize what I’ve read. My mind map summary of the article that inspired this post, What It Takes To Be Great, is included below.

Download mind map in PDF format (333 kb)
Download map in MindManager format (247 kb, requires MindManager)

Additional Resources

What It Takes To Be Great (Fortune)
The Expert On Experts (Fast Company)
Expert Performance And Deliberate Practice (Dr. K. Anders Ericsson, Florida State University)
Innate Talents: Reality or Myth?

About Don Campbell

Don is the publisher of www.Expand2Web.com, a website devoted to helping small business owners automate their business websites using Wordpress, and get a steady stream of new customers from Google and Yahoo. In his leisure time Don enjoys learning to play Jazz piano, skiing, and wake boarding. He lives with his wife and two daughters in the San Jose, California where they enjoy traveling and exploring the Redwoods and the Pacific ocean beaches.

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Overcoming Procrastination Instantly Using Self Talk

Luciano Passuello — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 17:28:47 +0000

Changing how we talk to ourselves is the easiest and most powerful way to overcome procrastination. No other method that I know of disarms procrastination so rapidly and at such a fundamental level: that of our own thoughts.

The Voices In Our Heads

We’re talking to ourselves all the time inside our minds. Even when you’re not paying attention, these relentless mental debates deeply influence our feelings and, ultimately, our behavior.

The good news is that just becoming aware of such mental dialogues — noticing patterns and turning them into productive statements — is usually all you need to overcome many unwelcome feelings and behaviors.

Let’s see how this can help us when it comes to procrastination.

The Procrastinator’s Motto

Consider the following thought, which for sure has crossed our minds many times in the past:

“I have to finish this long, important project. It should already be done by now and I need to plow through it.”

Now, tell me you don’t have this thought sometimes. For me, no other passage embodies our procrastinator’s mind so well: as we’ll see, this small, seemingly innocent thought contains almost every mental block that encourages procrastination. That’s why I like to call it the Procrastinator’s Motto.

We all use the Procrastinator’s Motto (or variations of it) every once in a while. If you’re a chronic procrastinator, chances are you repeat it to yourself very frequently — daily, perhaps.

But what’s so wrong about the Procrastinator’s Motto? In what ways do these words encourage procrastination so much — and what can we do about it?

From Procrastinator to Producer: A Step-by-Step Self Talk Guide

To understand what’s wrong with the Procrastinator’s Motto, let’s break it down in parts:

“(1) I have to (2) finish this (3) long, (4) important project. (5) It should already be done by now and (6) I need to plow through it.”

Now let’s consider each of these six parts in turn, replacing each of them with an empowering alternative. In doing that, we’ll turn the original motto on its head and create a productive call to action: a “Producer’s Motto”, if you like.

1. I Have To → I Choose To

‘I have to’ is every procrastinator’s favorite expression. It’s also the most disempowering.

Every time you say to yourself that you have to do something, you imply that you don’t have any choice. This choice of words implies that you feel forced or coerced to do the task — that you don’t really want to do it. That perception, of course, elicits a strong feeling of victimhood and resistance towards doing the task.

The solution to this problem is to replace ‘I have to’ with the immensely more empowering alternative ‘I choose to’.

Everything you do is ultimately a choice (yes, even completing tax forms). Using language that expresses choice reminds you of that and brings the feeling of power back.

For an in-depth exploration about the ‘I have to’ expression, check this early article dedicated entirely to this matter.

2. Finish → Start

When you focus on finishing something, you direct your attention to a vague, highly idealized future. Visualizing a finished project is motivating for many people, but from the point of view of who’s having a hard time starting a task, visualizing a hard-to-grasp future can be overwhelming — even depressing at times.

The solution in this case, then, is not to focus on finishing, but on starting.

Forget for a minute about the finish line, just concentrate on taking the first step. Bring your focus from the future to what can be done right now. We all know that if you start something a large enough number of times, you’ll eventually finish any task.

Starting — all by itself — is usually sufficient to build enough momentum to keep the ball rolling from then on. This is what Mark Forster calls the “I’ll just get the file out” technique, and it definitely works.

3. Long Project → Short Task

Constantly reminding yourself how long and challenging the upcoming undertaking is only adds to the feeling of being overwhelmed, and thus of procrastination.

