Ideas are fabulous, but they are also hazardous to your health.
Unorganized, unfulfilled ideas are a great source of stress for me. Sometimes my head gets so full that one more random thought that hits at 3 in the morning may as well be a sniper shot to the head.
I told you before that I'm a "notebook" girl--a notebook girl who likes to make lists. It is the only way that I feign sanity. But now my notebooks are running amok and have threatened my husband's sanity. As my brain overflows, I drain the excess thoughts into a notebook. I have a notebook to capture each topic.
I keep them in an "orderly" stack on the coffee table until my cats jump up and knock over the stack. So honestly most days they are strewn around in a hot mess. What can I say, my surroundings reflect my emotional state.
Clean house = calm mind.
Chaotic house = chaotic mind.
So technology to the rescue. At least a for a test phase.
I "inherited" an iPad when my husband upgraded. I've adopted it as a high-tech notebook. Right now, I'm using the standard Notes app to keep lists on different topic areas -- one for blog ideas, one for my guild's challenge themes, and a couple for different product ideas.
Sure I could have been doing this on my laptop, but typing on a laptop feels too much like I'm at work. Ideas don't flow well in that type of environment. The iPad feels like my notebooks. Plus it is really easy to take it with me.
So if anybody has any tips on cool productivity or creative apps that I may want to check out. Let me know.
Oh Marie, I hear you and I feel your pain. I have not yet found a place and method to be able to dump out my ideas and thoughts so I often am a chaotic jumbled mess of...well...crankiness. I use a Franklin planner to keep track of my to-do list and my calendar. That works pretty well. I have adapted the month divider to have a running list of work, home, and personal projects that I want to work on. But it's the idea capture that's killing me. The middle of the night sparks. The shower fairy. The things that pop up and I think I'll remember them but I never do. I've tried keeping an art journal (it has three pages). A lab/studio notebook (I never take the time to fill it out). I finally just put a steno pad in my studio so I can jot things down. But there are blog post ideas, art ideas, business ideas, you name it. And how the heck can I organize them? Never mind the fact that the notebook is never where I am...and if I go get the notebook someone will distract me before I get there! I used to keep a Palm. I've tried using Evernote. Nothing seems to be conducive to jotting things down quickly AND being able to organize broader and deeper concepts like structured articles for my website. I might just have to get a tablet at some point. Sigh. Things were easier when we didn't have so many options to drive us nuts.
ReplyDeleteI love the concept of the "shower fairy." I need a cool name for the demon that wakes me up at 3 a.m. every morning and gets my snowball of worry rolling :)
DeleteI try to capture the ideas in the morning, but somehow they never make as much sense in the light of day.
I love this, Marie, you have a great idea. I also "write" notes with real pen & ink - someday when I get a tablet I will definitely remember this advice. :)
ReplyDeleteThere is still something to be said about REAL ink. I don't think I'll be going cold turkey.
DeleteI was a keeper of scraps of paper, and corralled them into a notebook, but I am also trying Evernote for keeping ideas online in virtual notebooks. I got an iPad for using the square to take credit cards, and find I like it for blog commenting and twitter, in bed.
ReplyDelete