Recording creativity
Posted in Design on: Thursday, July 26, 2007 by Paul Boag
I like to think of myself as an ideas person. I guess that is another way of saying that I am crap at implementing the ideas I have. One problem I used to suffer from was recording the ideas I had in a form that I could refer back to later. Overtime I have developed a couple of techniques that help me manage my ideas better. I thought they might be worth sharing.
Its two in the morning and I am lying in bed thinking about something when an idea for a new blog post pops into my head. I am on a family picnic when I see a colourful moss covered rock, which would work brilliantly as a website palette. I am browsing a new website and find myself really impressed by the approach they take to dropdown menus.
The thing is that inspiration can strike anywhere and you need a system to record all of that stuff and a method of referring back to it later in order to make sure those ideas are implemented. The system I use to do all of this is vaguely built around the Getting Things Done approach proposed by David Allen. It consists of three stages:
- Capturing
- Processing
- Reviewing
Lets look at each of these in turn…
Capturing
Because inspiration can strike anywhere you need to be ready for it. In the car, in bed, down the pub, wherever it is you need to be able to record it immediately. If you don’t it will be lost forever. I have also learnt not to discriminate at this stage. I just capture everything. I can worry about if it is a good idea or a useful piece of information later. If it captures my interest for whatever reason it gets recorded.
Personally, I use two main tools for recording ideas. A notepad and my mobile phone. I make sure I have a note book and a pen by my bed at night. I tend to have some of my best ideas when I am relaxed and waiting to fall asleep. However, I have learnt that if I don’t write those ideas down when I have them, my mind obsesses over them and so I don’t sleep. By writing them down straight away they are off my mind and I can deal with them in the morning. One handy tip is that if like me you are married (or have a partner) you might want to have a torch around too. It stops you being shouted at for continually turning on the light!
Although a notepad is great it is not good for certain things and that is where the mobile comes in. Firstly, most mobile phones these days have a camera and I find that invaluable. The camera in my phone is crap but it does the job. It allows me to recall architecture that inspired me, or colour palettes that I could reuse. I also photograph signs or information I want to refer back to later. Basically it is a quick and easy way of grabbing information.
However, my phone also has another useful little function. It can record audio notes. The second most common place for me to have inspiration (after my bed) is driving in the car. Scribbling down notes isn’t very viable in that situation so being able to record a quick audio note is very useful. If your phone does not support this then do what Marcus does; call you home phone and leave yourself a message. This achieves exactly the same thing.
Finally if you are inspired by something you see on a website then make sure you have a quick and easy way to capture it. There are some great screen capture programs about so make sure you have one installed.
Processing
Of course capturing this information is no good if nothing is ever done with it. You need a way of processing the ideas you have had. Those ideas generally fall into two categories. Stuff that you have a specific use for and things that might come in handy one day. So for example, the idea to write this blog post was a specific idea. Specific ideas should normally be stored alongside related information. In the case of this blog post I have a list of all the various blog post ideas I have ever come up with. However, some of the stuff you capture is more random and you might not have a specific use for it. It could be a colour scheme you like, a quote that grabbed your attention or a vague idea for a project you might want to do one day (maybe).
All of these general ideas need storing together somehow. If they remain in your notepad, mobile or indeed anywhere else, it will make reviewing them very difficult. How you choose to store them is entirely up to you. For example, I have seen people use a large scrapbook. Personally, I prefer to store things electronically as this allows me to search and tag the information. I tend to use a program called YoJimbo for the Mac however if you are Microsoft based you might want to take a look at One Note. This is an excellent program for storing random “stuff” and has some cool features like character recognition of images built in. I store all kinds of stuff in YoJimbo including links, colours, images, quotes or indeed pretty much anything else that inspires me.
Before I move on, one quick note on the quality of the stuff I store. One of the big problems I had for a long time is that I was too critical of my ideas. I would throw things out when I considered them “stupid” or “impractical”. I have stopped doing that now. Instead, when I process my ideas into YoJimbo I mark an idea as either hot or not. You will see why this is important when I talk about reviewing.
Reviewing
The final step in my little process is reviewing. I have found that if I just dump all of my ideas into YoJimbo it quickly becomes this black hole that I rarely really look at. So taking a leaf out of the GTD methodology I have started to regularly review the content of my “idea store”. I don’t do it as often as the weekly review proposed in GTD, but I do it every couple of weeks.
