As someone who has more ideas, prompts and mental “huh’s” than I know what to do with, one of the struggles I’ve had over time is how to focus my thinking on a project so that I can get all of my ideas out and into useful form. I’m currently working on an idea capture/organization system (more on this in a few months…) that better serves my needs, but for now the main way I give “rails” to my creative thinking time is through the use of “project notebooks.”
I currently use Moleskine Cahiers (XLarge), one per project, and when I’m ready to do some intense thinking about the project I’ll grab it (or throw it in my bag for the day) and sit down and brain dump. Often it’s difficult to see at the time how these initial thoughts will play out or be useful, but over time I’ve seen a pattern of being in a situation and thinking, “didn’t I have some ideas about this a few months ago?” I’ll grab my project notebook and realize that most of my work has already been done, albeit a few months ago. Without the use of these project notebooks, I would be duplicating my work or sorting through tons of papers or notebooks trying to find those ideas.
Another benefit to the project notebook is that it allows me to focus on one thing at a time. When I want to think about a specific project, I’ll have all of my notes – in organized fashion – in front of me. It helps me see where my last thinking was and reminds me of the “rails” I have in place for that project.
This method has helped me greatly – until I build my own system – to stay focused and to feel freedom to go wild within the “rails.”
How do you organize your thinking for projects/creative work? Is there a method that you’ve found successful?
Todd
I do this as well. It does keep you focused. The one additional thing that I do is scan in my notebooks using my document imaging scanner so that I can carry them around in my laptop for future reference.
The tricky part is when you have too many books… but that is a great trigger / physical rate limiter that I have too many projects. :)
I’m curious now about your new creative system…
- Morgan
@Morgan, That is the hitch – I have several notebooks and I don’t want to carry them with me all the time. But I love the feel of the cahiers and the freedom to think in broad strokes. I use my iPhone for almost all of my organizing, but the ideas/sketchbook thing has to be paper for me. I love the idea of scanning them and keeping them in DevonThink, though.
I’ll be revealing a little more about the idea capture/central nervous system thing in the near future. It’s really just me making something that will work best for my own needs, but if it turns out well then I might try to make it available to others as well. First…the prototype.
@Todd – I end up using wire-bound (sprial) notebooks so I end up with individual pages to scan. The cahiers are nice and thin, but they would have to be sliced to be scanned, which might tricky.
I agree – it is good to take advantage of the different tools that help your thinking processes. Sometime pen and paper, sometimes iphone, sometimes the desktop/laptop. All have their place.
Hi Todd,
I don’t currently use a different notebook per project, but I use a different NB per “area” — a blog NB, a creative writing NB, etc.
I’ve been sorting through ways of focusing as well, and I wrote a series called “How to Focus Your Ideas” on my blog as a way to explore the methods I use, and how effective they are. Reading the comments on that series made me realize how true it is that different methods work for different people.
Very happy to have stumbled on this site!
I love switching notebook styles and sizes over time, to make my ideas feel unique. Having different styles of notebooks can actually help me to remember when I had the idea, cause I’ll remember the unique cover pattern of the notebook itself.
However, I find myself having multiple ideas in each one–anything from creative sketches to workflow ideas. I should probably begin to have one theme per notebook!
I do scan my sketches in, and name the file after the icons on that page: swordfish shield bird dinosaur, etc. As simple and crude as that is, I can do a system search for “bird” and all my bird sketches over the past few years will come up nicely.
I have to admit that if I could have a master set of “notebook categories” which I often brainstorm under, it would very groundbreaking to start a mini encyclopedia of them.
I have also started purchasing notebooks for my creative staff. I tell them that they should take notes in meetings, and during their design-time, so that they can accumulate some concepts as they work. Although it hasn’t been completely successful, I do see our creative department sketching and taking notes in there fairly often.
I totally agree! My business partner and I have used a similar method for quite a while now. Is it strange to get excited about going to Borders or Staples to pick up a new notebook for a developing concept? Nagh!
Thanks for sharing! Best wishes with the new site.
-josh
I’m surprised noone mentioned Evernote.