Question of the week: What do you do when you have so many ideas you feel like you are going to explode? I’ve been running into this lately and have been trying to deal with it by making lists and prioritizing which items to get to first. Listen to the audioboo below and leave a comment and join the discussion.
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meredith says:
This exact thing happened to me yesterday – I had a great idea for a wordpress theme. I had so many details in my head I had to put them on paper. I have actual paying freelance projects I should have been working on last night, but I couldn’t let it go.
I have a moleskine where I write ideas and thoughts, if I’m stricken with them randomly. That happens often. My moleskine is not at all organized, and not all design or web-releated. It’s like my brain on paper. I sometimes draw in there if necessary, but if for real sketching I just use a sketchbook and get my ideas down on paper. Even if I don’t come back to them for a long time, or ever, it’s good to get them down and good practice as well.
November 4th, 2009 at 7:20 am
BreRoz says:
I keep 3 notebooks with me, in my purse. I review them almost daily. One is “Now, get done immediately”, one is for “Soon” another for “Long Term Goals”.
I keep all of my ideas organized this way but it is most important for me to continuously review them. If my passion for an idea fades, it is removed from the list. Ideas I really want to fire up – don’t get lost!
Plus, I accomplish way more like this.
I even have a 4th notebook – but that is just a list of questions that arise through the day that I want to find answers to, or questions for clients/interviews… etc…
November 4th, 2009 at 7:25 am
Shelly says:
I agree with the above. I often get bouts of inspiration, and if I don’t get it all out of my head and onto paper, I lose them. Sometimes it’s blog post ideas, and in that case (if I’m at my computer) I’ll log into my blog and start the post and save it as a draft – that way, later on when I’m in the midst of writer’s block, I already have something started for me
I recently purchased a bunch of moleskines and sketchbooks, and I’ve been using them while I’m out – but I need to get in a better habit of carrying them with me.
November 4th, 2009 at 8:14 am
Brian K. says:
I try and create a very quick mockup of my idea(s) in Illustrator and notebook then throw them together in a folder. If I really don’t have the time, then I write down a lot of trigger words that will refresh my memory easily.
Usually these notes are pages and pages of unadulterated-madness! Specifics never work in notes so I have to re-create the madness my brain is throwing out at me.. Kinda like translating a bad dream. It can be very hard sometimes
November 4th, 2009 at 9:38 am
Ivan says:
I have a (paper) notebook that I carry around and write random stuff in. But 90% of it is brilliant ideas
November 4th, 2009 at 9:41 am
Niki Brown says:
Hey Meredith,
Now I'm curious what your theme would look like! I've always wanted to create a theme to giveaway but have never had time!
November 4th, 2009 at 5:54 pm
Aaron says:
This is starting to be a constant struggle for me. For a while I went without having inspiration or motivation and all of the sudden it hit me. Now there is so much I want to do and while I have the time to do some of them, the thought of doing all of them increases my procrastination.
I am still figuring out the best way to approach this but i have decided to set aside every Tuesday night so that I can just “organize my thoughts.” So from now on, Tuesdays is a non-work day, i just sit around and write stuff down, brainstorm, and schedule. We’ll see how well it works out…
November 4th, 2009 at 12:35 pm
Nikki Jeske says:
Post-its. My computer is stuck all over with post-its. Much of the time there are so many that I forget what’s there, which is completely opposite of what they’re there for, but eh. I’m a list-maker too. I write lots of lists. Unfortunately, my issue is time. Don’t have enough of it. >.<
November 4th, 2009 at 12:38 pm
Aaron says:
I like how you section it out. I do this with EverNote but when I am on the go I really have no system. I will often text myself a keyword so I remember to put it in my EverNote for later
November 4th, 2009 at 12:39 pm
Aaron says:
This is starting to be a constant struggle for me. For a while I went without having inspiration or motivation and all of the sudden it hit me. Now there is so much I want to do and while I have the time to do some of them, the thought of doing all of them increases my procrastination.
I have decided to set aside Tuesday as a day to just write everything down, schedule things out and, at some point of the night, just sit and think in silence. I hope this will just get some of the clutter out of my head and get it going in a productive way.
