10 Super practical use cases of NotePD
At first, i started writing ten ideas a day because I wanted to exercise my "idea muscle". You can't be creative (or anything) without practice.
The problem with practicing creativity, particularly when down or depressed, is that the rewards are not immediately clear. Resarch shows that when rewards are unclear then motivation is low.
The problem is: this is EXACTLY when a practice of ten ideas a day is most important. This is when your creativity must be firing everywhere. When you must become a fountain of opportunity instead of tears.
Stephen Pressfield says in "The War of Art" - "At some point the pain of not doing it becomes greater than the pain of doing it."
This is true for anything. Pressfield was talking about writing. When you begin a novel, the rewards are very far away. And they are unlikely. So there is almost no intrinsic motivation. This is the time when successful people practice and unsuccessful people don't.
What does success mean here? I don't know. Mastery? Freedom? Up to you.
But perhaps there might be some motivations that I list below.
The problem with practicing creativity, particularly when down or depressed, is that the rewards are not immediately clear. Resarch shows that when rewards are unclear then motivation is low.
The problem is: this is EXACTLY when a practice of ten ideas a day is most important. This is when your creativity must be firing everywhere. When you must become a fountain of opportunity instead of tears.
Stephen Pressfield says in "The War of Art" - "At some point the pain of not doing it becomes greater than the pain of doing it."
This is true for anything. Pressfield was talking about writing. When you begin a novel, the rewards are very far away. And they are unlikely. So there is almost no intrinsic motivation. This is the time when successful people practice and unsuccessful people don't.
What does success mean here? I don't know. Mastery? Freedom? Up to you.
But perhaps there might be some motivations that I list below.
1. Of course, the first, is: exercise the idea muscle: BUT....
For years everyone asked me to start a site to do this. To keep track of the ideas, etc. I was reluctant because it's also a personal thing, these idea lists.
But the site has made me feel accountable. Not to others but to myself. Don't want to make public ideas? No problem, you can set them as private.
2. Get ideas
It means the people posting ideas are posting really interesting and creative lists. I've been stunned at how great some idea lists are. It's great to read.
Someone once told me the true test of a website is if it can be used on the toilet. Well, people are reading this site on the toilet (well...I am).
3. Learning accountability (great for coaches or students or anyone trying to master something).
Here's a great use case: have your students make private lists of what learning tasks they've completed that day. This could include questions they have, hours they practiced, what they worked on during practice, what the results were, what problems they have.
If they are private, how can the teacher/coach/trainer read the lists?
If you list someone as a contributor when you make the list, then they can see it (and search for it) even if it is private.
How can you find your students' lists? They can tag you or use a special tag for the list.
Now you can see all of your student's lists of learning tasks each day and keep track of your group's progress.
And, if the students list each other as contributors, they can all compare notes.
I find this to be very useful. For intance, a list for me on what i did learning chess might be:
- studied the e6 sicilian from the "Aggressive Opening for White" study created by my coach
- memorized Caro Kann varations for my memory lessons
- studied endgames from Hellstein's book
- reviewed game 5 from the Foxwoods Open.
a. learned from about Nh5 strategies in KID compared with my usual Ne8 or Nd7.
b. I need to be more patient when I have a space advantage. It's harder for the other side to have a plan. I always rush into aggression when there is nothing really there.
BUT...because I did not make this list and i don''t make a list like this on a regular basis, I played too many mindless blitz games. I'M GOING TO START making private lists here to list my learning tasks completed.
It's a way for me to be accountable but I imagine for coaches or teachers this would be invaluable to track the learning tasks of their students.
Can also be used for Mastermind groups or other types of self-help groups where the members are on a constant path of self-improvement and have daily practices they want to keep track of.
4. Work productivity
Of course, I could do this with Jay on Google Docs. But I find it to be organized better here and have already started doing this on private lists.
5. Ask questions, part one
Then the search will show me idea lists that contain the word or tag, Ethereum.
Unlike Twitter, where tweets are fairly random, the idea lists posted here have real value and I have learned amazing things about the topics I'm interested in.
6. Ask questions, part two
I can post a challenge like: "What are ten ideas if I want to create a unique laundromat". And see what people post in response.
7. Ask questions, part three.
8. Surveys
Or even more direct: "Here's 10 possible book titles for my next book. Please like the one you think is the best." Then the idea list turns into a survey.
9. Feedback
To have great ideas, you have to have lots of ideas. This site is a way for a community to encourage each other to have more and more ideas. And feedback from a similar-motivated group is very valuable.
10. Write a book
But here's an example:
I can write a list "the ten most influential people of all time."
Then for the next ten (or however many you put) days, I can write "10 reasons why person XYZ is one of the most influential people of all time".
Then staple it all together and that's a first draft. Of course, a final book is 20 drafts or more but this is a great way to organize thinking around any topic.
11. For me, this broke a case of writer's block
But I had a case of burnout in late 2020, early 2021.
Now I look at my streaks here and I can't believe how many days in a row I've written.
I've spent a lot of time in my life trying (often unsuccssfully) to get good at things. But writing has been the one constant throughout most of my adult life.
And then suddenly I couldn't write anymore. Nothing. I consulted experts on burnout (even on my podcast). What was wrong with me? I don't really know.
But this site saved me. I started writing again, even if it's in the form of these idea lists. I was writing!
12. Again, ideas are the currency of the 21st century.
I'd like to be able to say, "you can't do that without this site" but that's not true. I did it with a waiter's pad for years.
But this site, I do think, makes it a bit easier. It's made me be more serious about each idea . That I wasn't cheating at all by coming up with an easy idea just to finish the list because I knew people would be seeing it.
It takes time to do these lists. But the average person watches 2 hours , 47 minutes of TV every day.
Heck, I probably watch 4 hours. So now I'll watch three and a half hours and do this in that half hour. Because it's important to me.
Someone told me on my podcast (I'm sorry I forget who), "for everything you do, ask 'is this moving me closer to my goals', if 'yes', then do it, if 'no', then don't."
That's a lot of discipline packed in one small quote. I don't always have that discipline but it's good to set up things that hold me accountable. I do want to succeed. For the benefit of my children, people I am responsible for in one way or other, and for my own sense of freedom and well-being.
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