Want to learn how to produce big ideas on demand? Read our Business Week Column
1 Take a warm bath
2 Go for a drive with the windows open
3 Order Chinese food and eat it with chopsticks
4 Call a random phone number — ask a stranger
5 Ask a child
6 Create an idea that would get you fired
7 Paint your bedroom
8 Consult tarot cards
9 Gargle
10 Play football
11 Sing a show tune in a crowded elevator
12 How would your favorite uncle solve the problem?
13 Doodle
14 Do a crossword puzzle
15 Pray for a little help
16 Ask the most creative person you know
17 Ask the least creative person you know
18 Run
19 Ask your local postal worker
20 Ice skate
21 Take a shower with your clothes on
22 Ask yourself: "What rhymes with orange?"
23 Talk to your favorite cheerleader about the idea
24 Breathe slowly
25 Flip a coin
26 Mow the lawn
27 What is the simplest solution?
28 Do 20 quick push-ups
29 Go shopping!
30 Write the alphabet backwards
31 Build a fort in your office
32 How would an ant solve the problem?
33 Create a silly solution that rhymes
34 Make paper airplanes
35 Use three wishes to solve your challenge
36 Browse through a bookstore
37 Take a survey
38 Make a sculpture with mashed potatoes
39 Fish
40 Go to Vegas, play a lot of craps
41 Daydream
42 How would you solve it with an infinite budget?
43 Write out the problem with your opposite hand
44 Sing the National Anthem with a cockney accent
45 Eat dinner
46 Change your brand of coffee
47 Wash dishes
48 Find the solution in the clouds
49 Swing
50 Take a nap at your desk
51 Go bowling
52 Spin in your chair shouting: "WHOOPEE!"
53 Eat a snow cone
54 Contort your face in strange and unusual ways
55 High-five yourself
56 Go camping
57 Take Spot for a walk
58 Massage your scalp for ten minutes
59 Play musical chairs
60 Go for a walk in the rain
61 Pick up something with your toes
62 Communicate
63 Stand on your head
64 Stand on someone else's head
65 Go for a drive
66 Call a psychic hotline, laugh at their predictions
67 Caffeine
68 More caffeine
69 Imagine explaining the idea at an awards banquet
70 Make a prank phone call
71 Think about it before you go to sleep
72 Call mom, she can fix anything
73 When in doubt, resort to duct tape
74 Watch slasher movies to boost your creative confidence
75 Fly a kite
76 Shake up a can of pop and open it
77 Go for a walk
78 Draw a picture of it
79 Pretend to snorkel
80 Think like a child
81 Walk outside and wave to a stranger
82 Look at the person's paper next to you
83 Climb a tree
84 Find a new word in the dictionary
85 Take an ice cream break
86 Make a daisy chain
87 Dance a polka
88 Play in a toy store
89 Just don't think about it
90 Jump on a treadmill
91 Alphabetize your refrigeratables
92 Pretend like it doesn't matter
93 Paint with your fingers
94 Clean your toilet
95 Lose yourself in your favorite music
96 Watch old black & white reruns
97 Listen to bees
98 Walk in a grocery store — notice clever solutions
99 Rake the leaves in your yard
100 Sit outside and count the stars
101 Still can't find the answer?
