Understanding this is critical because one of the most useful skills you can have is creative thinking. Innovative solutions, lateral thinking, and creative ideas can help with almost any problem you face at work or in life.

Most importantly, your ability to generate new combinations is dependent on your ability to see the connections between concepts. You have done something creative if you can create a new link between two old ideas.

You learn at first. During this stage, you should concentrate on 1) learning specific material directly related to your task and 2) learning general material by becoming fascinated with a wide range of concepts.

During this stage, you examine what you've learned by looking at the facts from different perspectives and experimenting with putting different ideas together.

Then you completely forget about the problem and go do something else that excites and energises you.

Your idea will return to you with a flash of insight and renewed energy at some point, but only after you have stopped thinking about it.

For any idea to succeed, it must be put out into the world, subjected to criticism, and adapted as necessary.