Any undertaking, no matter how daunting, can be broken down into small steps. The trick is to, on each step along the way, focus solely on the very next smallest, doable chunk of work. Ignore the big picture for a while and just tackle that next short task.

Make it in a way you can easily visualize the outcome coming about very soon. Don’t write a book; write a page. If it still looks intimidating, you may try committing to a time box instead.

Of course, keep the big picture in mind, but use it for motivation and direction as needed, and not to frighten yourself before action.

4. Important Project → Imperfect Step

“This project has to impress everyone; I really can’t blow this opportunity.”

Placing such high hopes on a project only adds to anxiety and fear of failure. Perfectionism arises and only fuels procrastination even more.

The way to overcome this mental block is to simply give yourself permission to be human. Allow yourself to be imperfect just in this next small task.

Focus on giving an imperfect step; remember that you can always refine your work later. Better yet, make it in a way that you can’t possibly fail.

If you’re a serial perfectionist, go one step further and commit yourself to make a sloppy job on purpose, at least at first.

5. It Should Already Be Done by Now → I’ll Feel Terrific

The expression ‘should‘ is usually associated with blame and guilt. When you say you should be doing something (instead of what you’re actually doing), you focus on comparing an ideal reality with your current, “bad” reality. You focus not on what is, but on what could have been. Misused ‘shoulds‘ can elicit a strong message of failure, depression and regret.

The solution is to focus not on how bad you feel now, but on how good you’ll feel after you take action. Yes, directed action — even the tiniest of it — towards a goal is the best motivator I know of. The trick is to bring that expected feeling of accomplishment into the present — and know that the real joy of it is only a small task away.

6. Need to Plow Through → Have Plenty of Time for Play

“I’ve got to work all weekend”. “I am trapped in this laborious project”.

Long periods of isolation can bring an enormous feeling of resentment. This feeling generates a strong sense of deprivation and resistance towards the task.

The way to overcome this mental block is to not allow long stretches of work to creep in your activities. Schedule frequent breaks. Plan small rewards along the way. Have something to look forward to — not far away at the end of a long stretch — but in the very near feature. When rewards are small, frequent — and deserved — they work wonders.

Truly commit to leisure time. In fact, go ahead and make it mandatory. This “reverse-psychology” can by itself bring you to a whole different mindset, both more productive and enjoyable.

How Far Have We Come?

Time to check what we’ve accomplished with all the word substitutions. We started with:

“I have to finish this long, important project. It should already be done by now and I need to plow through it.”

And ended up with:

“I choose to start this task with a small, imperfect step. I’ll feel terrific and have plenty of time for play!”

Quite a change, eh?

Every time you catch yourself repeating the Procrastinator’s Motto or any of its parts to yourself, stop and rephrase it. Then check how you feel.

While it may seem just a matter of word choices at first, when you try this simple way to reframe your thoughts, you’ll see how instantly it changes your attitude towards working on your tasks. Moreover, if you turn it into a habit, you’ll be slowly reprogramming your thoughts, leading to a positive, permanent change in your mindset.

The whole idea of using self talk to overcome procrastination first came to me first via Neil Fiore’s great book The Now Habit, from which I learned a great deal.

While the book deals with much more than self talk (self talk is just one of the many chapters, check a summary of the book if you’re interested), that chapter alone made the most profound changes on how I deal with procrastination today.

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Do It Tomorrow: An Interview with Mark Forster

Luciano Passuello — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 12:17:43 +0000

Today I have a special treat for Litemind readers. I am honored to interview Mark Forster, one of the foremost thinkers in the field of time management. He is the author of three books on time management, including the innovative (and intriguing) Do It Tomorrow and Other Secrets of Time Management.

Unlike many other experts, Mark goes way beyond the ‘getting organized’ approach, and acknowledges that very human problems — such as procrastination and resistance — are the main roadblocks to higher creativity and productivity.

Mark, like most of us, struggled for many years with unproductive behavior. He was only able to create his methods out of direct experimentation and learning along the way. In fact, Mark is not afraid of keeping experimenting and sharing both successes and failures in his website in a very authentic and open way.

