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Picking Ideas Faster

By Jared Dees

I spent the last five minutes and sixteen seconds trying to pick the right idea to write about this morning. I typically spend 10-20 minutes writing these posts about what I’m learning so that five minutes was wasted time.

I had these idea ideas in my head:

  • Angela Duckworth’s expansion on the Warren Buffet goal-setting system
  • A comment that James Altucher and Mark Manson discussed on a podcast about having a hobby
  • Austin Kleon’s post about picking ideas based on what you want to learn rather than the ROI
  • Some results from a little Instagram/Facebook Stories experiment I’ve been running
  • A history of communication from letters to phones all the way up to today and “stories”
  • Lessons I’ve learned so far in putting up a Little Free Library in our yard

Maybe I will write about these things or maybe I won’t. The point here is that I spent more than five minutes staring at a blank text box trying to decide which one to do.

Most of the time, we don’t know which ideas are good ideas and which ones are mediocre. You only know when you try.

Instead of deliberating over which one I thought would be best, I should have just started writing about the first one that came into my head.

Don’t let perfection stand in the way of production.

May 22, 2018 Filed Under: Creativity, On Writing, Productivity

About Jared Dees

Jared Dees is passionate about sharing practical resources to teach faith. He is best known for his website The Religion Teacher and is the author of many books including 31 Days to Becoming a Better Religious Educator, Christ in the Classroom, and Beatitales: 80 Fables about the Beatitudes for Children.

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Jared Dees is passionate about sharing practical resources to teach faith. He is best known for his website The Religion Teacher and is the author of many books including 31 Days to Becoming a Better Religious Educator, Christ in the Classroom, and Beatitales: 80 Fables about the Beatitudes for Children. See all of Jared's Books →

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