While developing good ideas is essential to any success, curating your ideas or thoughts and applying them at correct time with correct mental set-up is also equally important.
Generally,
We get an idea, we are excited about the idea, we develop use-cases surrounding that idea, we start developing applications, wait for generating traction for those applications, start feeling that idea is probably not as grand as it seemed during the start, start reducing the time and effort for nurturing that idea, get another idea, get excited about it ......... a vicious circle.
While trying out new ideas is not a bad thing, the amount of time and energy that such ideas can consume can be enormous and the end result can be both frustrating (and impoverishing :D) !!
Ash Maurya has written a wonderful article on how to separate the above process into two phases :
Few more things which I have learned through experience which really help in maximising the usage of our thoughts would be :
1) Unthink :
Just like positive thoughts, negative thoughts are also concatenating wherein one thought leads to another and inspite of understanding that such thoughts are purely detrimental, we feel incapable of getting rid of them. Here, we need to develop a major resistance techniques.
Consider an analogy : In the world of computers, whenever we delete a file, those files don't go anywhere. Its just that all the active references to that file are removed.
A file without any active references to it is (as good as, infact) a deleted file !
Similarly, when you get such thoughts (negative, distractive, discouraging, etc) apply your energy in telling yourself that this thought is NOT Important, not worthy of time and attention. While developing such kind of resistance needs patience and skill, it is very much worth the time , I feel.
Stop giving attention to such thoughts and the thoughts would start waning away automatically.
Another tip (which everyone already knows :D) for getting rid of such thoughts is to engage yourself in other interesting activities,, but I would prefer the first method, personally.
Being in control of your thought processes is really an achievement which can help you go a long way in your life by saving you from negativities.
Generally,
We get an idea, we are excited about the idea, we develop use-cases surrounding that idea, we start developing applications, wait for generating traction for those applications, start feeling that idea is probably not as grand as it seemed during the start, start reducing the time and effort for nurturing that idea, get another idea, get excited about it ......... a vicious circle.
While trying out new ideas is not a bad thing, the amount of time and energy that such ideas can consume can be enormous and the end result can be both frustrating (and impoverishing :D) !!
Ash Maurya has written a wonderful article on how to separate the above process into two phases :
- Ideation : Where we spend our resources only on developing, nurturing and validating the idea
- Execution : Where we only concentrate our vitals on implementing the idea
Few more things which I have learned through experience which really help in maximising the usage of our thoughts would be :
1) Unthink :
Just like positive thoughts, negative thoughts are also concatenating wherein one thought leads to another and inspite of understanding that such thoughts are purely detrimental, we feel incapable of getting rid of them. Here, we need to develop a major resistance techniques.
Consider an analogy : In the world of computers, whenever we delete a file, those files don't go anywhere. Its just that all the active references to that file are removed.
A file without any active references to it is (as good as, infact) a deleted file !
Similarly, when you get such thoughts (negative, distractive, discouraging, etc) apply your energy in telling yourself that this thought is NOT Important, not worthy of time and attention. While developing such kind of resistance needs patience and skill, it is very much worth the time , I feel.
Stop giving attention to such thoughts and the thoughts would start waning away automatically.
Another tip (which everyone already knows :D) for getting rid of such thoughts is to engage yourself in other interesting activities,, but I would prefer the first method, personally.
Being in control of your thought processes is really an achievement which can help you go a long way in your life by saving you from negativities.
2) Time slice your thoughts:
If you have lots of things in your mind, it can really help to give a dedicated slot to those thoughts.
Working on various thoughts/ideas simultaneously is bound to be less fruitful that working on one idea/task with a dedicated attention.
I will dedicate my morning time only for these A thoughts and in the afternoon, I am going to work only on B thoughts
3) Be Patient with learnings:
Lot of times, we are really excited about learning new technologies, new ways of getting smarter, useful and productive and we end up reading a lot of articles in a very short span of time, reading way too much one after another, downloading lot of articles, ebooks, poring through extensive tutorials/videos. slides and PDFs. While we definitely learn something through all our actions, how long such kind of learnings will last remains proportional to the amount of time spent in digesting such ideas. I feel its better to read one authoritative article, understand it effectively, thinking of ways to apply the ideas in it and spend sometime validating the idea in various ways rather than reading five to ten articles in Jiffy without giving grasping the gravity of their content. When you come across a good article, read it thoroughly, read all the associated comments (Sometimes comments have more knowledge than the actual article), let the ideas SINK IN. Channeling your energy on one thing at a time is going to make your memory much sharper and stronger. In case you have 10 articles open in your browser and it is really difficult for you to focus on one, bookmark all the tn articles, close nine of them, and read the one left. FOCUS is a keyword if you want to develop your mental strengths.
4) Search for effective sources of knowledge,bookmark and follow them:
Reading is arguably the best way of increasing your knowledge. So, it is imperative that we should read a lot but at the same time read what is really useful. So, whenever, you come across a blog which you feel is really informative, bookmark it and follow it. Apart from the the technical concepts, lot of blogs also provide really useful information for helping you develop your work related philosophies, thought processes and some of them can be life-changing. Apart from public article repositories, lot of people also carry personal blogs which can have really significant and useful content. Go after them :D
Few which I follow are :
Smashing Magazine
A List Apart
I know, generally, people discuss about how to follow various process in terms of tangible tasks, deliverable processes, p2p interactions, reporting etc and developing such kind of processes for abstract thoughts may seem queer, but we should remember that all good,great,irresistible things started from an idea. Ideas are important ! Give them the importance they deserve !
If you have lots of things in your mind, it can really help to give a dedicated slot to those thoughts.
Working on various thoughts/ideas simultaneously is bound to be less fruitful that working on one idea/task with a dedicated attention.
I will dedicate my morning time only for these A thoughts and in the afternoon, I am going to work only on B thoughts
3) Be Patient with learnings:
Lot of times, we are really excited about learning new technologies, new ways of getting smarter, useful and productive and we end up reading a lot of articles in a very short span of time, reading way too much one after another, downloading lot of articles, ebooks, poring through extensive tutorials/videos. slides and PDFs. While we definitely learn something through all our actions, how long such kind of learnings will last remains proportional to the amount of time spent in digesting such ideas. I feel its better to read one authoritative article, understand it effectively, thinking of ways to apply the ideas in it and spend sometime validating the idea in various ways rather than reading five to ten articles in Jiffy without giving grasping the gravity of their content. When you come across a good article, read it thoroughly, read all the associated comments (Sometimes comments have more knowledge than the actual article), let the ideas SINK IN. Channeling your energy on one thing at a time is going to make your memory much sharper and stronger. In case you have 10 articles open in your browser and it is really difficult for you to focus on one, bookmark all the tn articles, close nine of them, and read the one left. FOCUS is a keyword if you want to develop your mental strengths.
4) Search for effective sources of knowledge,bookmark and follow them:
Reading is arguably the best way of increasing your knowledge. So, it is imperative that we should read a lot but at the same time read what is really useful. So, whenever, you come across a blog which you feel is really informative, bookmark it and follow it. Apart from the the technical concepts, lot of blogs also provide really useful information for helping you develop your work related philosophies, thought processes and some of them can be life-changing. Apart from public article repositories, lot of people also carry personal blogs which can have really significant and useful content. Go after them :D
Few which I follow are :
Smashing Magazine
A List Apart
I know, generally, people discuss about how to follow various process in terms of tangible tasks, deliverable processes, p2p interactions, reporting etc and developing such kind of processes for abstract thoughts may seem queer, but we should remember that all good,great,irresistible things started from an idea. Ideas are important ! Give them the importance they deserve !
