From Idea Graveyard to Inspiration Meadow
In December 2019 I decided that at the start of 2020 I’d finally get consistent in creating content for my blog.
I know the importance of consistent communication. I see myself as someone who gets things done. And I had a lot of ideas I wanted to share.
In fact, every time I had an idea, I wrote it down, diligently capturing ideas for a future value-packed post.
Yet, January began and each time I looked at my list I felt completely overwhelmed. My ‘get it done’ habits seemed to have disappeared.
This is not how I envisioned starting the year.
It was less than two weeks into the new decade and I was already feeling overwhelmed and stressed by my inability to keep the commitment I had made to myself.
Maybe you’ve had a similar experience, feeling overwhelmed by your ideas?
THE IDEA GRAVEYARD
When I looked at my ideas folder I saw dozens of Word documents. Some contained outlines of ideas, others had a few paragraphs, a few were drafts of posts I had already published. The naming conventions varied so it was difficult to sift through the files by topic.
I also had a spreadsheet of ideas. They were mostly titles, although some included notes. Many no longer had any significant meaning to me.
Additionally, I had blog ideas sketched out in Apple Notes were I would sometimes jot them down when I wasn’t near my computer.
In total, I counted over 150 ideas!
I had been creating an idea graveyard.
My usual organizational tools were failing me. I had no functioning system for capturing, organizing, or prioritizing my ideas.
So every time I went to decide what to write about, all I could see was a mess of disorganized information.
ORGANIZING THE CHAOS
I know why the chaos started. I was still figuring out what I wanted to share. And I was nervous to share my ideas.
My New Year's commitment to writing meant I had to figure out what was broken in my system.
But I didn't just want to write, I wanted to feel energized about what I share and excited to write and publish.
I had two goals when organizing the chaos:
Find a way to manage the ideas
Find a system that would contribute to my excitement of writing
THE PROCESS
I wasn’t quite sure how to wrangle 150 ideas. But I looked to the method I use for most large tasks – I decided to break the task into baby steps.
Manage the Ideas:
Collect
Categorize
Assess
Manage my Excitement:
Assign Value
The process in action
Below is my step-by-step process of going from an idea graveyard to an inspiration meadow.
IDEA MANAGEMENT
An overview
1. Collect
Step one was to find all the ideas I had sprinkled in different places in both my digital and analog worlds.
2. Categorize
I decided to categorize my ideas. I came up with six categories, several are closely related, but all reflected the goal of my blog.
3. Assess
Once I had all of my ideas together, I picked out the ones to work on first, my active ideas. The other ideas would go on a waitlist.
From 150 to 12 Ideas, the details
I gathered all of the ideas into one spreadsheet.
I wasn’t able to assess 150 ideas in spreadsheet form so I wrote down each idea onto a separate post-it note.
I then wrote the categories on pieces of paper and placed the post-it notes on the floor under the appropriate category.
When all the post-its were in order I looked over my ideas and used some coins to mark my top picks. These would be the active articles, those I plan to work on in the coming 2-3 months.
Finally, I placed each active idea in Trello, noting with a green label which ideas already have a Word document started and with a blue label which ideas require research.
I updated the spreadsheet. I created a sheet for each category and wrote down the active titles in the upper part of the spreadsheet and below listed out the other ideas, those that were waitlisted.
Written this way, it sounds like this was pretty easy. It was and it wasn’t. There were many points in the process of organizing these ideas that I had to step away from my post-its and take a break. The entire organization process took me about 2 days.
Having my ideas organized and prioritized has made a huge difference in my ability to write.
Post-its in action
by category
EXCITEMENT MANAGEMENT
I didn’t want to be just organized. I wanted to be excited about writing. So I built in a few ways of feeling good about writing.
First, I decided to leverage the momentum at the time of capturing each idea to plant reminders for the future when I have time to begin writing.
The Excitement Management process looks like this:
WHY: For each idea, I write down why I want to write an article, including why the idea interests me, and why I think the idea will provide value for my audience.
NOTES: When the idea is fresh in my mind I take the time to write out a bulleted list of content that I want to include in the post.
BEAUTY: Trello now integrates with Unsplach, a photo website. I add photos for the background of my boards and as cover images for cards of the articles that are currently in progress. It makes it a joy to look at my tasks.
There are benefits to including your why and notes with your ideas. According to flow researcher Steven Kotler (based on work by Mihály Csikszentmihályi) there are 10 triggers that increase an individual’s productivity.
Defining why you are excited about an idea taps into two triggers: having a purpose (we pay more attention to those things we believe in) and having a clear goal.
Taking notes enables you to enact the pattern recognition trigger. When you go to write your next post, you are not staring at a blank page. You have words to help you kick off your writing.
FROM CHAOS TO CALM
After going through my organization process, I no longer feel like I’m looking at an idea graveyard when I go to my blog folder.
Instead, I feel calm. I feel empowered to write. And I feel good about having a place for new ideas.
I still have 150 ideas but I no longer feel overwhelmed because I have a limited number of active ideas.
BONUS TIP
If you are not a fan of Trello, there are many other systems for capturing your ideas. Check out YouTube for inspiration. Don’t feel intimidated by technology. Experiment. Try something out.
The key takeaway is to recognize that if you have an idea graveyard, you most likely have a failure with both your systems and your excitement management.
You need to find solutions to both of these areas to get you back on track.