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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.
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.
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.
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:
The more you leave it open, the more you brain works on it.
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.
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:
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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:
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.
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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!
If you want to discover more ways to explore your ideas through note-taking like this then I think you'll love my new course coming in October called Knowledge Alchemy.
It's not about boring, rigid systems - but more about a method that helps you capture, connect & grow ideas in a way that's meaningful to you.
It’s goes on pre-sale on October 13—So if you want the pre-sale price + some very cool bonuses then jump onto the waitlist (that's the only way to get the discounted pre-sale price + bonus offers)
➤ Click Here To Join The Waitlist For Knowledge Alchemy
