Wednesday, December 5, 2012

The Idea Locker

About to turn in for the day, but I thought I'd put down a few words about my Idea Locker.

I was inspired to use the phrase from the movie The Hurt Locker (definitions vary, but the one I latched onto was a soldier's slang for a really bad place to be). In this case, I'm talking about the place where I get my best ideas and inspirations.

Where do you get yours? The shower? Riding your bike? Taking a walk?

I'm lucky in the sense that mine comes when I'm driving. Not in the 'easy to write down ideas' sense (but now that I can dictate notes to my phone, it's not so bad), but that if I want to get inspired all I have to do is jump in my car for a few minutes, turn on some music, and let my mind focus on the mechanics of driving and negotiating myself through traffic. It takes only a couple minutes before the ideas start coming through.

Why does it do this? I'm guessing it's the distraction: I have to focus a certain percentage of my brain on important things (that if I ignore, will kill me), and it relaxes the muscles that are always tense and hyper-focused. If I try to come up with an idea, consciously, I will almost never get it. Or it will be a bad idea, which is even worse.

Try to think about where you've gotten your best ideas. If it is happening in a place you can't take notes, see if there is a way you can reproduce the elements of the situation without having to do it for real.

It just goes to show that the brain is like any other part of your body; it works best when relaxed but in some level of use.

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