Ideas Exploding In My Head

Those of you who know me in real time, know I'm an organizational fiend. You've made a mess of it, I can whip it into shape. Thirty year mess? No problem! And I absolutely love it!

But there are areas in which I struggle with organization. I have come to the conclusion that digitally organizing things just isn't always the most efficient way for me. Ideas - searching, gathering, and of course organizing them for easy retrieval (oh what the heck - even just remembering they were ever a thought in my head to begin with!).

My random thoughts -

• weeding ideas


• lessons for mmmm lets say 6 grade levels ;)


• lessons for every subject that is taught or might be interesting to students


• ways kids can valuably respond to literature (can they please be fun too)


• doodles resembling art


• hand lettering ideas


• notebooks


• Bible studies


• articles on advocacy


• yes, I want to submit a proposal


• healthy meal plans


• oh man, I forgot to check the Google drive for NCSLMA


• Levi would love that!


• what was that grant source?


• on and on and on

This isn't a problem when I'm working on a particular project. My brain kind of goes into automated mode. It's still going a mile a minute, but for the most part, it's traversing at the speed of light about what I'm currently working on. The stray thought gets swept away when I move on to the next shelf or pile of books or cabinet.

Some things I'm ready to admit about myself:

• I can't keep a bunch of stuff around. This includes a jumble of ideas. If I need to save something and it has no functionality, I have to hide it until I can deal with it. I know the personal psychological reasons for this, but that's a post for another time.


• I'm not all that good at really long term projects. Open ended things aren't very appealing. I can do a project that will take months, but years? Forget it.


• I change my mind a lot. I like this for a while, then I like that for a while, then I move on to whatever. This has led to a rich and varied background, and is part of the reason why the library is perfect and why I am a frequent changer of schools.


• I shut down if too much is going on. I can do the too much for quite a while, but I hit a wall eventually, and then I become super-introvert and shut down. I've just started sharing this with people. I am paralyzed at times. I look like I'm functioning on the outside, but inside, everything stops. That paralyzing thing happens with ideas too. Too many directions, too many thoughts, too many choices. BAM! I can't function.

Part of the problem is, I'm not just generating my own ideas. They are literally coming in from all kinds of directions. Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tumbler, blogs, chats, conferences, f2f conversations, texts. And while some of those offer ways to organize information, they just kind of hang in others.  I've tried including those thoughts in my bullet journal, but there are too many, and my day-to-day stuff (like I have a meeting) is easily lost among all of the other things.

So I did a search. Someone is bound to have a great idea about the organization of ideas themselves! Did you know that if you search for "organizing my ideas," you will get the best ways to organize your bedroom, your laundry room, and your classroom? Apparently "MY" is invisible. I did have better success with "organizing my thoughts," although most suggestions were digital. It's appealing, but I know I can't stick with it online - mainly because I'm always searching for the best app! I would love to be that digital to the max person. I'm just not.

So, I'm going to try a second journal - an idea journal. I've been terribly resistant to  having more than one. Lots of people I my journaling groups have at least two. I've been afraid it will feel fragmented. But I have ideas exploding in my head. It's time to capture them before the disappear in space.