Scientists say that about 50,000 thoughts “run” daily through the head of an adult person. Still, do people remember at least 10 of them at the end of the day? In fact, this is quite normal – the human brain just protects itself from any overload. But the problem is that people often forget the most wonderful and valuable ideas that could come in handy. This review is about finding a way not to lose brilliant ideas and using them properly.
Archimedes used to say that great ideas are often spontaneous.
Most often, ideas come when the brain is in a diffuse, or relaxed, mode, that is when a person is not focused on anything (for example, when one is dreaming or just relaxing in the shower). Creative ideas come precisely during this state of mind. In fact, the brain connects different neural pathways to come up with new ideas. The problem is that since the brain is relaxed, it has no purpose to somehow highlight good ideas.
Less trust to your brain and more emphasis on memory
Very often the ideas that come to our mind in a diffuse mode can be quite abstract. In fact, this is the best content. Sublime, creative, new ideas rarely appear in this world. A few words about bad things now. It is worth trying to remember the ingenious innovative idea that came to your mind in the shower – an idea that could revolutionize the world. Of course, no one can remember it. After all, this monumental idea simply flashed through the memory and was immediately forgotten because the person was too lazy to write it down.
By the way, many people come up with great ideas in a fast stage of sleep. This is just the time when your brain is most relaxed, but not really asleep yet. The biggest problem at this moment is to wake up and write down the thought.
In the today’s constant race for time people simply do not find an extra minute to write down the ideas that constantly come to their head. Some people might think that this is a waste of time. Besides, everyone believes that if the thought is really important, it will be remembered. However, this does not happen. Do not be lazy and always write down a great idea, no matter how confident you are that you will remember it.
There should always be a pen within your reach (an organizer in a smartphone, a laptop etc.), but these recording devices should not be literally at hand. If you put a notebook and a pen in front of you, your brain will no longer be in a diffuse mode, and the thoughts will not flow freely. Smartphone applications, such as Evernote, a waterproof laptop for the shower, and any other solution will prove helpful.
You do not need to organize everything
It is very easy to be “trapped” by the desire to immediately organize your thoughts when they come to mind. You do not need to do this. Organization is a separate task that will come in handy later, when a person switches to the focus mode (coming after the diffuse mode). You need to adhere to the process of free thinking and writing ideas (after that you need to leave them alone). If you try to organize ideas as they come in, you will lose a lot of thoughts due to being too focused on one of them. You will also lose motivation because you will be loaded with work.
Check your ideas from time to time
Now that there is a bunch of written ideas, they need to be developed to make something bigger out of them. You need to look through your ideas about 3 times in six months. While doing so, you can filter out some of the less useful ideas, organize them and start developing potentially successful ones. You must always remember that most people have many wonderful ideas, and only a few of them bother to write down these ideas. Those who did become successful.
