My Stupid Secret To Getting Good Ideas
May 18, 2024 11:23 pm
Hey, Enrico here
Why do we have all of our best ideas in the shower? 🚿
There's a reason why entire gigantic subreddits like r/showerthoughts exist. The shower is for most people probably the only time of the day where there's no one else (if there's someone else probably brainstorming would be a secondary activity), no phones, no YouTube video in the background. And if you notice, you get good ideas in the shower only when you don't have music or a podcast going.
I realized this ...well... in the shower.
And this started my experiment to answer one question:
How do you create a space where you consistently get good ideas? 💡
This might be anything: for me it's YouTube video ideas, business ideas, song ideas, movie script ideas, books ideas, anything!
But other than taking 4h showers, which is not sustainable nor healthy, how can I manufacture an environment that helps me consistently and reliably get new ideas?
Well, I think I did it in the last months.
So here's the 3 main ingredients of my system:
1.Movement (but not too much)
There are plenty of studies that correlate our brain's capacity to be more creative and physical movement (here's one). For example, I tried sitting down in "ideation sessions" for my videos at my table but it was a total failure.
So I then hopped on my bike to get some groceries and magically my brain was flooded with ideas.
Physical movement has been demonstrated to boost creativity, and for me the right kind of movement that really gets the brain going is walking or cycling (I am currently in London and I cycle everywhere anyways).
Anything more intense like running or the gym has me focusing too much on the exercising so it doesn't really have the same effect.
2.Without entertainment
This one's predictable: when you take your walk or cycle don't scroll social media, but also don't listen to music (not even lofi) or podcasts. Keep your earbuds home so you won't be even tempted.
I sometimes leave without my phone or by putting it in airplane mode
But this creates a problem, because there's no point in getting good ideas if you don't remember them
3.With a capture system
"I swear I'll remember this cool thought" is what I think just before forgetting that through.
Getting good ideas is only half the battle. Then, you have to remember them. So for this I use a capture system.
This can be either:
This yellow pocket notebook and a mechanical pencil to put in my pocket when I don't bring my phone.
Or if I do bring my phone I have a shortcut in the homescreen to add a note on my todo app TickTick. One tap and the note is saved. No tagging, no nothing. The goal is for this to be 0 friction.
I even write nonsense sometimes ..it's fine.
So this is the system. It's pretty simple, but these walks without entertainment and with a way to write things down are becoming my favorite way of getting new ideas and reflecting.
And this is also why this is the "Stupid" secret to getting ideas because who would have thought that moving and being in nature like human beings were supposed to live would be beneficial. Duh!
Seeya 👋
Enrico
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- Enrico
