As creatives, ideas are our food and fuel. After all, which would you rather be as a writer: someone who sits at the computer and instantly knows what to write about, or someone who stares at a blank screen for hours on end without a single word to type?
But sometimes, too many ideas can also be a problem. You might think that a lack of ideas is the main reason for not being able to work, but having many at any one time can also cause analysis paralysis! This has come to be known as Too Many Ideas Syndrome (TMIS).
So what do you do if you have too many ideas? In this post, you’ll learn how to effectively manage idea overload so you can feel more productive and less frustrated.
What Do You Do If You Have Too Many Ideas?
Whether you’re a writer, painter, digital artist, or an entrepreneur, it’s a good thing to have ideas. But you also need to learn how to manage or organize them so that you don’t get overwhelmed.
Here are some tips you can use to strike the right balance:
1. Keep an idea notebook.
Sometimes, having too many ideas feels paralyzing because we fear we’ll forget one or more of them. We want to hold on to them because each one is precious to us!
One way of getting around this is to keep an idea notebook. Whenever a new idea comes, note it down. That way, you can rest assured that you will always be able to come back to them, and you won’t feel pressured to put all your ideas to work right away.
2. Schedule an information detox day.
One reason why you may get too many ideas is that you have too much information overloading your senses. Consider setting aside a day each week or each month to detoxify yourself from information overload.
Perhaps it can be a day when you decide not to check the news, you stay offline, or off social media. You will find that days like this can help sharpen your mind and give you greater focus.
3. Set a day for curating and categorizing your ideas.
It’s one thing to collect ideas in a notebook; it’s quite another to act on them. Before you start actually jumping headlong into an idea, consider curating your ideas, or looking at each from different angles to see if they’re worth pursuing.
I recommend setting aside only one day a week or every two weeks for doing this. That way, you can focus on simply collecting ideas first, and then scrutinizing them in more detail on the day that you set.
This is also a time when you can categorize your ideas for easier access in the future. You may want to categorize them by theme, or even by order of importance or feasibility.
4. Pick one focus at a time.
One major problem that comes from having too many ideas is a lack of focus. How do you start writing when you have a dozen ideas for a short story, several dozen more for a novel, and a couple dozen for a memoir? The key here is to narrow down your options.
Maybe you can decide to focus on a short story this week. From there, maybe you can choose to write about teenagers. That helps you scratch off all the other topics that don’t fit into your chosen “filter.”
5. Rotate multiple projects throughout the week.
If you do decide to pursue more than one idea at a time, consider putting them on a rotation schedule. That way, you won’t drop one project in order to work on the second. For some writers, writing about different things over the course of a week means that you get fresh inspiration every time the topic shifts.
This comes with a caveat, though: pay attention to how you work best. If you work more effectively by focusing only on one project a time, put your next idea on hold instead of on a rotational schedule.
Is Having Too Many Ideas a Bad Thing?
While ideas are a creative’s bread and butter, having too many and not knowing what to do with them can be just as debilitating as having none. If you constantly suffer from analysis paralysis, or procrastination due to indecision, it can cause you to be ineffective in your chosen field.
But if you have lots of ideas and the skill to put them to work, kudos to you! This means that the key is actually learning how to maximize your creative juices for your benefit.
How Do You End an Idea?
If you have too many ideas, you can scratch off those that aren’t feasible in order to narrow down your options.
You can do this by running a test to see how each one fares against a standard. For example, if you want to write a short story, see if you can turn each idea into the typical length of a short story. If something seems too complicated, either scratch it off, or move it to your novel ideas pile.
Another way of ending an idea is when you actually try it out. Execute it as you normally would. If it becomes too difficult to bring to completion, check if it’s an issue of procrastination on your part or if it simply doesn’t work. If it just won’t work, don’t force it; say goodbye to it, and give it a proper burial!
Hopefully, when you put legs on an idea, it can grow into something beautiful. That’s also another way of ending an idea: bringing it to fruition!
Dealing with Too Many Ideas Syndrome
Hopefully these suggestions will prove helpful in managing Too Many Ideas Syndrome (TMIS). Remember, having too many ideas is not necessarily a bad thing, but you need to learn how to organize and make the most of them.
Once you get into the habit of sorting, categorizing, and focusing on a few ideas at a time, your creative output can enjoy a healthy boost!
Did you find this post helpful? Let us know in the comments below!
If you enjoyed this post, then you might also like:
- How to Be More Productive: 15 Tips and Tools for Getting More Done
- What Is a Creative? 10 Signs You Might Be One
- How to Be Creative: 13 Fun Ways to Test Your Imagination
- 5 Reasons to Try a Writing Sprint
Yen Cabag is the Blog Writer of TCK Publishing. She is also a homeschooling mom, family coach, and speaker for the Charlotte Mason method, an educational philosophy that places great emphasis on classic literature and the masterpieces in art and music. She has also written several books, both fiction and nonfiction. Her passion is to see the next generation of children become lovers of reading and learning in the midst of short attention spans.
