How to Generate Better Ideas by Trying Less
The fastest way to solve an idea is to leave it unfinished.
Let me explain. We often think that if we just sit ourselves down in the chair and put some deep work into our idea for 4 hours that we’ll solve our creative blocks.
I’ve found this to be less than effective.
In fact these days I do the opposite. When I have an idea to work on, I leave it in as unfinished state as possible. And then I let me brain do the work in the background.
And there’s actually a psychological reason this works. It’s called The Ziegarnik Effect. The idea that our brain lingers more on unfinished tasks & ideas than on completed ones.
AKA your brain is wired to dwell on ideas you leave open.
The more ideas you leave open the more your brain goes to work doing what it naturally does.
- Continually working in the background
- Getting curious and exploring different angles
- Making connections between random things
So why are we always trying so hard to force ideas? By applying less pressure we might actually have better ideas with less effort?
Sounds good to me.
Here’s How I Create An Open Loop Environment For My Ideas:
Open Up Multiple Ideas
Never just be working on one idea at a time. That’s a recipe for disaster. If that idea is bottlenecked or needs more time then you’re stuck.
The key is to have a few ideas on the go at any one time. Think of your stove top - there are four burners for a reason & they are all different sizes. So you might have some ideas on the light burners at the back and others on the heavy burners at the front.
Leave Curiosity Loops For Yourself
Don’t immediately try to close up ideas. Use the Ziegarnik effect to your advantage. Write down a half-baked idea then brainstorm a bunch of questions but don’t immediately start answering them.
Your brain will naturally start working without too much effort. You’ll find yourself taking a walk and thinking about the idea. Or on your morning commute something connects with that idea.
My favourite kinds of question to ask are:
- Curiosity Driven: What am I not seeing about this idea yet?
- Exploratory Questions: What does this idea look like from someone else’s point of view?
- Process Questions: How can I break this down step by step?
- Provocative Questions: What if I’m wrong about this?
- Why Questions: Why does this work? Why does it matter?
The more you leave it open, the more you brain works on it.
Keep Ideas In Your Periphery
As much as our brain dwells on ideas we leave open. Our digital worlds can often bury our ideas in a black hole. That’s why I love the idea of peripheral vision in our digital notes - keeping top ideas where we can see them.
I keep a list called HOT OR NOT. It’s my top 10 ideas that I’m thinking about right now and it lives on my daily note. That way I’m reminded of them every day and it creates another open loop for my brain.
Explore Them With A ‘Light Touch’
We still need some intentional exploration tools otherwise our brains can go in lots of different rabbit hole directions. But I think of these as more light touch focus activities.
My favourite way to do this lately is what I call Walk & Talk. Where I dump everything I have on an idea into ChatGPT, fire up voice mode and head out for a walk.
Here’s The Prompt I Use To Turn ChatGPT into my Thinking Partner:
Act like a thinking partner. I’m going to dump what I have so far on an idea and I want you to help me think through it further.
As a good thinking partner you will:
- Give me space to talk through my idea.
- Be excited about my idea but not blinded by it.
- Help me to look out for holes as well as opportunities.
- Help me see things from multiple perspectives.
- Watch out for patterns & help me connect the dots.
- Push me to go beyond surface level ideas and think deeper.
The best way to do this is by asking me questions. Ask me questions one at a time and allow me to answer before we move on. When we’re finished a session you’ll distill everything we workshopped together.
Each session I refine my ideas further by talking them out with ChatGPT. And I love having these conversations opened up in ChatGPT because I can revisit them any time and all the history of my thinking is there.
So stop trying so hard to push out your ideas and apply a more light touch effort to your ideas. You’ll be surprised at how hard your brain actually works in the process!
Whenever you’re ready to turn your unique personal knowledge into powerful ideas - here are three ways I can help:
- Want to get Sparked like this each week? Sign up to my weekly newsletter - The Spark Newsletterwhere I deliver one actionable tip every Sunday to help you bring your ideas to life & share them with the world.
- Want a tool to help you think through & uncover your most unique ideas. Check out The Spark Toolkitwith over 130+ prompts & frameworks to help you build & communicate your ideas.
- Want to turn your notes into a powerful system that sparks creativity? Check out my new course Knowledge Alchem**y—a complete note-taking system to help you organise, refine, and transform your ideas into a treasure trove of valuable insights you can share with the world.
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