Like most introverts, I have a mind that just won’t quit. The hamster is always churning out ideas. This can quickly lead to idea overload followed by mental exhaustion. It also makes it difficult to know which ideas deserve my time and attention right now.
In case you have the same problem, I thought I’d share some tips that have helped me deal with idea overload:
The 48 Hour Rule
You might find that within the space of a few hours you get really excited about an idea, let your mind run wild with it, become completely mentally exhausted, and then write off the idea as silly. Meanwhile, some other very good ideas have gone unnoticed.
For this reason, I find that it’s best to give your ideas some time to incubate before committing much mental energy to them. Two days is a good amount of time to let your ideas simmer.
Treat your ideas like a rose bush
Blogger and entrepreneur James Clear compares ideas to rose bushes. You need to trim away many of your budding ideas in order to let the best ones flourish.
When you have a lot of great ideas, it can be tempting to try to develop all of them. But introverts work better when we focus our attention on one thing. Choose a few really good ideas, then develop them one at a time.
Use your innie intuition
You might be wondering, how do I know which ideas are the best ones? This is when your introverted intuition comes in handy. The sensitive, introspective and reflective nature of most introverts helps us develop a strong inner compass.
You’ll notice that some ideas seem too complicated, or inauthentic, or just don’t feel right. This is your gut’s way of saying “move along, please”. It’s best if you listen.
Well, that’s it for now, dearest. If you are someone who also struggles with idea overload, please do share your experiences. I would love to hear from you. 😉
Love,
For me the universe is in my head and I feel as though solutions to problems usually are so abundant that I have to test them all. After awhile though you can kind of construct a probability model in your head which is darn near spot on. The problems I always get into are ones where everyone else’s ideas don’t really seem to fix the problem and I don’t know how to communicate it effectively. Sometimes it gets me into big trouble because others think I’m trying to one-up them so a lot of the time I end up either teaching or biting my tongue.
Definitely agree with you Austin, I use probability models in my mind frequently to solve complex problems at work. I enjoy the creative aspect behind taking a confused mess of a problem, with a thousand possible solutions (think of the cockpit of a 747 jet), and reducing the likely solutions down to just a few “levers and switches”, then figuring out how they interact with each other. I love this aspect of my work, but totally understand how you feel when others around you have agreed on a different consensus solution.
What’s helped me in these situations is to step away from the group and try to build an actual prototype of some sort, because actions will often speak louder than words. 🙂
I really appreciated this post. What do you do when you have so many ideas of what to do or make that you find yourself frozen, and unable to start anything even given, for example, a free weekend?
for me , I can say that I think about everything that is being said to me or any situation happen to me , can anybody help me with that