Ideas generally will come when you least expect them, trying to force them will do no good, however, you can fill your mind with different environments to help generate ideas later on.
Go to places that like the supermarket, toy store, hardware shop, library, shopping malls, airports, gift shops, places were your senses could be overloaded, just browse and look, don't get too attached to your thoughts. Just walk the aisle and look at the different products, scenes, buildings and items.
Try different music that you normally wouldn't listen to, and different foods. Why not do all the above in half a day.
Traveling is good one for stimulating the senses and you can get some excellent ideas.
The next stage after the sensory overloading is to put yourself in a relaxed environment. For some it could be a walk through the park, for others it may just be to stay at home listening to quiet relaxing music. Make sure you have a note pad and pen.
Once you are in a relaxed state, think back to the different sights and senses you felt and saw. What caught your attention, what did you notice? Now jot down ideas that come to you. Don't worry if it seems fantastic when you think of it, then five minutes later it seems silly. Don't discount any ideas yet. Just record the ideas.
The next stage is to sleep on it, put the ideas out of your mind. Some other ideas may come later when you are in the shower, driving or even on the toilet when you least expect them. Keep a pen and pad handy, every where you go.
The fourth stage can be done with a group or by yourself. Once you have come up with an idea, do five variations of that idea. It could be a slight tweak or major variation of the original idea.
Then each of the new variations do another five variations of that one. Pretty soon you will have hundreds of variations of the theme and some will be far removed from the original idea.
The fifth stage is to have set criteria, which will either weed out ideas that will not seem right for you, such as starting a dog training school if you don't like dogs.
The other criteria might be that all your ideas will center around one core hobby, say as an example your love of wines. This could cover such things as growing grapes for making wines, designing a bottle opener, opening a bottle/wine shop, selling wine books, wine newsletters, irrigation for wineries, vats or equipment for the wine industry, wine tasting tours, wine tips, etc. If the idea somehow can't work around wines you might discount the idea.
Other criteria might be that you can start the business for under ten thousand dollars, or it could be that money is no option, however, the product has be on the shelf in four months.
The sixth and final stage is now to go through your ideas with your guidelines in hand and eliminate the ideas that don't fit in with your guidelines.
Work the list until you narrow it down to a few ideas. Keep working it until a couple come out as being the best. Some will be great ideas, but at the moment you may not have the resources to get them going at the present. (However, keep the list safe as your circumstances may change later on down the track.)
Now sort out the last couple of ideas, put "A" beside your favourite, then "B" beside your next favourite then "C" etc, down the list. Bingo, you have plan "A", now get to work. You also have plan "B", "C" as well if plan "A" doesn't work out.
Remember ideas without actions, are a dime a dozen.
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