Creativity is a marathon, Prepare with one idea a day
During his visit to the University of Malta, Takeo Higuchi presented his ideas on the Idea Marathon System and increasing the amount of creativity and idea generation that a person is capable of. Higuchi recommends five steps to increasing idea generation:
According to Higuchi, writing is the most advanced technology. It doesn’t require electricity. It won’t breakdown. If it goes into the water, you can still read it. Notebooks are also easier to look through than files on a computer. With practice, the notebooks that you create will form a Wi-Fi system to your brain. Higuchi can recall his last 20 to 30 notebooks with no problems. It takes him a little longer to access the older notebooks.
“Thinking and writing is one unit – one inseparable unit,” says Higuchi. “Whatever comes out of your brain, you just write it down” even if it isn’t your specialty.
Higuchi has only experienced a two percent redundancy of ideas in his first 10,000 ideas. By writing in the notebook first and putting the ideas in the computer second, there is a stronger effect.
To succeed in any project, including the Thinking Marathon, you must have three things to make things happen:
Higuchi acknowledges that coming up with ideas can be difficult.
“You have to think,” says Higuchi.
Thomas Edison would set aside time for thinking. He would sit over his notebook and just think of ideas.
Some ways to come up with new ideas include:
From Higuchi’s experience, it takes about 1,000 ideas in order to come up with three good ones.
Unlike brainstorming and brainwriting, which are on the spot idea creation methods, Idea Marathon works over a longer period of time, which gives the brain an opportunity to incubate ideas regarding a problem. It is a longitudinal accumulation of solutions.
If you do not volunteer for things, if you are not thinking, nothing happens. Creativity is a skill. Like any skill, some people have more talent than others, but everyone can learn to become more creative.
By thinking and writing one or two ideas every day in one notebook for three months, Higuchi says that the person’s creativity will increase and improve. It is easy to think and write, but it still needs a support system. Without support, only 20 percent of the people who start will continue the process beyond a couple of months. After three months, the brain will become habituated to the task, and people will start to create out of that habit.
Join me in accepting Higuchi’s challenge to think and write down one idea every day. Check out how to set up your notebook, and then send in a contact form with your commitment. If we work together, we can make the world a more creative place.
- “Think at least one idea per day,” says Higuchi. “Three ideas are better.”
- Write them down immediately in a notebook.
- Illustrate the ideas.
- Talk about the ideas with friends.
- Put the best idea into practice.
According to Higuchi, writing is the most advanced technology. It doesn’t require electricity. It won’t breakdown. If it goes into the water, you can still read it. Notebooks are also easier to look through than files on a computer. With practice, the notebooks that you create will form a Wi-Fi system to your brain. Higuchi can recall his last 20 to 30 notebooks with no problems. It takes him a little longer to access the older notebooks.
“Thinking and writing is one unit – one inseparable unit,” says Higuchi. “Whatever comes out of your brain, you just write it down” even if it isn’t your specialty.
Higuchi has only experienced a two percent redundancy of ideas in his first 10,000 ideas. By writing in the notebook first and putting the ideas in the computer second, there is a stronger effect.
To succeed in any project, including the Thinking Marathon, you must have three things to make things happen:
- Willpower
- Curiosity
- Wisdom – “without wisdom, no business.” If there is no business, you will not be able to accomplish anything else.
Higuchi acknowledges that coming up with ideas can be difficult.
“You have to think,” says Higuchi.
Thomas Edison would set aside time for thinking. He would sit over his notebook and just think of ideas.
Some ways to come up with new ideas include:
- Combine things.
- Look through magazines.
- Ask questions.
- Get people to ask you questions.
- Write it down. Writing it down trains your brain to come up with ideas. It also ensures that you will not lose ideas. Higuchi suggests keeping only one notebook.
- Come up with the dumb idea and write it down. “’What am I going to think?’ is every day’s question,” says Higuchi. Idea creation isn’t about good ideas. If you have a go-to idea that you can use for your Idea Marathon notebook, you will be able to come up with new ideas even when you don’t think you have any. Higuchi uses ties as his dumb idea mechanism – ties with fans, ties with pockets, ties with whiteboards are all ideas that he has come up with. They may not be marketable, but they free up the thinking process. Writing down dumb ideas also gets rid of them, so they don’t keep coming back.
From Higuchi’s experience, it takes about 1,000 ideas in order to come up with three good ones.
Unlike brainstorming and brainwriting, which are on the spot idea creation methods, Idea Marathon works over a longer period of time, which gives the brain an opportunity to incubate ideas regarding a problem. It is a longitudinal accumulation of solutions.
If you do not volunteer for things, if you are not thinking, nothing happens. Creativity is a skill. Like any skill, some people have more talent than others, but everyone can learn to become more creative.
By thinking and writing one or two ideas every day in one notebook for three months, Higuchi says that the person’s creativity will increase and improve. It is easy to think and write, but it still needs a support system. Without support, only 20 percent of the people who start will continue the process beyond a couple of months. After three months, the brain will become habituated to the task, and people will start to create out of that habit.
Join me in accepting Higuchi’s challenge to think and write down one idea every day. Check out how to set up your notebook, and then send in a contact form with your commitment. If we work together, we can make the world a more creative place.