List your ideas...
Every time you have an idea or a thought that strikes you, even if you think it's half-baked, it will never work or just too off the wall...write it down. Keep these ideas and thoughts in a list you carry around with you. If they're the type that fire up your imagination right away, at the first opportunity you get start doing them. In my case it's usually writing or creating a video.
If they don't spark you off right away, are not fully formed or ready-for-prime-time, let them sit awhile and when you have a moment of feeling uninspired or needing an idea, take out the list. I'm willing to bet that most of the time at least one of them will get you going. There's also probably a very good chance that you'll also discover that several of them are linked and will create a bigger project than just one of them alone.
This is good advice. I don't generally make lists but I think I should start doing so, because when I've stumbled upon the few I've made it's been enlightening...although actually I make a lot of lists at work (mostly part numbers and sizes, bend allowances, blank sizes) and they are indispensable there. Which I guess proves your point. Now to carry it over to the "non-work" world.
ReplyDeleteA total aside: I read Galbraith's book back in the late '90s. It was a beat copy from the library and I don't remember much from it but I only mention it to say that even in the high-flying internet bubble I was not normal.
I ramble. Cool post, JR!
I carry a little notebook, either one of those small spiral bound ones or a mini-composition book, around with me. They get messed up with mundane lists and junk but are real useful for jotting down brainstorm ideas, otherwise I never remember them.
ReplyDeleteI just read Ken Follett's fictional account of WWI "Fall of Giants", where he weaved real historical characters and events within the his storyline, and it has gotten me interested in 20th century history. I suppose to figure out how we got to where we are now. I found Galbraith's book in a used book store($4.95) and it seemed to be the logical next step as does Amity Shales' book.