My main achievement this week is a discovery of a new plan for my creative idea development. Working with computer and Internet access for most of the day, having DSL at home and being alone made my laptop the center of my life for a quite some time. Meanwhile, from November last year, I stopped using my paper idea notebook and Lotus Organizer to switch over to MindManager. While the software seemed to be faster, it’s not a very natural way to note down idea very quickly. In stead, it made me focus more on the mechanics and structure than the idea itself. After testing a few personal note tools, I ended up using EverNote. I found EverNote quite fast to quickly capture and classify the information and notes.
However, all of a sudden, I spent most of my day on the computer. I kept reading new things and switching from one task to another. I lost my concentration and my productivity seriously dropped. I had no time to think more the ideas I had. Even worse, I wasn’t able to note down many ideas and they kept vanishing shortly after. I felt frustrated and stressful.
On my wedding anniversary, I decided to treat myself better than normal. I was relaxing after a good dinner when the light bumb went up. I suddenly realized the need for a focused but natural way of noting down and developing ideas. For those purposes, computer with Internet access is worse than bad a tool – it is a distraction.
Here are my new practical plan for idea capturing and development:
1. Plan time slots for discovery. Read news and trends or the like early everyday. Plan in low-productivity cycle of the day one short slot to collect and filter things you will read. I normally scan newsletters, my blog subscriptions and recommended books at the beginning of the afternoon, after lunch time. Reserve a fixed slot during week days and a longer one in weekends to read new topics or discover online. Don’t forget your paper idea note then.
2. Define no-computer and Internet period to have time for thinking and reading. Print out documents may need to read during no-computer period.
3. Use sources and tools properly, and in combination with others:
- Paper notes to immediately capture ideas. Define follow ups and additional information required, better with pens in different colors.
- Mind maps to visualize and concisely communicate ideas or with explanation
- Computer-based or online note tool to capture and categorize information
- Personal blog or forums to communicate and develop ideas with network, based on paper notes
- Calendar to plan and keep track of action items from the paper notes
- Internet and books to collect information when have clear purpose and intention
Upload from Heidelberg, Germany.
Really I find this post at least as good as a shared experience or maybe as a “wake up” for others so that they would not step on the same mistakes, aside from the hints on using the tools. Computer + Internet potentially lead to an overdosed usage that would reduce the productivity implicitly, while sticking too much on the PC. Problems could come to, from the low- to high- profile users: playing games or surfing for information, or just chatting… “Define no-computer and Internet period” is very nice, and besides what in 3., talking with people and relaxing/enjoying human relations in the real life are what can make the helpful balance with using Computer for the productivity & creativity.
Like, a busy manager will fail if he sits by the Computer all day long.
Comment by tung — November 18, 2006 @ 3:22 pm