A few days ago I had a moment of sheer panic because I couldn\u2019t find a pen. I went through the Elisabeth K\u00fcbler-Ross stages of penlessness (Denial: Maybe I don\u2019t need a pen? I don\u2019t need a pen! Anger: Where is my goddamned pen?! Bargaining: If you give me your pen, O nice, accommodating waiter, I\u2019ll leave you a bigger tip) and finally got to the final stage, Acceptance: Alternatives to Pen.<\/p>\n
I desperately needed a pen because I had an idea. And I feared that it would slip away from me before I could write it down. My ideas are very slippery and they disappear quickly, easily abetted by distraction. And so I\u2019ve developed a routine of pulling out a notebook and writing them down before they escape, and this process is so much a part of my innate behavior at this point that missing either the pen or the notebook creates an intolerable amount of anxiety about idea loss.<\/p>\n
In this case, I resorted to my smartphone and emailed myself the note with a category heading in the subject line. And all was technically fine. But it\u2019s not my preferred method.<\/p>\n
My preferred method for idea capture is something akin to Steven Berlin Johnson\u2019s idea of keeping a \u201cspark file\u201d which he\u2019s written about on Medium<\/a>. (Johnson is a prolific and versatile writer who has covered a wide range of subjects. I would particularly recommend his book The Ghost Map: The Story of London\u2019s Most Terrifying Epidemic\u200a\u2014\u200aand How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World<\/em><\/a>. It\u2019s rare that \u201cI couldn\u2019t put it down\u201d can be said of a book on disease and city planning, but it\u2019s true in this case.)<\/p>\n He notes, \u201c...Most good ideas (whether they\u2019re ideas for narrative structure, a particular twist in the argument, or a broader topic) come into our minds as hunches: small fragments of a larger idea, hints and intimations. Many of these ideas sit around for months or years before they coalesce into something useful.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n In order to exploit this particular quality of idea formation, he keeps what he calls a \u201cspark file\u201d: \u201cA single document where I keep all my hunches: ideas for articles, speeches, software features, startups, ways of framing a chapter I know I\u2019m going to write, even whole books.\u201d He doesn\u2019t try to organize them. The randomness is intentional<\/em>. He reads them over every few months and finds themes emerging\u200a\u2014\u200aconnections between fragments that wouldn\u2019t seem apparent if those fragments were presented in isolation.<\/p>\n I do something similar myself\u200a\u2014\u200amaking disjointed notes in a notebook, entering them into a master file, and reviewing after long stretches.<\/p>\n I\u2019ll do it anywhere but I definitely have venues and times that are more productive than others. Modes of transportation are particularly fertile\u200a\u2014\u200asubways, airplanes, trains. Areas where I can be alone while sitting in a room full of people\u200a\u2014\u200acoffee shops, dinner solo at a bar, jury duty\u200a\u2014\u200aare ripe for observation. The evening works better than the morning, but mostly because I\u2019m more alert at the end of the day than the beginning.<\/p>\n But for me, the note-taking works primarily because I have learned to separate my putative spark file from my task list. If I feel the impulse to make a note to myself about something that needs to be done, I put it somewhere else\u200a\u2014\u200amy actual to-do list or a list of potential projects.<\/p>\n