Ideation: Release Sessions

Here at IdeaPaint, we’re all about creativity leading to productivity. However, we all have times when we are mentally blocked, or our willingness to produce anything is stifled. No matter how many project management systems we put in place or inspiration books we thumb through nothing seems to help. That’s why we’ve started our Ideation Series: a blog series dedicated to improving creativity, productivity and collaboration through simple activities best activated on dry-erase or magnetic surfaces.

In our inaugural edition, we explore Release Sessions, what it means, its many benefits and how to conduct your own Release Session.

Release Sessions are timed sessions of active open idea/thought exploration aimed at reducing stress, distractions and lack of productivity. The most important aspect of this exercise is the active portion. You are not merely sitting, pondering on life. It’s all about getting thoughts out of your head and allowing them to take the spotlight for a couple of minutes a day. Think of this as a hyper-focused daydream session in which you actively engage and explore every thought that comes to the surface. Let yourself to go down that rabbit hole of theories and concepts that linger in the back of your brain.

Though we consider ourselves experts in creativity, collaboration, and productivity, we are not experts in the field of cognitive science. None the less, studies have shown exercises similar to our Release Sessions, such as mind mapping, meditating or journaling, can be beneficial for long term mental health. From reduced anxiety to increased ability to prioritize clearly, focusing on our distractions for a period of time can mitigate them.

The rules are simple, for 15 minutes to an hour a day, with dry erase markers in hand and a dry erase surface within reach, jot down, draw or map your distractions. At the end of your Release Session, leave those thoughts there and don’t pick them back up again for the rest of the day. Still, the purpose of this exercise is to clear your mind of all those miscellaneous thoughts by giving them your undivided attention and letting them out of your brain

Don’t have dry erase surfaces or accessories? We got you covered here!