Creating Ideas Lens Nominated for an Award

My Creating More Ideas Squidoo Lens (mini-Website) is nominated for Best Potential Giant Squid Lens Award which will help publicize my crusade to think of ever more creative ideas. Please vote for it , search for "create more ideas"

Mapping the Journey to My Next Brilliant Idea

I was desperate to think of an idea for a new Squidoo lens, then I hit upon the idea of discovering how I'd thought of my existing lens. I was astonished to find that I didn't know , I'd had ideas my unconsciously. I decided I wanted to try and capture the moment an idea appeared , determined what had seeded the idea and finally learn how to create more and better ideas, in short to become an ideas factory! I created this blog to map my journey to the brilliant idea. But my actual ideas website is here at Creating More Brilliant Ideas and now it is up for an award Best Potential Giant Squid please vote for it here

Always Seeking Ideas for More Leverage

Leverage allows us to achieve greater efficiency. We have to constantly seek ways to get more payload from our efforts, more return on our investment. There is no value or merit in just slogging away. Time invested in seeking an easier way or more effective way to complete our tasks ahead of schedule is worth gold. We have to think recursively like Tom Sawyer who got everyone else to paint the fence. We mustn't think it dishonorable to find an easy way out, I mean if you copy an answer in an exam that's cheating but not in real life where all that is important is to get the job done. Once we have completed a task we should also try to find ways to reuse the result. So in my line I can write a post blog it with variations on different blogs, eventually creating an ezine-article, then a a Squidoo lens and eventually my first book .

So what ways can you think of to be more productive, to get the same results with less effort, can you delegate can you outsource, can you Google up a ready made solution?

Archimedes said "Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world, we should always be seeking that lever and that fulcrum

Great Places to Get Ideas From

• Libraries : New Purchases Shelf


• Libraries : Just Returned Shelf


• Bookshop : Top-Ten Non-Fiction Books


• Amazon.com Best Sellers


• Google Trends What people are searching for


• Google Wonder Wheel , at the top of a Google Search Results Page there is a show options button, click it to see Google Wheel (visual) and Related Searches

Many Ideas Go Unnoticed

Just to note ideas I've had recently which went under the radar by that I mean that I created them with out being aware of the process.

1) CV: I researched for things that I need on my CV to bring it up to date, they are Zend Frameworks, Object Orientated PHP and Drupal a PHP/MySQL CMS. (Have installed all the necessary software and built a Drupal test rig)

2) Amazon books: I've got a 1000 or so second books for sale at Amazon, decided to lower the prices of all my books to see what kind of short term sales I could achieve if I wanted to make Amazon a major income source. (will report on this)

3) Am going to turn more of photo collections into Squidoo Lens

So you can see that none of the above ideas are particularly extraordinary even so the first two could have a dramatic affect on my income and the third a little, but I do need to ACT on them! You too have similar ideas and you also need to ensure that you act on them.

Capture Your Idea Birds with a Nokia E71 (Best Note Taking Smart Phone?)

It is vital to write down (capture) your ideas as soon as they appear, wherever you are. In the past I've used every kind of notebook, scrap of paper etc, unfortunately these have often been mislaid or forgotten. I've been looking for the ideal gadget for note and idea taking for a long time. This must be simple, compact, good battery life, have a full QWERTY keyboard and always be with me.

I pondered and was tempted by a Linux Netbook but I know I wouldn't always have it by my side, this might be different for you if you always carry a bag/briefcase.

The only thing that is already always with me my cell phone, so I plunged for a QWERTY Smart Phone the E71 , so far it's answered all my needs. I've been recording my experiences with this phone here at squidoo.com/nokia-e71-smart-phone .

Brainstorming with Tom Butler-Bowdon

Met up with Tom author of the best selling 50 Self-Help Classics in Blackwells Coffee Shop in Oxford; what a place to brainstorm surrounded by all that knowledge!

I mentioned that I'd created a Squidoo Lens on Everyday Sayings From the Bible which I said had been along with Shakespeare had been one of the greatest influences on the English language. So he bounced right back with why didn't a start a lens for William Shakespeare and so here it is Sayings that come from Shakespeare .

Now talk about my Serendipity Lens the first thing I learn is that the Knock-Knock-Who's-There joke probably was originated by Shakespeare that is another of my lens!!

Join Squidoo here and see what all the fuss is about!

Turn your Vacation into a Squidoo Lens

I wanted to publish my holiday photos, I also wanted to document the gradual disappearance of the traditional seaside villas here in Andernos les Bains, France or rather record the ones that were left. I thought of putting them up at Google's Picasa but then thought (*idea*) why not create a Squidoo Lens which will allow me to post my pictures and add descriptive text AND earn a modest residual income over the years to come!

Here is the result Andernos les Bains. Have you joined Squidoo yet? Join totally free here

An Idea : Ruthlessly Pruning My Projects

I got a request to renew a domain, a quick check revealed that I'd earned a miserable 15 cents Adsense from the site in the last year. From this sprung An Idea that I didn't know which of my many projects were earning me money, that I ought to find out, and then draw up a shortlist of the most successful. Thereafter to only promote and nurture this pruned list. The other projects being left to their own devices.

So do you know which of your activities or products are the most profitable , are you ruthless and disciplined enough to concentrate on just these?

Concentrating on the most profitable products or services is a key aspect of Successful people and business?

So do you know which are yours? Try to write a list now!

Going thru an Idea Creation Barren Period

Yep, no brilliant new idea big or small for a few weeks now, but not to worry idea creation is like that, I know that when I finally get a new idea that I'll probably get a whole bunch of them (Just like waiting for buses!)

I'm carrying my little notebook around just in case!

The Process of Creating More Ideas

A few weeks ago I was doing a walk across the Berkshire Downs when an idea popped into my head fully fledged (more about the actual idea later). That was both wonderful and annoying, annoying because I don't know what prompted it , or where it came from, I guess I was day dreaming while trying to keep up with my fitter colleague.

This blog will be used to log and record my ideas, and also what I learn about Idea Generation.

So what was the actual idea? well I am an expert for a particular text editor and I post a lot of tips on the Internet but have never thought until that instant to create a blog. I now have done that see here zzapper.co.uk/vim-tips-blog/

So where do they come from? One second the idea wasn't there, next second it's arrived and seems obvious. More to come ...