I go to the gym and read , usually at the same time while on the stationary bike . Lately I ' ve been reading Composing Electronic Music by Curtis Roads 3 and as I go a lot of ideas pop into my head , so I write them down . I then setup a blank project in the OT and try to make that idea work in the most general sense , set some trigs and put some noise into it , which leads to changing around how I got things setup and start again . This almost always leads to a very different end result than what I had originally in mind of course , which is fine by me . Once I have a nice configuration I treat that project as an instrument and try to find and refine ideas . Eventually I get sick of it or don ' t find it too inspiring anymore so I switch to some other idea on the list and start again . Basically find some way to start and stick with it for a little while until you can ' t stop . Motivation and energy are overrated IMO .