Develop and Follow up Creative Ideas More Effectively (When Internet is All Around)

My main achievement this week is a discovery of a new plan for my creative idea development. Working with computer and Internet access for most of the day, having DSL at home and being alone made my laptop the center of my life for a quite some time. Meanwhile, from November last year, I stopped using my paper idea notebook and Lotus Organizer to switch over to MindManager. While the software seemed to be faster, it’s not a very natural way to note down idea very quickly. In stead, it made me focus more on the mechanics and structure than the idea itself. After testing a few personal note tools, I ended up using EverNote. I found EverNote quite fast to quickly capture and classify the information and notes.

However, all of a sudden, I spent most of my day on the computer. I kept reading new things and switching from one task to another. I lost my concentration and my productivity seriously dropped. I had no time to think more the ideas I had. Even worse, I wasn’t able to note down many ideas and they kept vanishing shortly after. I felt frustrated and stressful.

On my wedding anniversary, I decided to treat myself better than normal. I was relaxing after a good dinner when the light bumb went up. I suddenly realized the need for a focused but natural way of noting down and developing ideas. For those purposes, computer with Internet access is worse than bad a tool - it is a distraction.

Here are my new practical plan for idea capturing and development:

1. Plan time slots for discovery. Read news and trends or the like early everyday. Plan in low-productivity cycle of the day one short slot to collect and filter things you will read. I normally scan newsletters, my blog subscriptions and recommended books at the beginning of the afternoon, after lunch time. Reserve a fixed slot during week days and a longer one in weekends to read new topics or discover online. Don’t forget your paper idea note then.

2. Define no-computer and Internet period to have time for thinking and reading. Print out documents may need to read during no-computer period.

3. Use sources and tools properly, and in combination with others:

-         Paper notes to immediately capture ideas. Define follow ups and additional information required, better with pens in different colors.

-         Mind maps to visualize and concisely communicate ideas or with explanation

-         Computer-based or online note tool to capture and categorize information

-         Personal blog or forums to communicate and develop ideas with network, based on paper notes

-         Calendar to plan and keep track of action items from the paper notes

-         Internet and books to collect information when have clear purpose and intention

Upload from Heidelberg,  Germany.

Comments

[Ngoc Pham]

I'm now on a plan to manage my works and retain my creation by:
1. Switch from PC-based management tools to Smart-Phone tools including: Notes, MindMap, Calendar, GTD. With smart-phone I can easy handle my works and capture my ideas everywhere & every time.
2. Sunday Cafe: In a week ,we need a haft of day to refresh, and I found that Sunday morning is suitable: choose a silent cafe' and make my mind thinks freely and hope the creative ideas come :)

Mr.Ngoc at ngocgl.wordpress.com

[Tien]

Hi Ngoc,

Share with me your new finding on how effective your smart phone scheme is after a while.

For me, I used to do planning on Saturday morning in West lake. Now it's my Sunday afternoon in Starbucks in Heidelberg. Not much machine, though. Just paper and pens. I love to draw mindmaps with my color pens. Story lining is another technique I found useful for planning talks, presentations and even blog posts.

Cheers,

Tien.

[Ngoc Pham]

hi Mr.Tien!

I used smartphone as some tasks below:
- I sometimes forget what I will do next --> I practice the habit posting & checking events in the smartphone's calendar.
- My mind often accidentally pick-up a sudden idea but after 1 min I forget it. --> Smartphone is a suitable tool to keep my ideas by using Note.
- Laptop is not beside us in every time at everywhere, but smartphone does. Why doesn't use it as a work management tool?

Same to you, I think that at least we should have sometime in weekend to leave all the high-tech devices out.