Today, a lot of people had their lives transformed and use Mark’s methods on a daily basis (yes, that includes me). That’s why I’m really excited about this conversation: in the same way Mark has had a daily impact on my life with his work, I’m sure you can also learn a lot from him.

1. Your most popular book Do It Tomorrow has a completely different approach to that of other books on time management. The main idea of leaving tasks undone for the day is rather intriguing at first, but one that is liberating after you understand and apply it. Can you explain how this can be such a life-transforming concept?

It’s actually a very similar concept to the queuing systems which are springing up in places like shops, post offices and railway booking offices.

Instead of having a scrum of people turning up and trying to find the shortest queue, they are put into one orderly queue and dealt with in a methodical manner - which is much quicker than the old multi-queue system.

What these systems do is put a buffer between the customers (who arrive in a completely random way) so that they can be dealt with in an orderly manner.

So what I am suggesting is that in a similar way we impose a buffer on all the bits of work which arrive in a random way over the course of a day. That means we can deal with them in an orderly fashion instead of rushing from one thing to another. The default buffer is to “do it tomorrow”, which means we can deal with things like email, paperwork and tasks by batching up similar items. Dealing with similar items in batches is far faster and more efficient than dealing with them piecemeal.

Of course if you have something that really has to be done today, then you do it today. The key is to resist the temptation to do things immediately which really don’t merit that degree of urgency.

2. Litemind readers may already be familiar with one of the cornerstone concepts of the Do It Tomorrow, the ‘Will-do List’. In a previous article, I focused on how it frees us from the tyrannical rule of the never-ending task list. Can you elaborate on the importance of the ‘Will Do List’ in the grand scheme of the Do It Tomorrow productivity system?

I called it the “Will Do” list in contrast to the traditional “To Do” list. A To Do list comes in many shapes and forms, but generally speaking it is a list of possible items from which you select your work for the day. Mine usually ended up longer at the end of the day than at the start because I kept adding to it!

By contrast, a Will Do list is a statement of intent about what you really mean to get done that day. The aim is to finish it every day. If you don’t finish it, then you should look at why and do something about it. It’s very simple to construct a Will Do list if you are “doing it tomorrow” because yesterday’s incoming work can be easily batched up to form the list.

Because there’s a tie-in between one day’s incoming work and one day’s outgoing work it’s much easier to diagnose what the problem is if you can’t do all your work than with convention time management systems.

3. I know many people who steer clear from productivity systems claiming that adopting them would hurt their creativity. Many of them — especially the ‘artistic types’ — tend to see these two concepts almost as diametrically opposed. How do these two variables — creativity and productivity — relate to each other?

I’ve coached lots of artistic people over the years, singers, musicians, painters, architects and so on, and what I’ve found is that their artistic ability is often held back because they are so disorganized. It’s very difficult to be creative if you are worrying constantly about unpaid bills, the income tax return which you haven’t filled in, the fact that you haven’t done anything about publicizing your new show, etc., etc.

It’s not a case of either/or. It should be both/and, so that order complements and assists creativity.

4. I love how you honestly proclaim that resistance and procrastination are the biggest life-management problems, not just getting ‘tidy’ or ‘organized’. How are your methods different from others when it comes to dealing with these problems?

What I’ve found is that being on top of a task or project gives an immense amount of energy, even if one doesn’t particularly enjoy the subject. Contrast washing up immediately after each meal, and only washing up when dirty dishes have filled the sink and are heading towards the ceiling!

As “Do It Tomorrow” is designed to keep you on top of your work at all times, resistance and procrastination tend to fade away of their own accord.

5. You mention the concept of the rational and reactive brain. I am sure many readers can relate to the fact that we seem to show utterly different behaviors when planning and when actually trying to do the tasks. We may be fired up with enthusiasm and have the best of intentions when planning, and still dread and procrastinate when it comes to the actual doing. Could you explain how this ‘dual-brain’ principle works?

