No one ever said creativity is easy. In fact, it's incredibly difficult. It's not always a linear process (i.e. you can't just say “from 9am to 10:15 today I'll be creative”), and sometimes when you're inspired and have your best thinking it's not convenient to write things down or keep mining the moment. 

There are, however, certain things that can help with brainstorming and creativity to make the most of the time you dedicate to it. During my 10 years as a writer in the advertising world I developed techniques that I could rely on to generate “critical mass” of ideas, which is important – you can't just rely on one big idea. But everyone had their own techniques, which made the agency environment even more diverse and energetic. 

This article outlines 8 strong prompts (developed by two very successful women in the advertising and media world) to help you think a little differently about an issue. Hopefully they can help you the next time you need a bit of a creative jolt. 

• Exaggerate
• Start a revolution
• Re-express with different language
• Use an old idea
• What is missing?
• What would your enemy do?
• Get it up and running in six weeks
• Push until it scares you

Get the full descriptions in the Harvard Business Review article linked below. It should be a free article, but if it asks for a log-in send me an email and I'll forward it to you.