November 4th, 2009 at 12:40 pm
Renee says:
HA! I just had this discussion with Ryan (my husband) last night at dinner. I unloaded about a gazillion things I wanted to do (things design related and hobby things that keep me a sane, creative being). Whenever I have a ton of ideas and no time to do them, I seriously feel like I’m going crazy. I always explain it as feeling “claustrophobic” within myself. Nothing really helps me, except a good nights sleep or achieving the goals. I think it’s just one of the curses of being a creative. Plus, I’m rather impatient, so I want all 100 ideas I just thought of to be done in 24 hours—which is never possible and makes things worse! Haha. We’re going to start setting aside one night a week (maybe more if it’s successful) to focus on our lists of wants and to do’s. Might be a good idea for you too?
PS – Digging this new comment plug-in you’re using!
November 4th, 2009 at 3:15 pm
Renee says:
I just bought a red moleskine before my wedding to keep all of my Ribbons of Red thoughts or “big ideas” in—for personal more than client related. I am so bad about scribbling on scrap paper: old bills, envelopes, wrappers from food, and while it looks cool, I either lose them or they clutter up my workspace and I throw them away. Any tips for getting in the habit of using the moleskine? I have a terrible phobia of writing in a new notebook—they all look so awesome until my chicken scratch gets in it. Hahaha!
November 4th, 2009 at 3:20 pm
Anna Baur says:
I start my moleskine with several pages titled “Vital Notes” (mostly for very sudden networking opportunities where I don’t want to flip pages), then a 3-4 month weekly planner template right after that. The rest is left for notes (I write a lot in a few months!), and I use a couple sticky tab dividers to separate the sections. All of that does a lot toward breaking it in and getting rid of intimidating newness.
Also, I recently switched from the plain paper moleskine to the grid paper, and I would never go back. I thought it would be too restrictive, but it just adds an attractive level of order. I can still sketch over lines if I need to. I also use one of those dorky four-color pens to organize and keep things visually interesting, and last but not least, I leave no inch of page uncovered – these things are like journals for me, and there’s a pleasantness to seeing a notebook so full.
November 4th, 2009 at 3:55 pm
Anna Baur says:
Also, don’t be afraid to use it for everything from grocery lists to logo sketches… it’ll feel more like home that way. The important stuff will still take priority.
November 4th, 2009 at 3:57 pm
Paula says:
I actually carry my sketchbook around with me. Generally in my sketchbook, there are lists of ideas and quick sketches. There a few doodles in the margins. I'm also working on carrying a camera so that if I see something that inspires me to write a blog entry or to design a poster, I can capture it and recall it later. At work, I write everything down on post its. Post-its, many times, are misplaced between my job and home.
November 6th, 2009 at 6:10 am
john says:
I tried the sketchbook (Moleskin) and would always forget it. I tried sticky notes and now I am using the notes app on my iPhone. I usually end up with stacks or pages of useless ideas and the good ones get lost in the abyss. I really like Paula's idea of the camera. I am going to try that!
November 6th, 2009 at 3:31 pm
paul says:
to be honest i reckon ive lost a billion amazing ideas! the problem that i have had in the past is not writing them down and becoming lost forever. but if its design wise its good to get a sketch down colours etc.
November 11th, 2009 at 8:49 am
Ivan Tolmachev says:
oh boy, just to think of all of the ideas I have lost
)
November 13th, 2009 at 6:15 am
Brian Miller says:
reQall iPhone app…converts your voice message to text…great for leaving reminders or memos when you can't write it down (while driving) but want it in text format
December 3rd, 2009 at 2:51 pm
Stephanie Booth says:
I suffer from idea overload almost every single day. And it's not just that I have ideas for things when I cannot carry them out — it's more that I simply have too many ideas and desires to carry out in the time I have here on earth.
So, what do I do?
For some things like blog post ideas, I have a note in evernote that I add to. Sometimes ideas in there die, and I delete them — or I carry them out, and I delete them
For other things like bigger projects or ideas… Well, I've accepted that I just have to let most of them go. I can't do everything.
Another thing I do is post what I consider to be half-baked blog posts. If I have an idea about something but no time to dig into it, I'll do a quick and dirty blog post about it. Either I'll come back to it one day, or somebody will pick it up, but at least like that it's not completely lost.
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