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- 21 April, 2010 -
- Productivity -
- Tags : brain, creativity, gtd, ideas
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Ideas are the key drivers of knowledge work. In research or business, we need ideas to thrive, explore and tap into unforeseen wealth, financial or scientific. But, with all the interruptions around us, with all the triggers and creative outbreaks, we can barely afford the time to have ideas, or to properly focus on them. Our mind is so full of information that is seems hard to have more ideas. The only option is to clear your mind, and make space for ideas. Write down all that “stuff” running around in your head, and make some room for your true creative self. And see how one idea can turn into many. Specially if job description includes making stuff up.
In a knowledge work economy, ideas are what drive progress. They are the money makers and the purple cows. All too often they distinguish failure from success, good from great, average from extraordinary. This is especially true in research (computer science, networking or any other field). Research is the purest form of knowledge work. We create knowledge, fabricate ideas, and try to imagine what doesn’t exist yet. This is also what business is turning into. It’s becoming imagining what can be before everyone else gets there. Making value where there was nothing, especially in the Internet economy.
There is a common parallel between these two worlds. Ideas are the main driver. But, with the constant information overflow we are running out of time to have ideas. Simply put, there is far too much on our minds. We can take steps to become offline and play dodge with a world of interruptions, but even then our brain is tied up with a million different things.
Quoting David Allen in Getting Things Done (GTD), “Brain is RAM“. And as computer RAM, it’s random and it disappears when you reboot it. Ideas slip out of our mind. We forget things. We wonder off with our creative self. It’s not hard to imagine that as ideas crawl up inside our head, we become cluttered. We don’t have enough space for all our ideas, preventing new ones from popping up.
An empty mind is full of space for new ideas.
We need to make space for ideas. Having a serene, clear and sharp mind is one of the single most important assets for creativity and readiness. A clear mind is able to react. An undisturbed thought is more valuable that ten contending interruptions. It’s by freeing ourselves of the mundane that we can focus on that which is truly important, like great ideas.
And this is where GTD helps out. We need to clear our mind of the little things, of the bigs things, of all things. And GTD gives as a formula for it: Write it down.
Write your ideas down. Take notice. Focus on what’s poking your mind. How are you going to get to the great idea if you are stuck with the bad ones clogging your precious RAM? Write it down. Good, bad, simple, complicated, ingenious , stupid – it doesn’t matter. It’s OK if they look silly on paper. Just. Write. It. Down. And this is especially important in truly creative environments, like research demands.
Why have one when you can have many?
What happens when you do that? Bad ideas are weeded out, labeled and their space freed. One idea becomes many, leading to even more ideas. Eventually a great idea comes along, and you are ready for it: you write it down! And your life picks ups new steam. Before you know it, you’ll be a brainstorm tycoon, transpiring ideas out of every creative pore in you mind. And that’s not only rewarding but good clean fun. So what are you waiting for? Grab a pen, a blank sheet of paper and write those ideas down. You never know when you’ll stumble upon a greatness.
