Scrapbook idea is a nice one, allowing us to put thoughts into some kind of a physical form. The past archives, or design sources from the past, should surely help spur up more ideas.

Thinking outside the box, that is an interesting concept that many people do not do, or force themselves to do. They should try to make it part of their normal thing, to question things and come at their own conclusions, thus developing a mentality that thinks based on unique reasons since every person thinking on his/her own will probably have unique analysis about things.

Associations can help also, like with memory; good point. I am guessing from your example of the car commercial that is was more a good example of a catchy commercial than a powerful association, though I may be wrong. Ads are everywhere, so sometimes its hard to see how they are affecting us. Good point in bringing it up.

Brainstorm: I always think that brainstorming occurs every moment of the day, but so many people go crazy when they try to do it even for an hour. It should be a constant thing, trying to think and come up with ideas or thoughts, and from my own experience, it can be productive to brainstorm all the time but it adds a lot of stress to your own character because of imagining and coming up with all the possibilities about something or everything in the universe. Of course, majority of the people today feel stressed already about a lot of things and cannot brainstorm or think aggressively all the time, so dedicating a little bit time helps.

Good post Lauren.

What do you think?

Great article Lauren. I really liked your point about getting inspiration from non-traditional sources.

What do you think, everyone - should we beg Lauren to guest write for InspirationBit more often before she decides to get into blogging herself?