Day Dreaming

Entrepreneurs are a bunch of real dreamers

ONE fifth of businessmen and women spend around 25 hours per week dreaming up new business concepts, mainly outside the office, according to a survey out today. This means eight weeks a year are spent on coming up with bright ideas.

The most common places for having a business idea included the car, bedroom or while out socialising.

The study also dispels stereotypes about Monday mornings - a fifth of those interviewed said they had their best ideas at the start of the week. More than half of those asked thought morning was the best time for creative thinking about new business ideas.

One of the most underappreciated activities is day dreaming. Some of my best ideas come in the form of those elusive thoughts that, if not written down, can enter the psyche only to dissolve in an instant.

This is why I carry a notebook with me wherever I go. We literally have notepads in every part of the office and home, including the washroom where, so I am told, magnificent thoughts of colossal importance occur.

Brain storming sessions are not enough. They are too structured. Great ideas and creative blasts happen on the fly. And they are as fundamental to achieving your goals as all those spread sheets and graphs.

How do you cultivate those diamond ideas? Does your business do anything out of the ordinary to help keep creative thinking alive?