Last week, I shared "how to become an idea machine" (inspired by James Altucher's work). But it's challenging to simply "come up with ideas." Uh... ideas about what? It helps immensely to have prompts.
The whole notion of prompts got a kick in the behind about a year and a half ago. Betcha know why.
[YouTube Search Trends for the word "prompts" over the last 5 years]
Just as smart prompts help Generative AI tools deliver better results — smart prompts can help our own creativity deliver better results.
For this week's workout, pick a meaningful challenge you'd like to put some creative thinking towards. Then, rather than jumping into creating solutions, spend 5 - 10 minutes thinking about prompts for yourself first. Then use those prompts to stimulate your thinking.
Prompts might be made up of:
Questions
Challenges
Instructions
Constraints
For instance, I'm always trying to think of new ideas for this "creativity workout" section of my newsletter. A few prompts that could help stimulate ideas for myself:
What could people do in a short amount of time to force themselves to think differently?
What fun workshop ideas could I remix in interesting ways?
Think of ten ideas, as if you were Richard Branson.
Come up with an idea inspired by something you can see out your window right now.