Imagine the following situation:
You have an idea.
You think about it more.
It gets exciting!
Then, suddenly, you are distracted.
Your phone rings.
You wonder, what is he calling for?
Or:
A colleague passes by to talk about the weekend.
You have a fun conversation.
Or:
Your laptop makes a sound: *pling*. Bill Gates notifies you: low battery.
You get up to take your charger out of your bag.
In each of these scenarios, you can easily lose your thought.
You can see it flying away.
At first you partly remember.
But then.
It slowly disappears.
Lost forever in the sky.
Frustrating, isn’t it?
When I started writing more down, things changed completely.
Not just because I remembered my thoughts in the above examples.
Rather, there are three unexpected benefits:
1. Bring your ideas to life
An idea is just a starting point.
A tiny flam that needs oxygen.
Give it what it needs and write down your thoughts. For every 2 O’s you note, the flame will grow.
What would be the analogy of pouring gasoline on the fire?
Drawing it on a whiteboard. Making a mind map. Using colors.
The tiny flame will develop into a wild bonfire.
2. Empty your brain and give it some rest
On busy days, my head feels like a spinning wheel.
So many thoughts.
All wearing boxing gloves to compete for space in my head.
With occasional KOs - thoughts that never come back.
That’s why I pull some of these guys out of the ring.
I take their gloves off and transform them to words on paper.
Take some rest guys, I will get back to your later.
Making room in my head to focus on one task at a time.
3. Train your idea muscle
This concept comes from the great writer and entrepreneur James Altucher.
He says you can train your idea muscle.
Just like your biceps.
Write down 10 ideas every day.
Ideas don’t have to be great. It can be bad ideas.
But what is important is that you keep writing them down.
Over time your ideas will improve.
And your creative muscle will grow.
The little change of writing more down has made a huge impact in my life.
Taking notes is not only useful when you try to remember the content.
It is a crucial part of your creative process.
Fuel that ingenious flame, high up.
But don’t let your ideas fly away to the sky.
Instead, bring them to life by writing them down.
And keep them in the Cloud.
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