Too Many Ideas? Don’t Wait to Be Picked.
You don’t need their permission.
Have you ever been in a situation where you’re planning to write for your blog, website or even your social media page and you’re just paralyzed by too many ideas?
Have you felt that way?
It’s called the Too Many Ideas Syndrome (TMIS) and in the last few weeks, I’ve also suffered from it.
As a writer, everyday, hundreds of ideas will pop up in your head and you’ll see ideas for stories in everything. The podcast your friend recommended, a quote in a book you just started reading and even your partner’s vegan makeup products could give you ideas.
So many ideas. So many possibilities.
For many writers, including myself, this buffet of ideas we have to choose from often puts us in a dilemma. The dilemma of making a choice. The choice of what idea to develop and write on.
And this is where the problem lies — we wait to be picked by an idea.
We delegate our duty and end up seeking acknowledgement from our ideas. But all this ever does is keep us from getting anything done which then leaves us feeling frustrated.
You’re Meant to Pick
Imagine your wedding ceremony was two days away and you go shopping for a tuxedo. You arrive at the store and you’re shown a large collection of tuxedos from which you’re to make a choice.
But instead of going through the options before you and even trying some of them on, you just keep waiting to be picked by one of the tuxedos (Pick me tuxedo! Pick me tuxedo! ).
Funny, right?
Your best friend who’s going to be your best man asks “Hey man, which of these will you like to try on first?”
“Uhmm… I haven’t been picked yet; I think I’ll just wait to be picked by one.”, you say boldly.
That’s going to be a very long wait!
This is how it looks when you wait for an idea to pick you.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with having too many ideas but waiting to be picked is both counter-intuitive and counterproductive.
Once you realize you’ll always have a million ideas to choose from but the choice to pick is yours, then you’ll actually get more work done.
What Do You Do When You’ve to Pick?
I love coming up with ideas but sometimes many of these ideas never leave my journal because I wait to be picked.
Recently, as I waited to be picked, I realized it wasn’t the job of my ideas to pick me in the first place and I actually needed no permission as I alone had the authority to do this.
That was when the idea for this article was born.
Are you in the too many ideas phase right now?
Although I’m not yet perfect at working on all my ideas, I’ve been able to develop a set of useful steps for picking ideas to write on.
1. Write down all the ideas you have. Make it plain on paper. It’s hard to make a choice in your head. Writing all your ideas will also help you see those ideas that sound great in your head but don’t look great when written down.
That’s why David Allen states in his book Getting Things Done that you always do a “core dump”, which is you writing down all of your thoughts and ideas. This would free up more space in your brain and the paper would begin to act as your second brain. Writing your ideas down will always make your selection process easier.
2. Once you’re done writing all your ideas out, arrange them in the order of how passionate you’re about them. You can do this by assigning each idea a number, 1 being the most passionate, followed by 2, 3, 4 till you’ve completely assigned numbers to all your ideas.
3. After ascertaining the ideas you’re more interested in, the next thing is to check if some of these ideas can be trimmed and combined into one. Sometimes, two ideas can be merged to form a single idea. Try to check if any of your ideas are related or border on the same issue.
4. You can’t write about all your ideas at once, so the next step is to eliminate ideas you’re least passionate about. Be sincere and strike out those ideas or maybe you could keep them for later.
Trashing ideas doesn’t make you less of a writer.
It’s always better to write about things that incite some form of passion.
5. Done eliminating the topics you’re not a 100% interested in or you don’t consider fun?
Arrange the ideas left in the order of how knowledgeable you are about them, using 1 as the value for the idea you’re most knowledgeable in. Most times,but not every time, the topic you’re most passionate about would turn out to be the idea you’re most knowledgeable in.
6. Finally, select your fondest idea, the idea that ranks as number 1 on your list and get writing. Don’t sweat it too much. Just do it.
An idea on its own isn’t worth very much until you act on it.
Final Thoughts
If you always have too many ideas, think yourself lucky, consider it a blessing and not a curse as some writers find it extremely difficult to come up with one good idea. However, you’ll get frustrated if you wait for your ideas to pick you. You do the picking.
When next you are engulfed by multiple ideas, follow the steps above and I think you’ll be more productive.
However, if you still believe in waiting for an idea to choose you, I’ll advice you get your best friend to keep you company as you embark on this long and may-never-end journey.
