by Rashelle Colsinger

Brainstorming sessions. They’re the best thing going for getting ideas on the table fast, but they’re difficult. Is it an art or a science? Yes, both. And when you brainstorm for poll question ideas, brainstorming sessions take on a very different dimension.

Brainstorming itself is easy enough to do. It may tax your mental capacity greatly, but usually brainstorming sessions are short and very focused.

The two main ingredients in brainstorming is focus and concentration. You keep all ideas; you reject none. You tape the session or you write everything down.

To emphasize the point, don’t reject idea (initially) because you think it’s an irrelevant idea. That will come later when you see what you’ve actually written down. Increase the positive flow of information as much as possible.

Sessions last from five minutes to a full day (Twitter was formed out of a day long brainstorming session). The sessions are intense and focused. But those five or ten minutes are extremely productive.

To get all you can out of a brainstorming session, try to create a free environment, one that is clutter-free and organized. Brainstorming sessions typically have groups of three to seven people. That’s the ideal. Keeping the group tiny helps to keep the focus clearer.

Next we want to brainstorm ideas for possible poll questions. Three to seven people may be a luxury for your group. You may be it! That’s okay.

Keep the sessions short and focused. Five to ten minutes at a time will generate a lot of ideas. Choose a general category: religion, politics, sports, current news, that sort of thing. You may want to focus even more: for religion, choose one. For sports, choose a particular sport, for current news or politics, choose a current problem.

Now you’re ready to sit down to think and record. Here’s how a typical session could go: Sports leads to baseball, which leads to a team, which leads to the Yankees, which leads to Derek Jeter. From there you see if there’s anything in the news about the Yankees or Jeter. Then you tailor a question (especially if you are in the New York market) that talks about the Yankees or Mr. Jeter.

As you do this, it becomes a lot easier. Be careful, though, this is an easy step to take shortcuts with. You may reveal several other questions that you can use. Ten minutes each time is all it takes.

About the Author:
Rashelle Colsinger is a freelance technical and business writer. Visit two of her online sites: A Daily Poll and A Weekly Poll. Don’t reprint this exact article. Instead, reprint a free unique content version of this same article.