Bringing new ideas to life is a bumpy ride. When you think of something, you have a few seconds to catch that thought and bring it into the physical world. If you over-analyze it, you’ll risk losing it completely.

I heard Lady Gaga talk about songwriting and how she quickly uses her phone to capture initial melodies. It's interesting to realize that a tune that has made hundreds of millions starting as a 15 second voice memo. Many of the most successful creatives have similar stories. Some describe it as having an antenna that captures signals from somewhere else. Personally, I love that metaphor.

The idea capture antenna

All creative acts have a built-in rough phase; writing has the draft, design has sketches, music has the click track, and illustration has the sketchbook. All of these are necessary steps in the process to help you catch incoming ideas and materialize them as quickly as possible. Become familiar with the best methods in your field and make them instinctual.

To succeed as a creative you need to get yourself into the habit of capturing on the go, even in the most unpredictable environments. In those moments time is more important than organization or looking good. Let go of any fears of having a messy studio, notebook, or desktop, as this is merely a dumping ground of ideas and concepts. Try not to over-complicate it. Looking at you Notion second brain builders. My two go-to's are my Field Notes book and a shortcut to launch a quick note on my phone.

Multi-dimensional creatives who have many creative passions often fluctuate between them. I’m one of those. On week one I’m working on an app in Xcode, on week two I’m shooting street photos in NYC, and on week three I’m in Logic Pro obsessing over a lo-fi beat with guitar samples. It’s tricky. I can’t force one over the other but I’m ready to capture whatever may come. If it doesn’t fit my current feel I put it away for later. When I know I’m in a specific creative mood, I tap into  that library of ideas.

Refinement

Whether it’s immediately after or years later, prioritize, analyze, and refine your ideas. A good practice here is to casually mention an idea to a friend or post a snippet of it online. The feedback could signal when there’s a spark. When you have a bunch of ideas or if time has passed, you might even start to have new perspectives or see connections between ideas.

To get an idea to the next level, work in sprints. Set up intentional time and pick one idea from the dumping ground. In my case I also factor in my multi-dimensional brain. I’ve sat in coffee shops trying to hack my brain to take on a specific idea but it just didn’t happen. Other times I’ve tried to force idea generation about a very specific topic with mixed results. Pick a time, place, idea, and a realistic objective. The objective is key. Without one you end up spiraling into creative abyss and you never get the satisfaction of your sprint. There’s an art to taking a big idea and turning it into manageable chunks that can be completed through sprints.