How To Generate Unlimited Ideas (8 Step Creative Process)
My full creative process — from a cluttered mind to an empty mind to the finished piece.
Creativity is not hard to access and it doesn’t take years to learn. It’s just that most people don’t know how to use their creativity.
Creativity and writing are shaped by what you do when you’re not creating.
That doesn’t mean you have to do monumental things and constantly go on adventures to create captivating work.
What matters is how you live.
Do you live a conscious life of creation or an unconscious life of consumption like most people do?
If you think creativity is this mystical gift that’s reserved for the great masters, you’re mistaken. It lies in every single one of us.
It’s just that most of us bury our unique ability to create under mindless distractions, societal expectations, and the pressure to get everything perfect.
We have to break free of these things – then creativity becomes an organic part of living.
Create more, consume less. You need less pleasure and more meaning. Focus on valuable and interesting information, not mindless entertainment.
The books, social media content, courses, and other resources you consume should focus on problems you want to solve — for yourself or the world — and on topics that genuinely interest you.
Go where curiosity pulls you. Let intuition guide you and dive into the topics that you feel drawn towards.
What interests you deeply?
Explore, do new things, make personal experience, and develop unique ideas.
Today I’ll show you my personal creative process for receiving, developing, and writing about ideas – to understand life and myself a little more, and to share those ideas with others to help them improve their life and achieve their goals.
If you’re a writer struggling to create high quality work for a book, publication, or social media content – this will be highly valuable and actionable for you.
If you simply want to live a more conscious life, create more, and tap into your unique energy for whatever work you do – stick around as well.
This post is about building a creative and conscious routine that makes creativity and flow a natural by-product of living.
It’s my personal creative process for living a conscious life and creating (or rather attracting) endless unique ideas.
Let’s dive in.
1. Life Experience
To generate interesting ideas, you must live an interesting life. This is where most people freak out and think their life is too boring to be a writer.
It’s not. You just need to become more aware of what’s going on. You have to learn to distill lessons and insights from your life – which it is constantly providing so you don’t have to “try”.
You just have to notice.
Do more interesting stuff and you will start seeing those lessons everywhere. Challenge yourself and do new things – you have to break your mundane routine.
Routines are important but they often close us off.
They “numb” our perspective and create this autopilot mode where we think we know what we need to know.
We stop being that curious kid that’s fascinated by the small details and life becomes a mechanical process rather than a magical journey.
You have to do new things every now and then to disrupt this autopilot mode. Take a trip, try a new sport, change your routine, and experiment with life.
Personal growth, in essence, is science. It’s the search for truth.
Become a scientist – search for the truth in yourself and your life, be open to lessons, and let life show you what to write about.
2. Journaling
Every morning, dump your thoughts on a piece of paper. Write about whatever comes up and let your mind flow.
Use these prompts to go deeper:
What’s something I’ve recently felt deeply, struggled with, or realized — that I now see differently?
What distractions keep me from being fully present in my daily life?
When did I feel most connected to myself this week? What was I doing?
How do my daily habits support or hinder my awareness and presence?
In what ways can I slow down and create space for more awareness?
How do I feel right before I have a great idea? What can I do to cultivate that feeling?
This will help you if you’re used to sitting in front of your journal, wondering what to write about (I know exactly how it feels)
Use journaling to cultivate self-awareness. Make connections and be open to changing your mind about things.
Ask yourself what lessons you learned the day before. What did life show you? Did you have any insights or things you noticed?
Make a habit of this and you’ll become more and more aware of what’s going on beneath the surface.
Which gives you more ideas to write about.
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3. End-of-week reflection
Every Sunday I sit down to reflect on my week. I skim through the pages I wrote throughout the week and look for insights and aha moments.
Moments where something clicked.
This is the idea generation phase.
Most people make a big deal out of this. They spend hours researching what 'works' and try to generate ideas by drawing inspiration from successful creators online.
It works but I feel that it takes away the uniqueness. Sure, you can take someone else’s idea, put your own spin on it, and share that with others.
But what I prefer is to focus on the things that are relevant to my life.
Things that I’ve either recently gone through or been reminded of by something that I’ve experienced. Sometimes stories and lessons from the past.
I’m basically letting life show me what to write about.
If you believe in a higher self – the “real you” observing from above – think of this as that higher version of you giving hints and nudges about what the world needs from you.
We often go through lessons so we can pass them on to others. Become aware of these insights and let them guide you.
4. Consume
This is where external information comes in. It’s important to read books, watch videos, and consume resources that evoke a feeling of excitement in you.
Something that pulls you in and interests you.
Stop forcing yourself to read or watch what people on social media told you to. If it doesn’t feel right, it’s not relevant for you.
Consume resources that strikes a chord in your soul.
When you feel that inner nudge towards something — go deeper. Focus on that unique feeling and let it guide you to the information you need.
Every day, consume one piece of high-quality information.
It doesn’t have to be much – just a few pages in a book, a YouTube video, or an email of someone you resonate with can be enough to spark insights.
Stay open and learn something new every day.
5. Take walks
I take daily walks in the morning and midday to let the ideas and information simmer. Information that I consumed and information from my own daily life.
