Jule 6 2022 ~ 15 min.

Where to get inspiration and how to generate ideas?

Author of the article
Lilia, smm manager
Inspiration begins with ourselves - what we eat, where we are, what we watch or listen to. Therefore, this article can be conditionally divided into two parts: global and practical, when inspiration is needed here and now.
The global part
Maintain a work-life balance.
Oh, some will now sadly remember that they still have to work until the night, because they have a whole bag of hot deadlines. But sooner or later, you will simply burn out, get tired of work and no longer catch any inspiration. Therefore, close all your tasks and start with a clean slate. Objectively assess your strengths, don't stay late at work and know how to say no.
Tip: I recommend reading the book "Essentialism" on this topic. But you should not blindly follow all the advice, it is too much.
Inspiration begins with understanding yourself and your values.
Therefore, if you feel that something does not suit you at work or in life, write it on a piece of paper. Dig into yourself and write down the entire stream of thoughts. And the decision of what to do next will definitely appear in your head.
Go to bed on time
What kind of inspiration and energy can you talk about if you haven't slept? :) No idea generation techniques will help here.
Develop observation
A separate article can be written about this, but briefly:
Watch good movies
I advise you to watch Wes Anderson's films. Designers, photographers and videographers will definitely appreciate it!
Moonrise Kingdom
Try something new
This applies to food, new hobbies, places. If you have never been to a contemporary art gallery, go. These are all new experiences and emotions that will return later in the form of inspiration and cool ideas.
Create your ideal environment.
If there is harmony, then there will be inspiration to create and develop. So get rid of toxic people and things.
The practical part
This is the case when ideas are needed here and now.
First, take a break and go for a short walk. And even better - change the environment. Do you work at home or in the office? Go to a coffee shop. Do you work in a coffee shop? Go to another coffee shop :) And only then look at the task with a fresh eye.

Now we move on to the generation of ideas. There are many ways, but the simpler the technique, the more effective it works.
Free writing
Take a piece of paper and a pen. For 5-10 minutes, just write down everything that comes to mind, even if it's downright stupid. At this stage, quantity is important, not quality. Your task is to relax and get out of your comfort zone.

Mix all the recorded ideas together and choose the most promising. Think of associations to several of the most successful ideas. And form the final concept from all this.
Brainstorm
If you are able to brainstorm ideas with colleagues, then this technique is perfect for you.

But before that, let each participant prepare and independently outline ideas and thoughts. And then discuss each idea during the brainstorm and how it can be improved.
Insight: you can come up with a cool idea just by talking to family or friends. Ask their opinion, even if they are not specialists. Maybe they will come up with something interesting.
A few more tips :)
If you are going somewhere and an idea suddenly occurs to you, be sure to write it down in notes or on a voice recorder. In order not to forget :) And before going to sleep, a lot of interesting thoughts appear. Do not be lazy and write it down, because you will definitely forget it in the morning. Checked.
I advise you to add a separate page in Excel with ideas for posts. With this page, I spend much less time generating topics for the content plan.
For designers, I recommend saving ideas in Figma, it's convenient :)
But the most important advice is not to wait for inspiration to come. Sometimes you sit down and just don't know what to write or how to design. And you just try to do at least something. You can start writing the text from the inside or from the end, and gradually the thoughts themselves will pour onto the paper.

I didn't know how to start this article.

I started with the last paragraph :)