Sean on Personal Development

Monday, November 28, 2005

Brainstorming and Maintaining Inspiration

Now that I’ve been working at a desk job for a while, it has become clear to me that, while working within another company, every employee spends nearly all of their time striving for the success of their company or their boss. Very rarely is an employee able to fully work towards their own success in a corporate empire when it doesn’t necessarily mesh with that of the company.


Then it hit me: This is completely against what most people want to do with our lives! Why do we do this? Why do we expend our creative and intellectual energies towards someone else’s goals as a means to achieve our own dreams? Isn’t that insane? Wouldn’t it be more productive to instead just focus on our own goals?


And I realized that I, too, was just working towards someone else's goals, thinking I was working towards my own. And with that empowering thought, I knew I had to get out.


But I couldn’t just quit right then. I had no idea what I was going to do if I did. And while a very adventurous part of my spirit told me to just dive into it head-first, I knew that it could cause some long-term damage to some of my other personal goals. I couldn't sacrifice one goal for several others.


So, I needed to figure out what to do next, and what I could do from here on to solve my conundrum and get that escape velocity from the desk job; or at the least, get the first mini-booster rocket going. I needed some ideas; I'll bet that most others in a situation similar to mine needed some as well.


Now, I know that most people have an imagination of some sort. Personally, I can’t turn mine off. Things are constantly churning in my head, and it seems like a hundred great ideas come up every hour. The problem is, because I can’t immediately pursue these ideas most of the time, they disappear into the ether from whence they came. I’m sure that most of you have run into the same thing. Think about it: how many times has an idea hit you, one that you know is gold, but you just couldn’t pursue it immediately, and so shelved it indefinitely or forgot about it?


It’s frustrating. I hate losing ideas, especially the really good ones that impassion me. So, on the advice of a good friend, I got myself a journal. So far, it’s been one of the best investments I’ve ever made.




So how do I use the journal?


I’ll demonstrate my use by example:


Say I’m working on an active programming project, doing maintenance work. An idea hits me to flesh out a website project that I’ve been kicking around in my head for a while. I need to capture it quick, while the muse is still tickling my mind, so I’ll finish whatever very short term task I’m doing (like an finishing writing an individual line of code or reading an individual paragraph), which should generally take no longer than a minute or two -- the shorter, the better.


While the idea is still hot, I’ll whip out the journal (which I always keep on my person) and find the next blank page. I’ll then log the day and time, as well as a short title of what the idea is at the top of the page. This timestamp and title is very useful for backtracking and finding ideas, especially once your journal(s) start getting full. Don't skip this.


After filling in the title and timestamp, I’ll fill in whatever the idea was. Sometimes, it’s a detailed technical drawing. Other times, it will take on the form of nigh-incomprehensible collection of brief snippets and notes. I just structure my ideas within my journal in the same manner as the idea came to me (i.e., if my mental idea is jumbled and ethereal, I try to log it as such). I want to bottle up the very essence of the muse’s whisper as best as possible, so that when I return to the idea later, I can recreate it.


Later, at home or somewhere that I have time to devote to it, I like to revisit my ideas and see which ones I still like or still impassion me. If it doesn’t strike me again, then I file it away in my mind, and don’t touch the entry until it inspires me again. However, if I find that I can’t tear my mind away from the idea, and so I’m still inspired, I try to put at least a little time into the idea, usually as a new project. This helps solidify my inspiration so that a returning to it days, weeks, even months later is more fruitful.


My way of utilizing the brainstorming journal may not work for everyone. You may like to keep everything well catalogued and neat and tidy. If that keeps the creative excitement going for you, then go for it! Always capture the essence of inspiration as it hits you, but do it in the way the works best for you.




What kind of journal should I get?


Well, that depends on what you’re doing with it. For me, many of my notes are disorganized, and often involve mini-technical sketches or visual layouts. It made sense that I got one with graph paper squares in it. It supports my approach. If, say, all you ever entered were textual notes, then it may benefit you more to use only a lined journal for use.


Think about how you would use a journal and go for one that supports it best. This comes with a word of warning, though: when deciding, it’s best to go for a simpler, more flexible journal. While it may not make some specific tasks easier, it also won’t make any other tasks any harder. For example, a personal calendar / scheduler will make tasks related to dates and appointments very easy to track, but the format will be detrimental to nearly all other idea formats. A basic, empty journal has much more freedom for more types of ideas... and who knows what kind of ideas you’ll come up with! Why limit yourself now?




What do you use?


I use a Moleskine small squared notebook. I like it a lot. It’s small enough to be easily pocketed, and it’s got an elastic band to keep the journal closed and protected while riding around in my pocket. It also has the all-important bookmark ribbon, so I never have to flip to the first blank page. The really useful feature that I enjoy, though, is that the back cover actually has a pocket built into it. So if I scribble something on another small, flat medium (say a post-it note if I forgot my journal), I can jam it into the notebook pocket. Then, all my ideas are still contained within the journal for later reference.


I went for the squared notebook because I do many, many small sketches in addition to my scribbled notes. Really, though, all of the Moleskine notebooks are top-notch… I can honestly suggest anything in their line. Just find one that matches your needs. Then when the muse tickles your brain, you’ll be ready.


-sean

2 Comments:

  • I have had an idea for such an item for a long while, but a journal has always been prohibitively lame and boring, to me.

    I've been on a personal goal setting spree, myself, and I'm doing very well with most of them lately.

    I plan to get a 3v battery, a physical keylogger, a keyboard and a strap. I'm going to fuse each of these items together to have a mini "computer" with me at all times, so all I have to do to record ideas is type.

    I think it'll look cool, too. That never hurts.

    --Ross

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11/29/2005 01:58:00 AM  

  • A journal is nice because it's simple, flexible, and very self-sufficient. I require nothing other than the journal and something with which to write, which, in our very literate society, is not hard to find.

    While the keylogger does appeal to my geeky side (mostly just from construction of it), I see some problems, at least for my own purposes:

    I can't draw with it; I sketch in the book a lot.
    I can't put it in my pocket.
    I can't easily reference entries when not near something that extracts from the logger.

    And if we want a mini-"computer" to record things, why not just get a cheap PDA and use it to log information? I believe some already exist with USB capabilities, and there are those that have QWERTY keypads, so typing is easier.

    However, mark me interested. Let me know if you ever do this.

    -sean

    By Blogger Sean, at 11/30/2005 04:06:00 PM  

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