Keep a notebook/journal for each area of your life. Write down ideas, facts, questions, random thoughts—any information you stumble across throughout the day. There are many planners out there but it’s much more useful, fun and creative to make your own, organizing the information in a way that works best for you. I refer to mine as my ‘meaning maker’ or ‘idea bank. The more problems, thoughts and ideas that you record and review from time to time, the more complex becomes the network of information in your mind. Also keep a box of interesting advertisements, quotes, pictures, news clippings, doodles, words, swatches–anything you are drawn to that might trigger ideas by association. Chances are you’re drawn to an item for a reason; you just don’t know as yet how to apply it. By periodically reviewing the notebook you activate all the recorded information in your conscious AND subconscious mind, as a way of stimulating ‘mind-popping’. also, the practice of writing a thought or idea down embeds it in your long-term memory.

©Elizabeth Watt

Einstein was said to have 3500 notebooks which he referred to over and over again throughout his lifetime. Walt Whitman kept little pieces of paper with notes separated into envelopes by category.Charles Dickens would scan graveyards for the names of his characters (think Martin Chuzzlewit, Uriah Heep) all written in notebooks, and Thoreau kept detailed nature journals…both of which, and more, I had the privilege of photographing in the collection of the NY Public Library several years back.

My notebook of choice is a gridded paper, soft cover 5×7 Moleskine. I have tons of them going back years…I am never without one.