The Awesome Power of Getting an Idea Out of Your Head
The inside of your head is a messy place… a little bit of regular cleaning will help your creativity thrive!
This article was originally published on LinkedIn in September of 2017. I’m reposting it here as part of moving my writing to my own platform…
Your brain is a messy messy place. Think about all the whacky stuff bouncing around in there! Project deadlines, relationships, groceries, bills, politics, what the hell is the cat scratching on now, and on and on. It’s a wonder that we can even sleep at night. Oh wait, we’re not really sleeping all that well are we?
For me, I most often lose sleep when my little monkey brain is churning on an idea. It could be work related, it could be a personal project, it could be a new bike I’m coveting (can’t have too many bikes right?). Regardless, I’ve found that I’ll often be up lying awake in bed, modeling options, visualizing potential outcomes, and all kinds of other fancy biz speak for “obsession”. It’s a symptom of the modern world, and baring any sort of “back to the stone age” scenario it’s probably only going to get worse as technological and socioeconomic changes accelerate. (yes, thinking about robots does sometimes keep me up at night)
So, what’s a modern thinking person to do? Dump it all!!
Seriously though, I don’t think you can actually throw a switch and just “forget” something you’re obsessing about, but you CAN remove it from the top of your brain’s priority list by simply writing it down.
Make a list...
I know it sounds stupidly simple, but have you actually done it? If you find yourself up at night thinking about all the crap you have to do, keep a notebook by your bed and make a list.
But, Roooob my phone is sooo much easier! I'll just use Evernote at 2am.
Come on, you know darn well that you’re not going to stop at Evernote. You’ll make your list and then you’ll go “Hmmmm what’s happening on Instagram?” and suddenly the endless scroll has you up at night for an entirely different reason. Use paper and pencil, and then add it to Evernote the next day.
Sketch it out…
If your idea is visual, get that sketch pad out and start sketching!! A sketch book is wonderful place to store your ideas until you can execute them or… come up with better ones.
But, Roooooooob I suck at drawing!!
Welcome to the club!! My article “The Awesome Power of a Crappy Sketch” is a confession that I, too, suck at drawing. But it doesn’t stop me. Don’t let it stop you! Get out that sketch pad or a napkin, or raid the copy machine and start drawing! It really doesn’t matter how good the sketch is. The point is that what the sketch represents is no longer inside your head.
Write up a proposal...
If your idea is complicated, or multi-faceted, or spans long periods of time, or multiple business groups, you’re going to need something more elaborate than a sketch or a list. Although a complicated idea can often be represented by a simple list, or a sketch, at a certain point you’re going to need a proposal.
Like most folks my work life is filled with challenges, some of them tactical that require immediate attention, and some of them are strategic spanning multiple years. I fancy myself as a strategic thinker who obsesses over the bigger picture. I hit tactical targets daily but it’s the long view that keeps me up at night. For months I’ve been obsessing over what I perceive as a fundamental problem with our current business. It reached a crescendo recently and my manager said in about so many words… “Shut the hell up and write a proposal!!” The next day, I did that. The day after that I showed it to coworkers and got valuable feedback. Then I went up the food chain and showed it to our director and gave him the elevator pitch. It’s a pretty large idea that would completely change how we do business. I don’t necessarily expect it to ever come to fruition, but nobody would ever take me seriously if I hadn’t put so much effort into the proposal. Up until that point I was simply "Disgruntled Rob". The most important thing is that I’m no longer obsessing about that problem! Creating that proposal freed me from that demon and I’m much more pleasant to be around... at work, and at home. (so I’ve been told)
But, Rooooooooooooooooooob I’ve never done a proposal before!!
Trust me… If I can do it, you can do it. Your proposal doesn’t have to be complicated, but it does have to be well organized. I’ve found that if I can at least cover these questions with relatively short focused answers, then the proposal kind of writes itself.
What is the problem?
Why is the problem important?
What can be done to solve the problem?
Who do you need to partner with to solve the problem?
When can you solve the problem?
Does solving the problem generate any new problems?
There are always a lot more questions, but remember that a proposal that nobody ever sees isn’t much of a proposal, and you have to make it easy to read and easy to understand. It’s not that your audience is stupid, it’s just that they have a lot on their mind too, and your stuff is one more thing for them to worry about, so keep it simple, and keep it focused.
Whew! I’ve been meaning to write this article for a loooong time, and now I’ve got one less thing bouncing around inside my head… see what I did there? 😛
