Try This: Set aside part of a morning, and do two to three hours on an idea you’d really like to explore. During your sessions, take no phone calls and answer no e-mail.

How then would you use concept substitution in your freewriting? Use the page to ask and answer these four questions: 1. What problem am I trying to solve? (Be general in your wording here. Nothing too specific. Examples of good general problem statements: “How do I build a fan base for something unknown?” “How do I sell a product to a market that

To open up a word, write down four things: a word for study, the generally agreed-upon definition of that word, your thoughts on the accuracy of the definition, and a personal definition that suits your eccentric tastes.

Try This: Think of an opportunity you’d like to investigate (changing departments, creating a new product, writing a book in your chosen field), and hold a ten-minute freewriting conversation with a paper advisor. Now, pick out some interesting point from that conversation, and use it as a starting point for ten more minutes of writing with a diffe

The first thing I do is read over my freewriting and see if there’s anything I want to save. I’m looking for ideas, observations, stories, and hypotheses. For want of a better phrase, I call each one of these a thought chunk. When I find a promising chunk, I cut it out of the freewriting document and drop it into a separate document that holds simi

Try This: Contact a friend or colleague today, and ask them if you can send them a document that contains your raw thinking on a problem that’s bothering you. When they agree, take a day or two to assemble a talking document, and fire it off.

How were fan bases built for ideas and initiatives in other fields, such as politics, music, philosophy, medicine, manufacturing, engineering,

Focus-changers are simple questions to ask yourself, in writing, that help you redirect your mind toward the unexplored parts of a situation.

By using some of these collected phenomena bubbling in your head, you will have a book that has your stamp on it and is unlike any other. When I’m working with clients, I tell them to temporarily put aside considerations of others and of worldly success, and I ask that they make a list. What kind of list? It’s an inventory of everything that fascin