November 09, 2010, 11:00 AM — There are times when I will sit down in front of the computer screen to complete a task (writing code, writing an article) and find myself staring blankly with absolutely no ideas or inspiration. Such was the case with this article: I had no ideas on what to write. Then came the idea: what about you creative people out there? What inspires you? When or what time of day do you find inspiration? What is a good synonym for "inspiration"?! So I polled a bunch of people from all different walks of life out there in the ether to find out exactly how they find inspiration...or how inspiration finds them.
The commonality among those people polled was that most of the time, inspiration arrives when their mind is not focused on the problem. Rather, a menial task or daily routine provides the perfect conditions for new ideas or solutions to problems. Read on to find inspiration!
Go to bed
How many times have you awoken and had a moment of clarity where all the answers were as plain as day? And how many times, after that, did you completely forget what in the heck you were thinking about? I cannot tell you how many times this has happened to me (I used to know, but promptly forgot). How about when you're going to bed at night and, upon laying your head down on your pillow, the stress of the day fades away. Your mind wanders, and without realizing it, you've got an idea. Then...you doze off.
Out of the 35 people I asked, five different people said that their inspiration comes around the time they are preparing to sleep or wake. Jesse Waites said, "I get app ideas as I am falling asleep - I now keep a moleskin notebook at my bedside." A great suggestion.
Image: courtesy of Flickr
