30 December 2009

The Life of Ideas

One of favorite uses for my Filofax is idea capture. I keep lists of little ideas like books I want to read and websites I want to visit, to the big ideas: my next career, plans for my house, blogs to create. I have to admit, I obsess about these ideas. I'm afraid of losing any of them. Switching from one planner or format to another is especially traumatic, because I have to decide what to do with the idea lists. Copy them over? Archive them? Toss them out and move on? I almost think of the ideas as living things.

It's strange that I cling so tightly to these ideas, because I don't act upon most of them. But when I go over old idea lists, I find that lots of them do get done, but not at the same time or in the same way I originally envisioned. After I record an idea, it really does seem to have its own lifecycle.

Some year I have tons of ideas. At the end of 2008, when I switched to Cotton Cream paper, I reviewed my existing lists, which were on a slew of colors and sizes of paper, and wrote the ones that seemed most significant onto the new paper. I found that 2009 was not a year of ideas for me. I added very, very few new ideas to the lists. Maybe that's a sign I need to either act upon or get rid of the existing ones.

I've been obsessing about what to do for 2010. Just keep the 2009 lists and put them in my City Dweller? Or do a complete reboot?

I've decided on a complete reboot! Go over all of my existing lists. Rewrite the items I want to keep, and say goodbye to the rest. Just let them go. Stop carrying around thoughts that are no longer right for me.

That's what I'm doing today.

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3 comments:

  1. I do the same thing! I panic over the thought of losing my list. I have pages of books to be read, sorted by category (fiction, non-fiction, animal, dog training, etc.). I also do the same thing with my computer book marks.

    I am looking forward to getting my order so I can rewrite all of my lists on matching paper :0)

    Glad to know that I am not the only one... everyone IRL makes fun of me!

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  2. mine isn't so much ideas as ramblings in my A5.

    to be honest alot of it is rantings, especially at work with stupid people on the phones, but it is a chance for me to get it out of my head and onto paper in order to rationalise it even if it never goes any further.

    my A5 is a very useful venting tool.

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  3. OK, so on the same subjest (sort of). I started my "personal Filo" on the 28th. Remember I used an A% previous years. MY main issue is the personal is small. I mean you really have to change your wrting style to accomidate the size of the pages. On a lighter note, I can put the personal in my laptop bag pocket and only have one item when I travel, "the laptop bag".
    What have everyone else noticed about changing writing styles to accomidate the smaller pages in a personal?
    Thanks,
    Greg

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