This is a very oversimplified model of how the brain works of course, but for time management purposes we live in tension between the “reptile brain”, which reacts to anything it perceives as a threat or a pleasure, and the “rational brain” which makes plans and intentions. The thing to realize is that the reptile brain is stronger than the rational brain. So when your rational brain has made a brilliant plan about how you are going to lose weight, and your reptile brain is confronted with a delicious chocolate cake, the rational plans tend to go out of the window. That’s an example of reacting to a pleasure. In the same way whenever the reptile brain perceives something as a threat, like a difficult piece of work or confronting a superior, we will tend to experience paralysis however much our rational brains are telling us the task needs to be done.

The rational brain has one great advantage over the reptile brain. It’s capable of outwitting the reptile brain. Much of what I teach is about how it can do that.

6. In the book Get Everything Done, you mention that the secret to good life-management is to do what you are resisting the most at any one time. Can you provide further insight on that concept for those not familiar with the book?

Our natural way of working is to follow the path of least resistance. If we are given a list of tasks, we will tend to do the easy ones first. The problem with this is that when we get to a certain level of difficulty, there is a tendency to invent more easy tasks to avoid having to do the more difficult tasks. That is one of the reasons people get submerged in a sea of trivia. If we reverse this and do the tasks we least want to first, then our day will get progressively easier and there will be no need to invent any more “busy work”.

I don’t though think that it’s necessary to follow this principle when using the DIT system, as any new “busy work” you invent will not affect what you have to do today.

7. In your books you slay the sacred cow of time management: prioritizing. Many systems have complex schemes of organizing tasks by urgency, importance or by a myriad of other factors. Your approach is to avoid prioritizing altogether. With the ever-increasing amount of work in our lives, is this possible?

It’s not really possible to avoid prioritizing by urgency, though I distinguish between tasks that are really urgent from tasks that are only urgent because I didn’t get round to doing them earlier. It’s prioritizing by importance that I have issues with. I strongly believe that if you have taken on a commitment then you have committed yourself to doing all the work associated with that commitment. For example, if you are building a car, which is more important - the engine or the rear windscreen wiper? Obviously the engine is, but customers are not going to be very pleased if you deliver cars without the rear windscreen wiper if that’s what they ordered. So it really doesn’t matter which is more important - you have to do the lot!

So the level at which you decide what you are going to do and what you are not going to do must be at the level of commitments. It’s no good identifying which tasks are important - that’s too late. You have to keep your commitments well audited.

8. Well, you not only talk about avoiding prioritization, but you also suggest that many times doing the least urgent project first is the way to go. Can you please elaborate on that?

I need to stress here that this is a way of dealing with projects not tasks. What tends to happen is that we leave a project until the very last moment and then have to rush to get it done. What I am suggesting here is that we start working on a project as soon as we receive it. That means that we can take advantage of all the time available to do it and will not find ourselves running up against the deadline.

9. Mark, your books Do It Tomorrow and Get Everything Done are permanent references in my shelf when it comes to time management. I haven’t had the chance to read your book How to Make Your Dreams Come True as it’s currently out of print. Can we expect to see a reprint? Are there any plans for a brand new book?

I’m actively considering whether to make Dreams into an e-book or possibly even to put the text onto my website for free. I do have various ideas for a new book but nothing has coalesced enough yet!

10. If you had to highlight one advantage of Do It Tomorrow over other time management systems, what would that be?

Its simplicity. And also the fact that you can go to bed at night knowing that you have completed your work for the day.

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How to Think like Leonardo da Vinci

Luciano Passuello — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 14:33:20 +0000

In this post, I present a summary of the mind-expanding bestseller How to Think like Leonardo da Vinci: Seven Steps to Genius Every Day, along with some thoughts about Leonardo and the book. (To skip directly to the summary, click here.)

Leonardo is my Childhood (and Adulthood) Hero

Since my childhood, I was utterly fascinated by the figure of Leonardo da Vinci and his achievements. It never ceased to puzzle and amaze me how a single person could be a scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, botanist, musician and writer.

Fast forward many years, it was when visiting Leonardo’s exhibition in the Milan Science and Technology Museum that I decided to have him as a permanent source of inspiration for life. Being able to get in touch with his mastery of both science and arts captivated me for good.

Leonardo is not only probably the greatest genius ever: he’s the one that most fully embodies the ‘Renaissance Man‘ ideal. Pursuing that ideal means being focused not on excelling on a single knowledge domain, but on having a holistic view of excellence in life. It means much more than just intellectual achievement, it means full realization of human potential in every aspect.