In these review I tend to focus on the “hot” ideas and actively look for ways I can implement them. Then, once a month or so (when I have a bit more time), I also review the “not so hot” ideas as well just to keep them fresh in my mind. These often spark new “hotter” ideas which I record in the system too.
Conclusion
Admittedly this might all seem a little over the top, but it works for me. I have found that by recording all of the ideas and reviewing them regularly it has actually stimulated me to be more creative. I think this is partly because one idea, or piece of inspiration, sparks another. However, I also think it is because an idea carries value if it is recorded and that makes me feel that dreaming up ideas is worth while.
11 Comments
Comments are for the discussion of this post. If you have other questions / comments then post them to the forum or send me an email
Excellent post Paul.
One device that serves me well to capture ideas on the go is a Hipster PDA (http://www.43folders.com/2004/09/03/introducing-the-hipster-pda/)
I got mine for under 2 bucks at the local office supply and fits in any pocket, has a pen tided to it, does not need batteries, does not crash, and can be easily expanded and replaced.
If you want to go a step further look up for it on the site “DYI planner”. There is a bunch of templates that can be downloaded for free, and are based on the GTD ideas. The url is http://www.diyplanner.com/templates/official/hpda
Pat
I used to grab a penny off of the nightstand and toss it on the floor when I had an idea while drifting off to sleep. Just seeing the penny in the morning would remind me of the idea. And it was cheap; one cent, actually.
As far as not-so-hot ideas, I say run with them. I used to have to come up with a full-page newspaper ad each week. If I came up with a crap idea, I’d tell myself, “This isn’t the real ad. This is just practice to keep me busy until the real idea appears.” And at the end of the week, it invariably had become the real idea, and usually not such a bad one.
Pre-critical response is a creativity killer.
However, I have learnt that if I don’t write those ideas down when I have them, my mind obsesses over them and so I don’t sleep.
That is so true! I very often cannot sleep at all due to have a “hot” idea. Will definitely try and use your advice!
Funny I just purchased YoJimbo for myself last night, and this morning here I am reading about how you use it for your own work. The other thing I notice about YoJimbo is that it integrates with my WM5 pocketPC/phone thing via the Missing Sync software for us Mac users so using it to take pictures and record notes on the go is really easy now that I can actually get the stuff into my Mac. I don’t think I’ll try making audio notes when I’m half asleep, though — my wife will really think I’m mad if I do!
Useful post, Paul. Thanks.
Interesting article Paul. The techniques you have honed for yourself remind me of many of the creativity and innovation tools we reccommend to our students. I’m not sure if you are aware of Mind Maps? I find they are a fantastic way to unlock and capture creative thought processes. I never use anything else nowaday’s. Have a look at Tony Buzan’s book, “the ultimate book of Mind Maps”. Definately worth a read.
Simon
I LOVE the penny idea…does it help you let go of the idea so you can get some sleep?
I have sooo many ideas…wanting to implement them, but, my business is booming..seems to never stop. I get these great ideas just before i fall asleep, then, either i stay up all night building out the biz plan in my mind OR i do get to sleep and forget it ’cause i am sooo busy.
i will try the penny idea tonite.
;)
Great advice for the creative… Paul – as far as screen capture apps goes, I have Skitch invites – let me know if you would like one. Paparazzi is awesome for full site grabs, but Skitch will upload the capture and allow annotations and such – really cool.
I myself am a visionary and rarely accomplish the ideas I have. I think aftering reading your post I will begin storing my ideas.
One of the main problems I have with being an ideas person is that I have a hard time finishing large projects. I want to move on to my next idea. How do you deal with this?
Great advice and article. I’ve been researching different methods of collecting and capturing ideas while on the go.
Thanks for putting this together.
Great article. I think I’m stuck with old school version (pen and paper), but I started to record ideas in my blog. I’m still looking for ways to link them better together.
Having it in blogstyle gives other users the possiblity to comment which may lead to further ideas. -> of course here I only ideas the match my blog topic ;)
very nice post, it’s helpful for us (students/matures) to get to know how you professionals work,
Since i started university(last year) i started capturing some ideas, links, write short articles based on what i read, related to web design.
This post with encourage me to capture more as currently i tent to not bother with ideas that i think aren’t “hot”.
i created myself a blog that i keep locally (i don’t put it over internet) so the topics and themes in the ideas are limitless.
also i found that by capturing ideas this way, i am constantly playing with HTML and CSS too, which is useful as the university courses are not that practical as they should be :)