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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. There are no limitations on ideas - Throw the laws of physics out the window, open up your business to your personal life. This is not the stage for evaluation. Do not let the phrase - "Come On, Let's Be Serious" be said during a brainstorming session. Serious is for later. Crazy and idea generation is for now. Crazy ideas will spark tangents that may produce the ideal answer for you and your team, if you nip those ideas in the bud at the beginning you may never reach the ideal solution.

3. Set yourself a time limit and not an idea limit. Allow yourself 20 minutes to come up with as many ideas as you can rather than the first 100. The really interesting ideas only come after you exhausted the ordinary ones. Allow yourself time to break though to those ideas, but don't create stress or force the ideas by putting a number of ideas you must produce. If you say you want 500 ideas and you are still struggling with generating ideas after 4 hours - you aren't doing yourself any favors by continuing. Limit the time you spend and come back later if necessary.

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