10 Ways to keep up writing 10 ideas a day
So I first tried James's 10 ideas a day challenge many years ago but ended up dropping it after about 7 or 8 months. Life got busy and I couldn't keep up. I'd go through a busy day and it's like 8 or 9 pm and I'm thinking to myself "I still haven't written down my 10 ideas for the day yet" and panic. And when you panic, it's even harder to write down ideas. And I gave up for about a year before coming back again. This time, I thought why don't I just think 10 ideas in my head - writing them down is optional. Surely, it would take the pressure off of having to take time out of the day to write. But I ended up getting lazy and not always thinking the best ideas, and even when I did, I couldn't remember them, so I didn't write the down.
Now, I'm back to the challenge once more after stumbling onto NotePD, so for my first post, I'll brainstorm some ways that will make it "easier" to keep up with the challenge.
1. Gamify it.
I love playing Pokemon Go but I end up partaking in a lot of its daily challenges even when life gets busy and I drop a lot of other activities I find "fun" or essential. Why? It comes down to the virtual rewards I get partaking in the challenge and the fear of missing out on those little rewards each time.
How am I supposed to gamify writing 10 ideas a day? Well, that might be a topic for another day to write 10 ideas on...
2. Open NotePD first thing in the morning on my computer
And fill in ideas as they come in throughout the day. Even when I'm extremely busy, I still have down time here and there where I'll be checking Facebook and other social media. Why not divert some of that time to NotePD right from the start?
3. Gather a bunch of open-ended prompts and send random notifications throughout the day with them.
Not sure if NotePD or any app supports that but I could spend several days brainstorming a bunch of open-ended prompts like "What do you love/hate the most about your life now?" and have my phone buzzing with one every several hours.
4. Make it a habit to come up with at least 1 new idea before doing something habitually fun
5. Spend a day or 10 brainstorming lists of broader topics then referring back to those topic lists when stuck
6. Don't force all of the ideas to be of the same theme
Some days, I might feel like brainstorming about a particular theme and that's fine but other days, I might have 10 completely random ideas. In fact, I shouldn't think of the title first; just come up with 10 ideas and if they happen to fit a theme, then make the title.
7. Make it fun
If stuck, think of fun topics or ones that make you happy.
8. Time box it
Set a timer for 10 or 20 minutes (or maybe 1 Pomodoro if using the Pomodoro technique) and try your best to come up with as many ideas as you can in that time box.
9. Ask ChatGPT for feedback
Ask what ChatGPT thinks of one of your ideas and use that feedback to come up with another idea. This isn't "cheating" since you're not asking it to come up with the idea.
10. Read others' ideas and adapt them to your own
If you come across another list here that's inspiring, try to go a step further and customize it to fit yourself.
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