Where do your revolutionary ideas come to you? In complete honesty, my world-changing ideas come to me in 3 places: the kitchen, a bottle of wine on the counter while I’m cooking an old recipe I’ve had memorized for years; the shower, most of the time while I’m battling my hot water heater for enough time to perform my third song for the various bottles and containers of soaps and other hygiene concoctions; and finally, when I’m in the middle of a class that I just cannot for the life of me pay attention to.

It’s a common belief that in order to have a productive “thinking” session, it has to be in a controlled setting. But eureka moments don’t follow a schedule. You could be washing the dishes when you finally figure out how to mend the relationship with an old friend you fell out of touch with, or you could be on a run when you have a breakthrough on the project your team has been working on for months. It’s the mundane moments. The mind, untethered by any expectations, drifts through all sorts of associations, bringing together pieces of information in ways that your conscious thoughts might never have considered. Most of the time, the pressure of trying to come up with a great idea is literally the thing that stifles it. When you’re too focused on trying to find the perfect solution, you most likely won’t. So, just stop. These seemingly random moments of mundanity can give rise to your revolutionary idea when you least expect it. The randomness of it all lets ideas that may never have come to you emerge.

Ideas are slippery. As we’ve discussed, they show up uninvited in the most random of places and times, and if you don’t do something with them right away, as we all probably know, they’ll disappear just as fast. So, once you’ve got something, even if it’s half-baked or doesn’t make sense yet, write it down! Doesn’t matter where—a sticky note, notes app, a napkin, the palm of your hand, wherever—just get it out of your head and onto something tangible. Then comes the fun part: carving it, stretching it, molding it, and even breaking it apart and rebuilding it better.

Well, ok, you have your idea now…now what? Once that flash of inspiration hits, that random spark while you’re brushing your teeth or halfway through folding laundry, you then have to figure out how to grow it into something—to expand on the idea, whether that be developing your next course of action or just fine-tuning the original idea. That’s where individual brainstorming techniques like mind mapping and word association come in. They’re underrated but wildly effective.

So lets dive in. What is mind mapping? Well, get out a pencil and paper and lets just do it together. Start with that one random idea in the center of a blank page. Then start asking questions around it. What does this idea connect to? What problems could it solve? What are the possible directions it could go? The best questions start with those 6 words we all learned in elementary school: who, what, when, where, why, how? Each question becomes a branch. Each answer might end up sparking its own sub-branches. Pretty soon, what started as one thought is a whole network of ideas, directions, and opportunities. Mind mapping works by mimicking how your brain actually thinks. Thoughts don’t move in straight lines—they jump, link, unfold, and spiral out.

Now, say that technique is a bit too loose for you, too general. You need more structure. Add in categories to mind map individually, then bring them together. What you’re doing is allowing your brain to think freely and critically at the same time. You’ll find gaps that you didn’t see.

I also mentioned word association—a favorite technique of mine. It’s stupid simple: take your idea and start listing the first words that come to mind when you think of it. Most importantly, do NOT let yourself put in a mental filter. Let it flow. Each new word can spark a different and unexpected angle, emotion, or connection. I find that this method is best used when your idea is very specific or feels too narrow and you need to work on expanding it. In these stages, it’s not about logic—it’s about tapping into your brain’s natural way of linking things. Let one word lead to the next, and see where your mind goes.

Sometimes, ideas don’t just appear out of nowhere. Sometimes, they end up growing from subconscious associations with whatever you’re doing at the moment. You could be staring at a coffee stain on your desk and suddenly think of a new logo design, or watching leaves blow across the sidewalk and get hit with a concept for a user interface. These chance associations can trigger idea threads that your brain naturally follows. And this is where tools like mind mapping and word association come in. They are techniques that end up helping you simulate that same kind of randomness, just on purpose. They recreate the feeling of bumping into ideas in the wild—only now, you’re guiding it. You’re letting your mind roam, but with enough structure to actually build something from the chaos.

What’s great about these tools is that there’s no pressure to be right. No one is watching you, you aren’t being timed, and you certainly aren’t pitching the idea yet. You’re exploring it. Testing how far it can stretch. Sometimes, the idea morphs into something totally different. Sometimes, it doesn’t go anywhere at all. But even then, you’ve planted a seed in your brain, creating a space for the next one to grow faster. Let your thoughts branch out, get messy, and build momentum. In my opinion, the most revolutionary ideas will show up in the most arbitrary places, mundane situations and a few random associations away.