A couple of days ago I was taking the train into work in a daze. I was tired. I hadn’t been this tired in a long time.
The night before I had intended on an early night. I’d been working hard at my real-life, non-online job for a few days on 5-6 hours sleep a night, and it was starting to tell.
I went to bed at 11 — but then, much to the annoyance of the rest of my body, it struck.
An idea.
I stayed awake until one in the morning, working frantically online, pulling in different ideas, registering domains and generally getting over-excited about the endless possibilities this idea could bring. If it wasn’t for me forcing myself to eventually get some sleep, I doubt I would have.
Back to the train the following day. I was checking Twitter on my phone when I wrote what I assumed to be a standard throw-away tweet:
“No amount of caffeine can motivate you above a great idea.”
Those words ran around in my head for the remainder of the day. I even wrote them down on a piece of paper and placed it in my pocket, so scared I was of forgetting them.
The previous night I had been so tired I could barely pull myself up into bed, let alone write today’s post (about something entirely different) as I had intended.
But a great idea. That’s something else. Even if it doesn’t turn out to be a great idea (who knows, this may be a white elephant the size of the Millennium Dome), the fact is in the moment I couldn’t have possibly fallen asleep. Scooping coffee into my eyes would have been less effective at keeping me awake (and a damn sight more painful), than a great idea.
If you ever find you don’t have the motivation to keep working, be it late at night or the middle of the afternoon, ask yourself; are you working on a great idea?
It doesn’t have to be something new, and you don’t have to be an entrepreneur.
If you are doing something that you love, and you can see the positive impact it has either on the world, or just a smaller intimate group of people around you, you are working on a great idea.
Sometimes it’s not possible, in this moment, to be working on a great idea. If you are working a job you don’t like, you may be working towards an idea you have no interest in, and that’s fine. Just make sure you are working on your great idea in your own time.
The greatest business start-ups of the day were born out of somebody working them as side projects while they kept down their full-time job.
They weren’t working on their great idea during the day, but they sure as hell were putting in the time and getting things done out of hours.
So, what’s the big idea?
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{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Absolutely agree. I’ve gone deep into the early hours on a worknight to get something down that seems like a great idea a number of times. While forgetting an idea sucks, I think it’s even worse when you keep the idea in your head, mulling it over and over and then get bored of it because you’ve spent so much “time working on it” even before you’ve done anything to action the idea. It’s still a good idea, you just can’t be bothered to do it anymore.
Getting bored before you’ve even started is a killer. I can’t even count on one hand the amount of domain names I registered over the last twelve months as I tried to get ideas out of my head and onto the (albeit screen-like) paper.
You need to write an idea down as soon as you have it. So many great ideas are wasted because we simply forget them, or worse, we forget them AND we forget we had them in the first place.
I can see how this relates to your fiction writing Simon. Have you started carrying a notepad with you wherever you go? Your ideas have been great so far, I don’t want any getting away!
When I’m excited about a new idea, you can’t shut me up about it (just ask my wife). And sleep? Well, sleep isn’t even an option!
My problem is maintaining that enthusiasm. I have trouble “capturing” a new idea while it’s still new, because once that initial enthusiasm wears off, just as Simon says, I “can’t be bothered to do it anymore.”
When I figure out a way around that, I’ll own the world. THAT’S my big idea. = )
Thanks, Benjamin! A pleasure as always.
-M
Spot on. Maintaining the enthusiasm is incredibly difficult, especially with all the other noise going on around us.
Focus will be the making of us all. Focusing on the idea in hand, maintaining enthusiasm for it, and executing successfully should ALWAYS be the big idea!
Thanks for stopping by man.
i was using the notepad on my android, but got sick of the preddicitve tet on my bastardised shorthand. if anyone knows where i can get a backpocket sized pen and paper i would be grateful :}
Same. It’s useful for copying and pasting information on the move, but a notepad (or scraps of paper) works so much better for quickly getting down your ideas, in my opinion.
I’ve always wondered why I get great ideas just as I’m brushing my teeth before going to bed. It’s often frustrating, especially when you have a big day ahead. I think it just shows what sort of receptive and neutral mode your mind and body need to be in to be able to tune into your most inspired and creative self. No wonder so many people are stuck in lives they don’t want, they consciously or unconsciously crush these creative intuitions.
Having said that, I don’t act on an idea straight away. Instead I always sleep on it, and when I wake up if I still think it sounds as fantastic with my fresh mind as it did with my tired mind, then I know I’m really onto something possible.
Mirella, you’re totally right on leaving an idea to sit overnight. Last night I eventually had to force myself to sleep with the main intention of having these ideas whirl around in my head overnight. Sure, it didn’t make for a good nights sleep, but I appreciated it this morning after some of the ideas had cemented themselves, and others had proved themselves to be worthless…