How to have more ideas

“Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple, learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.” – John Steinbeck

I’ve always been fascinated by ideas, and where they come from. 

JK Rowling got the idea for her Harry Potter series while gazing out of the window on a long train ride. George Michael said the sax melody that made his breakthrough solo hit ‘Careless Whisper’ so memorable came to him, fully formed, while he was handing over his fare money on a London bus. 

Artist Marc Quinn was walking through the British Museum looking at all of the broken Greek and Roman statues when he realised that if they came to life now they would be disabled, and their beauty unappreciated. This led to him making a monumental marble statue of a pregnant, disabled woman, Alison Lapper, which was displayed in London’s Trafalgar Square in 2005.

There are very few totally new ideas. 

Mostly, it’s about taking a concept from one field, and applying it to another. Or combining things that already exist, in new and interesting ways. As Austin Kleon says, in his book of the same name, we all need to learn to Steal Like An Artist.  

What you read, watch, do, the people you surround yourself with will all have an influence on your ideas. So curate your inputs carefully, stay open to new experiences, and make sure you connect regularly with interesting people. 

It’s also important to have down-time, when you’re not straining to think of solutions at all.

As a journalist, I ask almost everyone I interview about how they get their best ideas. The answers are almost always about doing the research, the work – and then resting. Hence people’s best ideas coming to them in the shower, while out walking, during their commute or while playing with their children or pets.

Here are four great pieces of advice I’ve had over the years, some from creatives at the very top of their fields.

Jonathan Ive: Embrace your failures

I’ve interviewed Jonathan Ive, who until recently led Apple’s innovative design team, a few times over the years. His team is interesting because they really were creating objects that had never been imagined before: the iPod, the smart phone, a whole series of innovations in laptops and desktop computers. 

When I asked him about ideas, he said they could come from almost anywhere. What was important was to create a safe, private space in which his team felt free to suggest anything, without worrying about sounding ridiculous. And to play with new ideas, without fear of failing. 

“For me, part of being a designer is an ability to suspend for a moment your understanding of the product and its use, and just take a look at it. It’s an almost child-like inquisitiveness. And a real willingness to be wrong, to be surprised. 

“I love being wrong!  As a designer you’re always exploring what’s isn’t right. The ideas we try out that didn’t work are part of the process. That isn’t failure, it’s just something we were trying out. 

“It’s about not making value judgements. Just having a go, being surprised. And then being delighted about that. Not this jaundiced, ‘Oh well, I knew that wouldn’t work.’ With some creatives, it all seems like a battle. And there’s not a lot of joy in that, is there?”

Richard Friend: Buy a new notebook

An artist who lives and works on the east Kent coast of Britain, Richard Friend isn’t particularly famous (though he is hugely talented). But he once said something that stuck with me, about the power of good stationery.  

“There’s something really special about a new notebook or sketchbook. If you get stuck, go and get yourself the nicest sketchbook you can afford, and some new drawing equipment. 

“Then just fill it, as quickly as you can. Just scribble it down. Because every time you turn the page, it’s going to change. The drawing you did before is going to inform the one you do afterwards. 

“Gradually, you’re building up a little book of ideas. And everything in there will at some point kick-start a piece of work.”

Almost any creative can adapt this.

I’ve suggested it since to blocked writers. Buy a beautiful notebook, take it with you everywhere and fill it as quickly as you can with random ideas, overheard conversations, little observations, notes about places you’ve been, things you’ve read, or watched.

This gets you used to writing all the time: when you’re waiting for a bus or sitting in the park, whenever you have a few minutes free. And you’re building up a library of ideas and observations to use later.

Zaha Hadid: Train your ideas muscle daily

For the first 20 years of her career as an architect, Zaha Hadid won prestigious competitions and awards, and was widely celebrated as one of the greatest talents in her field. Yet her work was so innovative that hardly anything she designed had ever been built. 

When I met her in 2007 this had changed, and she was suddenly in demand all over the world, with scores of extraordinary buildings in different stages of completion. The scope and scale of the work she was doing was breath-taking, and I wondered if she ever got stuck for ideas. 

She laughed. “When I get stuck, I just carry on!”

Her long years of training as an architect had taught her that there were many ways of doing the simplest of elements: a door, a staircase. Then there were the years of research and experimentation, and of endless rejection. She had to learn to trust herself, and her abilities. 

 “Last year, I just took a very small, simple plan [for a building], and I worked on it every day, to see how many permutations it could have. I worked it out, every day, for months. And it was amazing. After two months, I had 700 options! I didn’t do it for training, I was just curious. 

“But if I hadn’t done what I did 20 years ago, I don’t think all those ideas would have been unearthed. Architecture is the same as any field really, from music to science. If you do the work and keep at it, you’ll find that the solutions you’re looking for will eventually run into you.” 

James Altucher: Ten ideas a day

In his book Choose Yourself, entrepreneur James Altucher shares an exercise he does every single day. He thinks of a theme, then quickly jots down 10 ideas around it, without judgement. 

I started doing this as part of my morning journaling. Sometimes I’ll do 10 ideas about the same thing every day for a week, or even a month if it’s something I’m really stuck on. Sometimes I’ll get the answer I’m looking for in my first list of ten. 

I have written hundreds of truly awful, embarrassing ideas in those lists. I’ve also written a handful of really great ideas, that would never have come to me otherwise. 

So there you are. 

• Be playful.
• Try not to judge your ideas as you get them down.
• See failure as part of the process, and enjoy that.
• Find a way to regularly produce lots of ideas at speed.
• Maybe invest in a gorgeous new sketchbook or notebook.
• Remember to rest.
• Stay open to new experiences.
• And most of all, work on producing new ideas, every day.

Soon you’ll have an endless supply of ideas. But of course an idea is nothing, unless you also take action.