A Framework for Genius

In How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci, author Michael Gelb does a superb job of capturing the essence of Leonardo’s genius and laying it out in a practical framework for self-improvement. Here are the 7 key areas that shaped Leonardo’s genius and which you can use as a framework for your own self-improvement:

Curiosità: An insatiably curious approach to life and an unrelenting quest for continuous learning.
Dimostrazione: A commitment to test knowledge through experience, persistence, and a willingness to learn from mistakes.
Sensazione: The continual refinement of the senses, especially sight, as the means to enliven experience.
Sfumato: A willingness to embrace ambiguity, paradox, and uncertainty.
Arte/Scienza: The development of the balance between science and art, logic and imagination. “Whole-brain” thinking.
Corporalitá: The cultivation of grace, ambidexterity, fitness, and poise.
Connessione: A recognition of and appreciation for the interconnectedness of all things and phenomena. Systems thinking.

In the book there’s a thorough explanation of how each of these seven key areas applies in Leonardo’s life. More importantly, it’s packed with practical advice and dozens of exercises you can start doing immediately to develop your thinking skills in many unconventional ways. For a reference to the exercises, check the free book summary below.

Book Summary

This mind map summary focuses on the practical exercises contained in the book, so it’s intended to be more of a reference you can come back to from time to time than a complete replacement of the book. (If you enjoyed the article 120 Ways to Boost Your Brain Power, you’ll recognize that some of those tips came from this book, but you’ll also find a wealth of new tips which aren’t in that article.)

Get the mind map for How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci:

Online interactive version
Less artful, but viewable in your browser (requires only Flash Player).
Download in MindManager format
Full version (568 kb, requires MindManager).
Download map in FreeMind format
The online version, for download (76 kb, requires FreeMind).

As a side note, I found it rather amusing to summarize this book using mind mapping, since How to Think like Leonardo da Vinci was one the first references I came across when learning about the technique.

Conclusion

About a decade later, after having bought it in 1998, I still use How to Think like Leonardo da Vinci regularly as a reference for inspiration and personal growth. This book ended up becoming one of the most influential for me, solidifying my choice of Leonardo as a role model and presenting a very useful framework that I use for self-development up until today.

…Which made me curious. Do you have one or more role models in life? Who inspires you the most to reach your full potential? Share in the comments!

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120 Ways to Boost Your Brain Power

Luciano Passuello — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 16:50:19 +0000

Here are 120 things you can do starting today to help you think faster, improve memory, comprehend information better and unleash your brain’s full potential.

