Careful reflection on this list of senses would lead us to notice that while it is difficult to look at something when you are busy with something else, it is easy to hear something even when you are otherwise occupied. This is not an earth-shaking insight. So, paradoxically, stuck thinking does not necessarily mean that thinking has stopped. Listing alternatives helps us slow down our thinking, look around, and find an alternative side street to turn down before we hit that same brick wall again. When we associate the concepts of reminding, time, and hearing, we come up with the idea of using an alarm clock.
Association lies at the core of all creative thought.
Finally, this example illustrates the importance of further refining our ideas in order to make them truly useful. Many good ideas are never implemented because our first impressions of them makes them seem unappealing. Since, by definition, a creative idea is a new idea, we cannot be sure what mental model people will conjure up when we first express it. For example, imagine a row of bedside alarm clocks with big brass bells on top going off at various times. This mental picture would certainly lead to immediate rejection of the alarm clock idea as too goofy.