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Rock musician David Bowie jokingly makes devils horns in front of his head as he delivers the commencement address May 8 at the 1999 graduation ceremonies of the Berklee College of Music in Boston. Reuters

To boost his creativity and productivity, David Bowie used the cut-up technique; this is when an artist cuts up printed materials, and rearranges it to make something new.

To generate new ideas, you can combine it with speaking aloud to yourself — start by hitting record and talk through what's on your mind.

Once it's transcribed, print it out and cut it up, and rearrange the pieces.

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During a prolific and celebrated career, the man who introduced the world to Ziggy Stardust created a vast library of imaginative and provocative imagery through his lyrics and personas. David Bowie's work inspired new generations of musicians and still offers powerful cultural significance years after it was originally published.

Bowie frequently used an unusual brainstorming practice to boost creativity and productivity called the cut-up technique. This method has its foundations in Dadaism and was adapted by Beat Generation luminaries Brion Gysin and William S. Burroughs to create works of literature and art.

To apply the cut-up technique, an artist literally cuts or tears written and printed material into pieces, and then rearranges those pieces to create something new. Bowie most often used it to generate new ideas, describing the process as "igniting anything that might be in my imagination."

As a big proponent of personal brainstorming, I adopted the cut-up technique once I learned about it a few years ago. If it was good enough for Bowie (to say nothing of Kurt Cobain, Bob Dylan, Thom Yorke, and Iggy Pop, who also used it), then I suspected it could help me be more creative. I was absolutely correct.

I also put my own twist on the cut-up technique by taking advantage of something developmental psychologists call private speech, which is essentially speaking out loud to yourself. There is compelling science behind it, but the "out loud" part is important because in 1994 it was correlated with high test scores among adolescents.

My hybrid version of Bowie's favored brainstorming technique takes just three simple steps and is guaranteed to generate new ideas: