(2017-10-18) Gilkey Do You Have An Idea Garden

Charlie Gilkey: Do You Have an Idea Garden?

From my experience, most people have the hardest time at the incubation step in the creative process. We all have good ideas, but some of us don’t do a good job of capturing those ideas and tending them until they’re ready to come out. Hence the need for every one of us to have at least one idea garden.

An idea garden is simply a place to park your ideas. But it’s not just about planting your ideas somewhere — these seeds need sun and water, as it were. Without getting the energy and attention they need, they’ll become just more ideas that never see the light of day.

I tend the idea garden and nurture ideas, and most of the time, they link to other ideas. (Wiki Gardening)

At least once a week, I’ll go through the garden, open up every seedling, and see what needs to be tended.

The reason this works is because the tending of the garden is both Preparation and Incubation.