I don’t actively think about these ideas – I let my subconscious mind do the work. I actually try not to think at all during my walks.
I take in nature, feel the ground beneath my feet, and immerse myself in the present moment. I see it more as a break from work, rather than part of it.
Give your subconscious time to work through your ideas and let them ripen. Keep a notebook with you and jot down anything that comes up that seems important.
As a side note: implement walks into your routine between 90-minute deep work blocks. That’s how you get the most out of your time. I like to either take walks, eat, or do chores in between these blocks.
6. Planning
This is where raw ideas are turned into outlines.
Sometimes I use very simple frameworks like PROBLEM-INSIGHT-ACTION or PROBLEM-REASON-SOLUTION to structure my posts.
But usually, I just focus on the idea I want to get across – presenting it in an understandable way, talking about how most people do it wrong, showing my unique view and ultimately delivering a solution for the core problem.
The point of this is to have a general idea of what goes where and the overall structure of your piece.
Don’t obsess over this or make it several pages long.
This is just an outline that provides direction to make sure I don’t go on tangents or start writing about things that aren’t relevant to the main idea.
Don’t go too in depth on this or you’ll suck the soul out of your writing. Stick with short bullet points, not full sentences. Leave the creation part for the next step.
This is also where I do research if it’s needed.
Expand on your personal experience with ideas from other people. Things that correlate or fill a gap. Or other things like studies, stories, etc.
Whatever you feel adds value and depth to your writing and helps get your point across more clearly.
7. Creation
This is where I write out the content. In its own 90-minute time block. I already have the outline ready, and I just focus on writing.
I aim for a flow state here. No interruptions like google searching or any other form of research – this should happen before or later.
If you get stuck while writing because you can’t find the right words, need additional information, or simply don’t know how to continue – leave this part for later.
It’s important to keep writing and not getting stuck thinking or analyzing. This cuts you off from flow state and you lose momentum.
Another obstacle is distractions.
Don’t let external sources – people or your phone interrupt your work. Remove everything from your desk that could take your attention away and fully immerse yourself in the work.
This doesn’t have to be perfect.
It’s the first draft and you can edit it later. Prioritize getting into a flow and don’t think too much about what you’re writing – just let it flow and be a channel for whatever needs to come out.
This first draft might be quite messy. That doesn’t matter. What matters is that you tap into a deeper state of presence where you are one with the work.
That’s where you produce the magic we’re looking for.
Another crucial thing: have your audience in mind. Whoever you are writing to (even if it’s just yourself), think about that person. Not a group of people but a singular person.
Write to them as if you’ve known them for years and you’re sharing something that’s meaningful to you, and want them to have it as well.
Once you’re done – get away from your computer and stop thinking about it.
8. Editing
The next step is removing anything unnecessary or adding the things you couldn’t earlier. This happens later in the day or on another day, not right after.
Read your writing aloud (at least for a while until you get used to your writing voice) and notice anything that sounds off. Nothing you wouldn’t say should be written.
This is how you develop your voice. You write how you speak.
Edit ruthlessly and cut out everything that’s not important. Anything you think is nice to know but not really necessary – cut it.
Trust me, the parts you think are important or genius are often not as great as you think. I used to leave a lot of stuff in I thought added important context when it was really just fluff.
If it helps, feed your rough draft to AI and tell it to cut redundant or unnecessary parts.
Less is more. You don’t have to write everything – just the most important aspects that portray your idea effectively.
Notice what works and what doesn’t. Add things like graphs, pictures, examples, research stuff, the parts you skipped or left out when writing, or anything you find adds depth to your main idea. Only if needed.
Don’t stick to grammar rules too hard or try to make everything perfect.
People don’t want the perfectly written, flawless essay. They want your unique lens, voice, and tone – and that often contains minor grammar mistakes or weird wording.
Just make sure it still flows and it’s understandable to everyone. Don’t try to be smart or sophisticated. Be clear, simple, and authentic.
Keep your uniqueness and try not to overthink.
There is no such thing as perfect writing. What makes it great is your unique energy and voice – and you naturally develop that over time if you follow this routine
What most people lack is not creativity or knowledge but a clear, diligent process.
This might seem like a lot if your current routine is just writing about random ideas and editing afterwards.
But a streamlined process is necessary to tap into your full creative potential.
This is not for you to blindly copy. It works for me but there might be tweaks you want to make. Maybe rituals you want to add or something you want to change.
The key is experimentation.
Find your unique way of doing it and build a creative process. Don’t just search for good ideas on social media, write about them, and edit.
Your writing will turn out generic and soulless.
The more you follow this process the more your mind gets used to it. The more you’ll be able to naturally access these states like flow or analytical thinking exactly when they’re needed.
I hope this helped you form a clearer picture on how to tap into creativity. It’s a process that entails a lot more than just creating.
The way we live life dictates how we perform as writers.
Live more consciously, consume less bullshit, and fill your mind with interesting information.
That’s the secret.
Until next time
Leon
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Really clear breakdown here Leon, nice article I can see you put a lot of thought into it.