I’m going to finish out the week with a topic we all need day-in and day-out, but can be maddening in so many ways.

Ideas.

Good ideas.

Coming up the ideas that help us reach goals and solve problems.

Maddening
I call ideas maddening because for all the time we put toward brainstorming or pondering or studying the situation, it’s almost never a simple “do this, get that.”

You work on something for weeks or months and then, while you’re crossing Wall Ave in Ogden on the way to that Hawaiian BBQ place to have lunch with a friend, it hits you. Well, me. Because that’s exactly where my latest big idea came from.

The one before that Laying in bed.

The one before that? While eating dinner.

Taking a walk between meetings on a work trip. Driving on a freeway to my parents’ home on a Tuesday night. Riding the airport shuttle back from Snowcial. The list goes on.

Intriguing
But maybe you’ve picked up on a pattern in that list.

Because where do I spend a huge majority of my “work” time? At a computer. Looking at a screen. A podcast playing, perhaps, email open in one tab with Trello in another.

And yet when are all of these great ideas coming?

When I’m not at my desk and screens are nowhere to be found.

Food for Thought
I can’t come up with perfect ideas on demand, but one of the ironies of work is that sometimes my best work – and best ideas – happen when I’m away from the places work traditionally happens.

So if you are looking for an “a-ha” moment, maybe the secret is to stop reading rambling pieces like this one and, instead, take a walk.

About Gregg & SlopeFillers
I've had more first-time visitors lately, so adding a quick "about" section. I started SlopeFillers in 2010 with the simple goal of sharing great resort marketing strategies. Today I run marketing for resort ecommerce and CRM provider Inntopia, my home mountain is the lovely Nordic Valley, and my favorite marketing campaign remains the Ski Utah TV show that sold me on skiing as a kid in the 90s.