Creativity is both a blessing and a curse. Without it, you wouldn't be a creator. But because of it, you often become distracted (or paralyzed) by the sheer velocity of new ideas.
As a capable and action-oriented person, any new idea can quickly become real.
That's the problem.
An exciting new idea mid-project is a distraction that may leave that previous project incomplete. After a few cycles of start → distraction → start → distraction, you may doubt your ability to finish a project.
I struggled with this. So I developed a simple process to protect myself from my shiny object syndrome and consistently finish the projects I started.
Capture
When an idea arrives, it's OK to take a moment to capture that idea. Ideally, you capture the minimum amount of information necessary to recall that idea in the near future.
Ideas are valuable. The main objective here is that you don't lose that idea, but it also doesn't take you out of the flow of what you're doing in the moment or your current priorities.
I had the idea for THIS essay several days ago. The note I captured simply said, "Document >> Organize >> Action." It only needs enough detail that when YOU see that note later, it prompts you to recall more about it (and, as you can see, the final form of that idea is a little bit different).
For me, I either text myself the idea or drop it into Notion via the "Mobile Inbox" widget I have on my phone:
Plan
When you have more time and space, you can fully flesh out these ideas. For me, that looks like creating a new document for Tasks, Projects, or Content Ideas.
The magic of expanding your notes on an idea is that it almost feels as good as executing it (and requires much less effort)!
I find that a lot of my "great ideas" actually die in this stage – because they weren't great ideas. They were just convenient distractions from whatever difficult thing I was doing when the idea sprang up.
Sometimes, these ideas actually feel better as I flesh them out more.
Most of my ideas are too big to be a single task. So I flesh them out into a full Project in CreatorHQ.
One recent project idea was my Signature Product course. I start with a short description of the project goal and even create sub-tasks related to that project. Those tasks don't necessarily need a Due Date right away, but I know that if/when I'm ready to start this project, a lot of the planning is already done.
Prioritize
Once an idea has been planned, it lives in an overall database (alongside other existing ideas). This is a great reminder of all the other supposed priorities you have in flight at any given time and a subtle nudge to maintain your focus.
Remember: As long as you make consistent progress each day, you will complete projects and move on to new ones. And if this new idea has continued to stick in your mind, you can put it into the queue of ideas you're already prioritizing.
My favorite way to prioritize project ideas is using Alex Hormozi's More, better, new framework:
Look at how you're getting customers now – what's working the best? You can likely do more of that thing. Find what's working and simply do more of it. This doesn't require new solutions or new creativity – just discipline to turn up the dial. It's the fastest, lowest-effort, highest-impact direction to go.
Better
If there's no obvious answer to the "more" approach, then look at how you can improve your existing systems. What's getting results but could be working a little bit better? A little bit more efficiently?
New
Only once you've exhausted more and better should you look at new. New means creating new things, such as new products or systems.
Creators tend to come up with ideas in the NEW category, which has the highest opportunity cost. As a result, we end up with many projects that never get beyond their V1.
This framework has helped me so much that I've added a Property to Projects in CreatorHQ to allow me to categorize each project by whether it's a more, better, or new idea:
At any time, I should be putting my effort into "More" projects before "Better" or "New."
Action
After you've wrapped up a current project and determined that this new idea is the next priority, you can jump into action now.
Sometimes, that will be months after you originally had the idea. Other times, it may be weeks or even days.
I find that my best ideas are the ones I've not taken action on for a long time but can't stop thinking about. The less time that has passed between having the idea and starting to take action, the more likely it is that this idea was a convenient distraction rather than a truly valuable idea.
Conclusion
We're really good at fooling ourselves. When we feel friction in our current work, we subconsciously invent new shiny objects to permit ourselves to step away. These all feel like great ideas at the time, but most aren't. And sometimes ideas are great for someone else but not you.
But truly great ideas arrive in the same way. The Capture, Plan, Prioritize process gives you the best of both worlds – you keep track of your ideas and even give yourself the ability to "work" on them briefly. But ultimately, it helps refocus you on your current priorities.
You can take this idea and manually integrate it into your current workflow, or you can use CreatorHQ, which has this workflow built right in. I use CreatorHQ every day, and I couldn't recommend it more highly.
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