Diaries and idearies

We are said to be the sum of our influences—the people we encounter and interact with can shape the way we think about life more than anything else. This is why we need to know at every single moment what enters our minds and ask ourselves if it supports our goals or not. If it doesn't, it might be time to think consciously about something else or intentionally seek ways to collide what we already know with seemingly unrelated multi-dimensional perspectives to gain new insights. A simple way to record, track and later rewind what enters our mind is to keep a journal or diary of the new things we learn daily. I will try to share my experiences here with keeping an analog diary, since this is something I have used to a great extent in the last couple of years. Some people prefer using Evernote or their own website to organize their thoughts, so you may need to find out what works best for you—or even if it works—before you decide to commit to a particular method.

I have made writing in my diary a habit and I rarely miss a day without writing anything new or something that I have already forgotten. If I don't write anything, it might be a sign that I haven't learned anything new on that day. It keeps my thoughts fresh and allows me to even escape the current realities of the world when I want to. Keeping a diary has allowed me to evaluate and question many things, to reflect through my own experience and to even write a book. My diary contains various ideas, observations, methods or (some stupid) step-by-step guides, lists, insights, results of studies, small useful diagrams, quotes, fables, short snippets of code, design considerations, funny little things to increase the mood while reading, case studies of how people succeeded, short interviews, hobbies or things that might be interesting to me at a later point in time. Overall, I invest a lot of time in my diaries which is quite strange to many people around me. But if one single thing has transformed my life to be like never before, these are my diaries. The very act of putting something down on paper (even in the digital age!) and investing time in becoming more intimate with it had quite an interesting effect on me. When I read through my diaries, I feel exposed to a variety of different perspectives, that often provoke temporary emotions in me, like “Grrrr” (a moment of realization of the own limitations), “This is stupid” or “This person is wrong, but why actually?”. Nevertheless, it is a reminder to never get comfortable with paradigms in a world of constant change.

I tend to avoid using color in my diaries in order to not slow down reading speed. Sometimes I may underline text, but do so sparingly, because it adds visual noise. Visual noise will burden and tire you once you return to older notes again.

I never bring my diaries to a place where I might regret it later. If I go to a seminar or conference, I simply take regular sheets of paper with me. It is small and light, can be folded as many times I need, and remains almost invisible, so it won't be that distracting to others if I put something down. Moreover, I can evaluate later which snippets on the paper are really important and not just spontaneously write something that hasn't crystallized yet.

Of course, there is no such thing as an "ideary". What I meant here is keeping a separate list of ideas that came through “aha”-moments you had while having time and space with your consciousness. It's important to not forget to take some time daily to let your mind flow freely in order to explore alternatives, although this is easier said that done and has been somewhat of a challenge for me. To have more and better ideas, we need to challenge ourselves to generate more in limited periods of time. For instance, the question “What hundred ideas can I generate in fifteen minutes?” will very likely defeat us, but will still allow us to explore our limit and then seek ways to expand it. This kind of training to stay alert to possibilities can with time improve our process to gradually take more and more value out of it. But no matter how many ideas we have on our list, we need to have the ability to prioritize at any moment in time the ones we'll pursue, which is again a very personal decision depending on the constraints we need to live with. A good idea has a proper balance between as low as possible downside and as high as possible upside (in that order), thus it often minimizes our risk, but not to the extent we don't take it. It is also integrative, so that our own nature can be embedded in it to form something unique, something that noone else would have the ability to do. Once we've made our decision, we need to be able to execute the idea (specific domain skills), preferably in a stunning way (big thinking, small acting). Otherwise it will become a needle in the haystack, lose its effectiveness and not lead to any profits that would allow us to continue ideating and executing. Without proper execution, ideas are of limited value, and our list will not progress into something tangible.

We can work on our ideas now or later, but only if we wrote them down. And because we never know when an idea will strike, it's useful to always bring some sheets of paper so we can write it down immediately. Later may be too late, especially when we are distracted in so many different ways, that we can't even notice.

We can refer to our idea list now or in ten years. Some ideas will have become more doable, others—less feasible. Their value changes over time, which is why timing itself can determine if they succeed/fail or what market share they reach. The diary is an instrument to keep and evaluate current practices in sight, ensuring we do not fall behind this timing. And the complementary list of ideas allows us explore and make use of opportunities as they arise, but only in a way that is consistent with what we perceive to be right in the long term.

If I knew initially how a diary could change my thinking, I would have only started earlier.