Idea marathon
The Idea Marathon (also Idea Marathon System , IMS for short ) is a creativity technique developed by Takeo Higuchi in the 1980s for generating ideas for individuals. A kind of ideas diary is kept over a longer period of time (usually several months) in which at least one idea is developed and written down every day, applying seven basic rules. In terms of the basic principle, the Idea Marathon is comparable to the Collective Notebook , but for which at least two participants are required.
background
As with training for a marathon, the person who starts an ideas marathon should commit to producing a fixed daily output of new ideas. It is not important what kind of idea (e.g. technical innovation, philosophical thoughts, literary or artistic ideas ...) it is. Existing ideas can also be recombined or transferred to a different context.
The method is intended to adjust the brain to an effective mass production of ideas and to relieve memory performance for the storage of ideas.
Basic rules
The use of the Idea Marathon is based on principles of productive work, which are also based on other methods (such as Getting Things Done ). The goal is to develop a habit of always having the notebook with you and working with it every day.
The following seven basic rules should help:
- At least one new idea has to be developed every day.
- Every idea is formulated and written down as briefly as possible, for example in a personal notebook or in a database.
- There must be an opportunity to write down an idea at any time.
- The ideas can be doubled by talking about them with friends, family or colleagues.
- The same scheme should always be used when writing down an idea (e.g. sequential number, creation date, title of the idea, description of the idea; category of the idea, e.g. private, business; processing status, e.g. open, follow up , done …).
- The idea should be worked on and further notes, explanations and sketches should be added.
- A good idea every day: You should work on your personal ideas marathon every day.
Trivia
The inventor of the ideas marathon, Takeo Higuchi, claims to have filled almost 400 notebooks and developed over 300,000 ideas since 1984. He wants to have 1 million ideas written down by 2035 (he would then be 90 years old).