Solve puzzles and brainteasers.
Cultivate ambidexterity. Use your non-dominant hand to brush your teeth, comb your hair or use the mouse. Write with both hands simultaneously. Switch hands for knife and fork.
Embrace ambiguity. Learn to enjoy things like paradoxes and optical illusions.
Learn mind mapping.
Block one or more senses. Eat blindfolded, wear earplugs, shower with your eyes closed.
Develop comparative tasting. Learn to properly taste wine, chocolate, beer, cheese or anything else.
Find intersections between seemingly unrelated topics.
Learn to use different keyboard layouts. Try Colemak or Dvorak for a full mind twist!
Find novel uses for common objects. How many different uses can you find for a nail? 10? 100?
Reverse your assumptions.
Learn creativity techniques.
Go beyond the first, ‘right’ answer.
Transpose reality. Ask “What if?” questions.
SCAMPER!
Turn pictures or the desktop wallpaper upside down.
Become a critical thinker. Learn to spot common fallacies.
Learn logic. Solve logic puzzles.
Get familiar with the scientific method.
Draw. Doodle. You don’t need to be an artist.
Think positive.
Engage in arts — sculpt, paint, play music — or any other artistic endeavor.
Learn to juggle.
Eat ‘brain foods’.
Be slightly hungry.
Exercise!
Sit up straight.
Drink lots of water.
Deep-breathe.
Laugh!
Vary activities. Get a hobby.
Sleep well.
Power nap.
Listen to music.
Conquer procrastination.
Go technology-less.
Look for brain resources in the web.
Change clothes. Go barefoot.
Master self-talk.
Simplify!
Play chess or other board games. Play via Internet (particularly interesting is to play an ongoing game by e-mail).
Play ‘brain’ games. Sudoku, crossword puzzles or countless others.
Be childish!
Play video games.
Be humorous! Write or create a joke.
Create a List of 100.
Have an Idea Quota.
Capture every idea. Keep an idea bank.
Incubate ideas. Let ideas percolate. Return to them at regular intervals.
Engage in ‘theme observation’. Try to spot the color red as many times as possible in a day. Find cars of a particular make. Invent a theme and focus on it.
Keep a journal.
Learn a foreign language.
Eat at different restaurants - ethnic restaurants specially.
Learn how to program a computer.
Spell long words backwards. !gnignellahC
Change your environment. Change the placement of objects or furniture — or go somewhere else.
Write! Write a story, poetry, start a blog.
Learn sign language.
Learn a musical instrument.
Visit a museum.
Study how the brain works.
Learn to speed-read.
Find out your learning style.
Dump the calendar!
Try to mentally estimate the passage of time.
“Guesstimate”. Are there more leaves in the Amazon rainforest or neuron connections in your brain? (answer).
Make friends with math. Fight ‘innumeracy’.
Build a Memory Palace.
Learn a peg system for memory.
Have sex! (sorry, no links for this one! )
Memorize people’s names.
Meditate. Cultivate mindfulness and an empty mind.
Watch movies from different genres.
Turn off the TV.
Improve your concentration.
Get in touch with nature.
Do mental math.
Have a half-speed day.
Change the speed of certain activities. Go either super-slow or super-fast deliberately.
Do one thing at a time.
Be aware of cognitive biases.
Put yourself in someone else’s shoes. How would different people think or solve your problems? How would a fool tackle it?
Adopt an attitude of contemplation.
Take time for solitude and relaxation.
Commit yourself to lifelong learning.
Travel abroad. Learn about different lifestyles.
Adopt a genius. (Leonardo is excellent company!)
Have a network of supportive friends.
Get competitive.
Don’t stick with only like-minded people. Have people around that disagree with you.
Brainstorm!
Change your perspective. Short/long-term, individual/collective.
Go to the root of the problems.
Collect quotes.
Change the media you’re working on. Use paper instead of the computer; voice recording instead of writing.
Read the classics.
Develop your reading skill. Reading effectively is a skill. Master it.
Summarize books.
Develop self-awareness.
Say your problems out loud.
Describe one experience in painstaking detail.
Learn Braille. You can start learning the floor numbers while going up or down the elevator.
Buy a piece of art that disturbs you. Stimulate your senses in thought-provoking ways.
Try different perfumes and scents.
Mix your senses. How much does the color pink weigh? How does lavender scent sound?
Debate! Defend an argument. Try taking the opposite side, too.
Use time boxing.
Allocate time for brain development.
Have your own mental sanctuary.
Be curious!
Challenge yourself.
Develop your visualization skills. Use it at least 5 minutes a day.
Take notes of your dreams. Keep a notebook by your bedside and record your dreams first thing in the morning or as you wake up from them.
Learn to lucid dream.
Keep a lexicon of interesting words. Invent your own words.
Find metaphors. Connect abstract and specific concepts.
Manage stress.
Get random input. Write about a random word in a magazine. Read random sites using StumbleUpon or Wikipedia.
Take different routes each day. Change the streets you follow to work, jog or go back home.
Install a different operating system on your computer.
Improve your vocabulary.
Deliver more than what’s expected.

