Steven Johnson, author of Where Good Ideas Come From, has an easy solution for combating procrastination or feeling creatively stuck. He keeps all of his hunches in a single document accessible from anywhere, and he reviews it, in its entirety, at least once a month.
In a funny way, it feels a bit like you are brainstorming with past versions of yourself. You see your past self groping for an idea that now seems completely obvious five years later.
…The key is to capture as many hunches as possible, and to spend as little time as possible organizing or filtering or prioritizing them. (Keeping a single, chronological file is central to the process, because it forces you to scroll through the whole list each time you want to add something new.) Just get it all down as it comes to you, and make regular visits back to re-acquaint yourself with all your past explorations. You’ll be shocked how many useful hunches you’ve forgotten.
Johnson calls this his “Spark File.” The Spark File makes brainstorming easier, since you essentially have a backlog of ideas to rummage through at any given moment. Plus, having a single document for your Spark File (as opposed to maintaining a notebook) forces you to scan over past ideas, potentially sparking new insights as you work.
See exactly how Johnson utilizes his Spark File over on Medium .
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