deadlift: idea list
This is the first of a series of posts on #deadlifts - specific tasks/projects/exercises/practices which I’ve found to be remarkably helpful in my own creative practice. Each #deadlift is a bounded task - you can knock it out in a few hours, but continue to benefit from it over time. These #deadlift exercises help you build core strength and catalyze your future development as a practitioner.
An idea list is such a simple exercise that, when I first read encountered one, I wondered why I hadn’t done something like this before. Why hadn’t I been asked to do something similar during my design education?
An idea list is as described: a list of ideas that you find interesting and want to explore. I first encountered an idea list while exploring Jeremy Nixon’s Index. I don’t know Jeremy and it seems that his public profile is minimal, but I’d stumbled onto his Index and found it useful. It was the first example I’d encountered of a publicly accessible personal knowledge database.
Clicking through the index, I found Jeremy’s doc “Idea List Ideas” - you can view it here.
This simple document - and concept - intrigued me. I had never created some kind of master list of everything that I wanted to explore. Reading through, it also became obvious that this wasn’t MY list. Sure, some of the concepts were interesting. But many of them had no tug for me at all.
Inspired by Jeremy’s list, I made my own. Since 2021, when I made my first list, I’ve continued to find this exercise - and the resultant lists - useful.
For your first idea list, I’d go general first. Take an hour and just brain dump: create a full list of ideas that you find interesting, compelling, or want to explore. Just go line by line, no judgment, no attempt at hierarchy or organization. When I do this with students, I push them for a list of at least 30 ideas. I bet that will be easy for you. If a broad idea list seems too daunting, choose a specific aspect of your life or work and make an idea list for that: book ideas, blog posts you’d like to write, conversations you’d like to have. I tend to save different versions out at different times when I majorly revamp them every 6 months or so. Here’s my July 2023 version.
Now you have your first idea list - what can you do with it? To begin, I find that pulling the vaguely floating thoughts out of my brain and materializing them on paper is a relief in its own right. I’m already feeling better. (at some point, I’m going to write a post on externalization techniques and Annie Murphy Paul’s The Extended Mind, so watch for more on that coming up)
Looking at the full scope of ideas on my list, I’ll start to see themes. What are the broader patterns in the list? I can start to sort the ideas - maybe by topic or interest area, maybe by priority. What ideas tug me? Which make me want to get to it right now?
I’ve found creating idea lists highly generative: once I start, I don’t want to stop. Somehow, approaching project development through list-making dissolves my mental resistance.
The sharpest benefit of the idea list? When I’m stuck without a concept of what I want to work on or write about next - I can return to the idea list. Regardless of how uninspired I am, there’s something there that will intrigue me.
Having the idea list also sets you up to keep ideas simmering. I’ll write about the concept of simmering in a future post. But, the short version: maybe you’re not ready to write something on an idea yet, but it’s on your list. You can make a document on the idea and start dropping related information there. Then, when you are prepared to fully engage with this idea, you’ll already have something simmering.
using Roam, I can keep bulleted and linked outlines simmering under each of the topics in my ideas list - then when I’m ready to fully develop them, I have all of this base information that I’ve been cultivating over time - I’m starting from a strong base, rather than trying to develop something completely fresh
I’ve included an idea list assignment each of the (3 and counting) times that I’ve taught Design Writing Tactics. Each semester, at least a few students mention that this exercise is one of the most useful practices they’ve taken away from the class. It’s a low-effort, potentially high-impact exercise. Give it a go - If you want to share a public version of your idea list, I’d be excited to see those links!