Why you need a good place for bad ideas
A love letter to notebooks and other bad idea catchers
I love notebooks.
Ever since my dad gave me a nice one when I was a teenager, I've always had a pile of them that are pre-, during- or post-filled.
These were my original "personal knowledge management" system long before the days of Notion, Obsidian or even Evernote. And despite using electronic note-taking tools now, there is still one use case where I rely on notebooks.
Being a good place for bad ideas.
What Sturgeon’s law teaches about creativity
Theodore Sturgeon was a science fiction writer. When he was asked why so much science fiction was crap, he retorted with this now-famous law.
It wasn’t that science fiction was particularly bad, but every field has a lot of rubbish.
The same is true when you have ideas. Most ideas aren’t going to be good but sometimes we have to go through them to get to the good ideas.
Sometimes we have to get rid of the rubbish, to get to the gold.
Cleaning the creative pipes
Chart-topping pop star Ed Sheeran knows a thing or two about writing a hit song.
His secret? He cleans his creative pipes.
He’s learned that it takes time to warm up, just like running a tap. And while the initial ideas that flow won’t be good, if he keeps at it, something good will come.
has a more practical technique for practising this skill.Come up with 10 ideas every day.
He calls this becoming an idea machine — building the muscle you use for generating ideas.
The first time I tried it, it was pretty easy as I chose an easy topic. But by day 14 even thinking of a topic for a list was tough.
But then something changed — I stopped censoring myself. I accepted “bad ideas” as well as “good” ones. And when I did, something magical happened.
Instead of struggling to come up with 10 ideas, I could come up with 20-30 without even struggling. And even though some were absolutely terrible, the process was far easier and I’d always end up with more good ideas than my previous method.
But that’s not the only benefit of a notebook
A place to dump your mental junk
Notebooks are a great place to dump your mental junk.
Putting it on paper does two things.
It makes problems and feelings seem smaller and more manageable.
It allows your brain to focus on other things, knowing these issues are safely recorded.
Either way, I’ve found spending some time writing all the things in my head to be hugely beneficial in reducing my stress and helping me be more productive and creative.
So where should put these bad ideas
A couple of suggested bad-idea catchers
I don’t believe in a one-size-fits-all approach here.
What’s best for you might be only okay for me (and vice versa). But here are a few tools I’ve found very good.
Leuchttrum 1917 notebooks
Leuchttrum are the notebooks Moleskine pretend to be.
(the other notebook in the image is a Rhodia Web notebook. It’s even nicer with amazing paper for fountain pens, but it verges on too nice to write in for me).
For the same cost (in Europe at least) you get better paper, dot grid paper, numbered pages and many other nice touches.
These make them great choices as a “one notebook to rule them all” — ala Bullet Journaling — as a journal or as a random commonplace book.
Muji a5 notebooks
For the longest time, I loved Moleskine-style notebooks but recently I’ve found these Muji notebooks to be even better for my purposes.
While the paper is still good quality, they are both cheaper and don’t feel as intimidating compared to other notebooks. This has encouraged me to put more scrappy ideas and mess with the pages more.
Plus, because they are spiral bound, I can have one or two pages open at a time so they take up less space.
(Bonus: Muji also make a tiny pocket notebook that’s great for carrying with you on the go and is far cheaper than the pricey fieldnotes)
Index cards
I have a pile of index cards (or non-sticky post-it style notes) next to my desk.
These are great to grab, doodle on and show during a work call, or just to add a quick reminder for later. Plus they’re perfect for daily drawing challenges.
And if you want to keep them, you can stick them into another notebook too.
Drafts app
Yes, I use a digital notes app too.
Honestly, If I were setting up a system today, I’d use the default notes app (Apple Notes or Keep on Android) and be happy. But I’m not, and I love drafts.
It’s a simple text app that supports markdown (a way to quickly write formatted text) and it opens with a new note each time. It’s the perfect way to quickly write something down and I can then send that text wherever I like.
What about you?
Well, those are my recommendations, but I’d love to hear what are your favourite places to put bad ideas (digital or analogue).
Before you go…
Here are a few things you might be interested in.
If you want some other recommended tools for making visuals and sketchnotes, you can look at my favourite tools.
My friend,
, the creator of sketchnotes, is putting on a special live call to solve a real-world problem using sketchnotes — it’s only $10!You can hire me to create a sketchnote or visual of your ideas.
See you next week!
Chris
hi nice post.
i kind of partly moving from exclusive digital notes to analog notes. so basically i write in my notebook/s (not mine actually, they once were my daughter's LOL). then based on the importance (usually those that related to my class, project or manuscript) i rewrite the notes to my digital library. i use obsidian and google keep for my digital system.
then to translate and refine the sentences from indonesian to english, i use Notion with its AI feature.
greetings from Indonesia.
I love notebooks, the leuchtturm1917 really is the gold standard.
I have an ideas factory, it's been in many different places over the years but it's on my phone at the moment, not all ideas are good now, but one day it might be, it's always fun to read through old ones!