I used to collect ideas to act on later too. I still have several documents full of them, not to mention notebooks. Recently, I'm trying to stop looking for more and do something about an idea instead of thinking, "not now."
I'm using the rule of "do it now or delete it." It's quite a harsh rule, but life is short and I can't do everything, so I'm focusing on the things that will bring me the most joy and satisfaction of having done something good for others.
> I think the hardest part is just getting started, so I'm scheduling time each day to write something. It doesn't have to be fantastic, just something to get me moving forward.
>It is quite simple. Do you want to build something? Then go build it.
>You notice you lack information while building? Go read it.
>Not the other way around.
>Unless you want to read for the sake of reading/learning, which is also fine. It improves your general knowledge. But if you want to get something done, then of course, there is no other way except doing it.
I have nothing to add except that this is a beautiful comment that sums up my post way better than I could have myself. :)
This! I used to spend ages on organising notes and documents because I believed that would help me work better. I recently gave that up and now focus only on taking action, and I've gotten a lot more work done as a result.
Connecting meticulous organisation and having a "second brain" to productivity, I realised not long ago, has made us all focus on the wrong things. I understand that for some people, having things organized actually helps them function better but I wasn't one of them. I only thought I needed to be super-organized but I'm a perfectionist--what I needed was to just do things.
> There's room for validation of an idea etc., but (over)imagining what completion looks / feels like prior to execution can rob that drive to execute.
I think pairing sharing an idea with an action can help because you've already gotten the ball rolling. It's what I did with my magazine: wrote on my blog and also sent emails to the experts I wanted to interview.
I've tried both telling and not telling, and it hasn't made a difference. I've told people and not achieved the goal, told and achieved it, didn't tell and achieved it, and didn't tell and didn't achieve.
> I wonder if the author is doing more than writing about it.
I was frustrated with how little, proper and useful information there is out there about studying psychology and making a career in the field that goes beyond "study this, then this, then do this internship or that course, and get that credential" etc. So I started interviewing psychological professionals and launched a magazine. The second issue goes out tomorrow. It's the first time I've had an idea and acted on it so fast, which is what inspired the idea for the club--I was riding the high of actually having done something that other people found useful.
I fell in this trap often, so to avoid it when I decided to launch a magazine, I also took an action at the same time, one that would make it difficult to back out: I sent emails to experts asking for an interview, telling them it was for a magazine I was launching. It worked for me, but not every project might have such an action to go with it.
