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

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

9 to 5 Escape Velocity

I first started this blog as a means to catalogue both my goals as a person, but also the means which I had been using in order to advance my life in the way that I saw fit. The idea behind this was that much of what I learn and use as I got through this step in my life would help others along their path, so why not share that information? Why not clearly mark the safe cobblestones that I’ve stepped on and point out the potholes that I slogged through?


First thing that I started pursuing was a polyphasic sleep schedule. So far, despite some stumbling, it’s been interesting and fulfilling enough to warrant its own blog. Because of that blog, I’ve already got some other community-oriented sites in mind to help more people on their way, what ever it is. Hopefully, these will generate more cobblestones for people to step on.


Because the polyphasic sleeping was so interesting, I did not do much work not focused on it. Now that the polynapping has spun off into its own world, I can start blogging again on my original intent. It’s a little clearer to me where I need to fit all this information and what time to devote to them.


So, now we’re back on the mission of this blog: find the means to free oneself from desk jobs and “traditional” means of supporting oneself.


In my head, I’ve started to think of 9 to 5 jobs and corporate culture as this massive gravity well which so many of us are just orbiting quietly. Our path in life was shaped with education and societal pressures and it has shot us into a low-level orbit around this gravity well, and it doesn’t seem like most of us can get out. We’re down deep in this thick corporate atmosphere so that we can’t see through the haze at all.


I don't know about you, but I want to see some stars. I want to see what’s past the corporate haze because I feel like I’m choking on it. I need to get up and out.


Thinking of corporate culture as a large gravity well has started me thinking about getting away from it like trying to break into orbit: you need to achieve an escape velocity. Because of this, I’ve taken to calling the path away from corporate culture the “9 to 5 Escape Velocity”. It seems like it’ll be hard to achieve, just like Earth’s escape velocity of 11.2 km/s seems daunting.


However, just like getting away from Earth, there are tricks we can find to help us escape from traditional financial life. There are tools to help us get just a little bit further. So, whenever I’ll post on the 9 to 5 Escape Velocity, I’ll be addressing this goal, and hopefully have a trick or idea to help make that hop up and out.


C’mon. It’s just one financial gravity well. How hard can it be? :)


-sean

Monday, November 21, 2005

Polyphasic Sleep Blog moved

The Polyphasic Sleep portion of the personal development blog has been extracted into its own section... it's now found here. It was rapidly evolving into its own beast, so I spun it off.

-sean