Each day I sit down to come up with 10 ideas. The ideas don’t have to be spectacular or particularly interesting. The only requirement is that they appear.
10 ideas is me exercising my creativity muscle. The more ideas I come up with the better I should become at coming up with ideas. At least, that’s the idea. I adopted the concept of 10 ideas a day from James Altucher. There is a lot that James and I don’t agree with, but the 10 ideas is something that I am trying out. After all, who doesn’t want to be an ideas machine?
To be honest, it’s actually 11 ideas a day. The first idea is always what the topic for the 10 ideas needs to be. And today I am going to share 10 ideas for… what I am going to do with the time Coronavirus has afforded me. I will go back and change the title to reflect the topic.
- I will come back and write in the gymnasium more often. I’m not spending any time here because I am trying to finish writing the first draft of a novel. However, I miss spending time here and pushing words out into the world.
- I will think more and attempt to make this one of the most prolific and creative periods of my life. Apparently Isaac Newton was forced to work from home in 1665 when Cambridge University closed due to bubonic plague. The time he spent at home without the supervision of his lecturers and professors was an incredibly creative time for him. It was at this time that he developed the fundamentals of what we now call Newtonian Physics.
- I will write every day. I try to do that regardless, but have fallen short of this endeavour the past week or so. I’m trying to cut myself a little slack on this one as times have been tough at work.
- I will make time for meditation. I’m a fan of meditation. The introduction of meditation into my life has helped me manage my emotions more and given me clarity in times of turmoil. My practice has waned, but I fully intend to bring it back.
- I want to write more poetry. I rediscovered Bukowski and realised afresh how powerful poetry can be. I will write more poetry. Maybe a poem a week.
- I will redefine the life I want and share that with my wife and make a concerted effort to move towards the things that bring me energy a excitement. I have struggled to find myself in many of the things I do, and I think this has definitely impacted my creativity. I want to put myself in an environment that allows me to come up with ideas and make them happen.
- I will run and exercise every day. Hemingway loved having written. I love having run.
- I will do morning pages each day. Morning pages is a daily exercise helped to clear your thoughts and to access the best parts of your creativity.
- I will shoot a video a week describing what I’m up to and post this to my YouTube channel.
- I will be generous with my time and give more of it to my children and wife. I spend a lot of time at work and see little of my family. While I get this time I want to get to know my children again and grow closer to my wife.
Not a bad way to spend a couple of months. Looking forward to it.