For me making a habit of thinking about problems, writing my ideas and organizing them has been extremely valuable in all fields where I applied it (I am a PhD

For me making a habit of thinking about problems, writing my ideas and organizing them has been extremely valuable in all fields where I applied it (I am a PhD student in computeur science and act as a consultant for some magicians). I do not think that you can make a habit of producing good ideas but if you produce enough ideas you will end up producing at least a few good ones, it is only a matter of time. Also having a good storage system let me revisit ideas that were imperfect at a later point in time when I might have the correct frame of mind or knowledge to improve on them. This mean that I end up producing more good ideas on the long run. Finally, I try to accumulate knowledge. I found the ideas of other people to be a great source of inspiration (either because I misunderstand them at a cursory glance, leading to creation, or by building on their concepts). Furthermore, keeping files on ideas I find interesting appears to be a force multiplier to improve the quality of my output: the more tools I have and the more problems I can solve.