Readers’ Contributions

Dance! (by Shanel Yang)
Study Philoshophy and the writings of great thinkers. (by ZHereford)
Be around people that are smarter than you. (by Angel Cuala)
Use ‘brain fitness’ software. (by Eric Blue)
Read text upside down (the text, not you… well, you can try that, too). (by Thales)
Act in a stageplay. (by Thales)
Practice ‘environmental creativity’. Keep asking yourself questions like “What does this mean?” and “How can I use this?”. (by Chuck Frey)
Use a reverse clock. You can buy one or make your own. (by Brendan Dunphy)
Take an improvisation class. (by Patricia Ryan Madson)
Pun! Play with words. (by David Lurey)
Do It Yourself: Create or repair things without the aid of paid professionals. Repair, sew, cook, build, weave, paint, etc. (by b.honey)
Teach someone something you know. (by Usiku)
Help a child with their homework. (by Usiku)
Provide thoughtful comments on blogs and websites. (by Usiku)
Discuss religion and politics, even with friends. (by Usiku)
Teach yourself origami. (by Pamela)
Learn to knit or crochet. (by Pamela)
Shop at a market different from the usual. (by Pamela)
Think of something you fear. Work to conquer it. (by Pamela)
Play bridge (or other card games). (by millie)
Practice Yoga. (by Rajesh)
Learn martial arts. (by Chirou)
Study the concepts of Relativity (both General and Special). (by Tim)
Practice echolocation (sense objects by hearing echoes from those objects). (by Tim)
Help and immigrant learn your language. (by Ray)
Translate articles (by Remigiusz Durka).
Note: Thanks to everybody who translated this article! Caruso (Spanish), Tommaso (Italian), Eylos (Turkish) and Remigiusz (Polish). (Anyone else I’m missing?)
Eat raw foods. (by Carlos Caridad)
Remember childhood and imagine living it with your current experience. (by Janine)
Imagine how would you survice in a different epoch (say, 5000 years go). (by Mel Smith)

Contribute your own tip!

There are many, many ways to keep our brains sharp. I’m sure you have your own personal favorite, so please share it in the comments! I’ll regularly compile the best tips and add them to this list (giving full credit, with a link to your site, if you have one). Thanks!

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Brainwriting is Brainstorming on Steroids

Luciano Passuello — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 12:56:19 +0000

Wherever you ask, when it comes to group problem-solving, brainstorming is always the default tool of choice. Brainstorming certainly gets all the fame and glory, but is it the most effective tool for groups to generate ideas? Not necessarily.

Traditional brainstorming pales in comparison with a technique called Brainwriting. Brainwriting can easily lead to more than double the ideas generated in a typical brainstorming session. Also, it’s not as tricky as brainstorming to work well for you.

The Shortcomings of Brainstorming

Brainstorming is by far the most widely used group idea generation tool. We all know the drill: get together in a room and let the ideas run wild while building on each other’s ideas.

One of the reasons brainstorming is so popular is because of the widespread notion that grouping people together is always more effective than letting participants work in isolation. On a first look that makes sense, but is it really so?

That’s not what some recent research shows. Several studies (notably Diehl and Strobe’s, from 1987 to 1994) tested brainstorming teams extensively and realized that participants working in isolation consistently outperformed participants working in groups, both in quantity and quality of ideas generated.

The fact is that brainstorming, the way it’s carried out, has some fundamental shortcomings that are hard to overcome. Here are the top 3 reasons why brainstorming usually isn’t as effective as you might think:

1. “Blocking”

This is by far the number one deficiency in traditional brainstorming: only one person can speak at a time.

The problem with that lies in the fact that our short-term memory can’t effectively develop new ideas while keeping old ones in active storage. If we can’t announce our ideas because we have to wait for someone else to describe theirs, we will end up judging or editing them — or even forgetting them altogether.

Not surprisingly, this makes all the difference in our idea output. Even when we do get a chance to describe an idea, we may get to offer only one or two comments before someone else breaks in.

The larger the brainstorming group, the bigger the amount of “blocked” participants, and the fewer the ideas produced compared to an equal number of people generating ideas independently.

2. Evaluation Apprehension

This relates to the fact that some group members avoid expressing what they consider to be wild ideas based on how the other members will privately judge them.

“Suspend judgment!”, “Be wild and outrageous!”, “Speak with no fear!”: this is advice that is hard to take when you’re in company of an authority figure, such as the guy who gets to decide how small your annual bonus will be.

Despite the soundness of the advice to let ideas run wild, the truth is that many groups are not mature or prepared enough to follow it. “Maybe my idea” — they think — “will be seen as way off the mark, so why take any chances?”

3. Personality Face Off

Brainstorming sessions can easily become an arena of clashing human personalities. True, diversity is a necessary part of effective brainstorming, but it also makes fertile ground for all sorts of unproductive behavior.

