Brainstorming is a session of time where you record every idea you have for a particular subject, topic, product, article, etc.

Brainstorming sessions can be on anything. Want to figure out what to write about for your blog? Brainstorm it! I'm going to give you a few rules to having an effective brainstorming session.

1. Define the problem in broad terms - Do not build in assumptions or artificial constraints into the question(s) you are asking. Make the question broad enough to allow the generation of many ideas. Instead of "How do I pick up an egg to move it to X?" ask - "How can an egg move to location X?". The former inserts the assumption of picking up - the latter allows for the ideas: allow it hatch and allow the chick to walk to the final position. The question will determine the creativity and uniqueness of the ideas produced during the brainstorming session.

2. No limits on ideas. Allow yourself to throw the laws of physics out the window and cross barriers you normally set for yourself. Anything is game. This is not the time for evaluation, it's the time for crazy, wacky and out of the box thinking. The phrase "Come On, Let's Be Serious" should be banned from the session. Serious is for when there's money involved, there's no money yet - so go crazy. Wacky ideas spark different threads of thought. Those additional threads may produce the perfect answer for your team. If those ideas are evaluated out early you may never end up with the ideal solution to your problem.

3. Set yourself a time limit and not an idea limit. Allow yourself 20 minutes to come up with as many ideas as you can rather than the first 100. The really interesting ideas only come after you exhausted the ordinary ones. Allow yourself time to break though to those ideas, but don't create stress or force the ideas by putting a number of ideas you must produce. If you say you want 500 ideas and you are still struggling with generating ideas after 4 hours - you aren't doing yourself any favors by continuing. Limit the time you spend and come back later if necessary.

4. Write everything down - everything needs to be recorded so it can be returned to and recorded during a later evaluation phase. As above, nothing should be evaluated at this stage. If you find yourself not recording ideas, it's because you're evaluating them. Stop evaluating and start writing! This also helps if you need to return or restart a brainstorming session. You'll know where you left off and can pick up threads started earlier. Find a tool where you can record all the ideas, fast. Speed is essential, once you're on a roll, you won't want to stop.

If you follow these 4 simple guidelines for brainstorming, you should have no problem coming up with a wealth of ideas for whatever problems you are facing in your business.