Examples? Overpowering people trying to dominate the session. Passive people speaking the minimum possible to get by unnoticed. Stubborn people getting overprotective about their ideas and not accepting others’. Fearful people being reticent and evasive, and only presenting safe ideas. The list goes on and on.

The bottom line is that personality differences, if not dealt appropriately, can harm more than help problem solving.

Enter Brainwriting

If brainstorming groups are usually outperformed by individuals working alone, should we quit forming brainstorming groups then? Or is there a way to brainstorm together while sidestepping those fundamental shortcomings? Time to meet the Brainwriting technique.

As in traditional brainstorming, in Brainwriting everyone sits at a table together to simultaneously tackle a problem. The difference is that in Brainwriting each participant thinks and records ideas individually, without any verbal interaction. As we’ll see, this small change results in a fundamental difference in the idea generation effectiveness.

Here are the steps in a typical Brainwriting session:

Participants sit around a table and each one gets a sheet of paper with the same problem statement written at the top. Just like in traditional brainstorming, you also need a moderator for the session.
At the moderator’s signal, each participant has 3 minutes to write down 3 ideas on the sheet of paper. Just like in traditional brainstorming, the ideas should always go unedited. The difference is that now they are being recorded in private. The number of ideas and duration can vary, but I found that “three ideas every three minutes” works particularly well.
When time is up (or when everybody’s done), each participant passes the sheet of paper to the participant to the left.
Each participant now reads the ideas that were previously written and a new three-minute round starts. Each participant must again come up with three new ideas. Participants are free to use the ideas already on the sheet as triggers — or to ignore them altogether.
Lather, rinse, repeat. The group can agree to stop after a fixed number of rounds (such as when sheets come to a full turn around the table) or when participants feel that contributions are exhausted.
After the idea-gathering phase is completed, the ideas are read, discussed and consolidated with the help of the moderator, just like in traditional brainstorming.

So, what does this small change of having the ideas written, instead of spoken accomplish?

The amount of ideas generated can be amazing. Since ideas are generated simultaneously, participants never get to block each other. With everyone generating 3 ideas every 3 minutes, a group of 5 people is able to produce 100 ideas in 20 minutes.
Participants still get to cross-pollinate and build on each other’s ideas. That is, they still get the benefits of brainstorming in a group, while avoiding its main shortcomings.
Ideas are recorded the moment you get them: no ideas are lost while you wait for a chance to speak.
No one gets overshadowed and everybody contributes equally, regardless of personality type or personal agenda.
Ideas are contributed in private. In less mature environments, there’s no fear of being openly judged by other participants. The ideas can be kept anonymous and participants have freedom to be truly wild with their ideas.
Everyone’s given a clear task: to fulfill a specific idea quota in a specific time frame. The quota adds an element of healthy pressure that can help unlock your creativity, as it can be seen as a fun challenge.

Closing Thoughts

To be fair, there are ways to make traditional brainstorming work better (that may be the theme for a future article). However, using Brainwriting is always my preferred choice, as it often generates many more ideas and it’s way easier to get it right.

Here are some additional recommended resources on Brainwriting:

Mycoted Brainwriting Page: The Mycoted wiki is an amazing online resource of creativity techniques (make sure to check their index page). The Brainwriting page has several interesting variations of the technique. Highly recommended.
Michael Michalko’s book Cracking Creativity. An impressive resource. It has a great wealth of thinking and creativity techniques, including Brainwriting. Michalko’s book always tops my recommendations of books on creativity.
MindMeister online mind mapping tool. MindMeister is the best tool I found so far for web-based, real-time, collaborative mind mapping. Even though it wasn’t specifically designed to support Brainwriting, it works very well for that purpose.

Also, to make sure you don’t miss complementary content, such as templates for Brainwriting and idea-generation in general, sign up for the free Litemind Newsletter.

Over to you now: share your experiences with brainstorming and Brainwriting. Have you ever faced the problems I described with brainstorming? Have you tried Brainwriting? If you have any experience with specific online thinking tools (designed for Brainwriting or not), sharing your experiences here would be invaluable. Thanks!

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