You know what drives me crazy? Getting good ideas when I’m doing something else that requires my attention.

Like driving to work, for instance.

I get lots of great ideas while driving to work.

But it’s hard to jot down those ideas for later when I must concentrate on the cars around me.

And the ideas come mid-way through the commute.

So, I’m not actually thinking about them when I arrive at work.

So, they aren’t top of mind when I get out of the car.

So, they kind of get lost.

The good ideas come back.  Sometimes.

It would be great if I could pull over immediately and write them down.

I could rig up something to take voice activated notes.

But the next problem is that I don’t have that surge of motivation later. The one that comes with the creative impulse when it firsts hits.

Strike while the fire is hot.

My motivation is cool or frozen by the time I can explore my creative impulse.

When I worked in Toronto, every couple of months, I would have to go into work on a Saturday night.

For server maintenance.

And on those commutes, I would get all kinds of ideas.

Snippets of inspiration.

I wasn’t trying to be creative. 

They just came.

I had the same problem though.

By the time I stopped the car, my thoughts had moved on to something else and I forgot about the inspiration.

Or the idea didn’t have the same “juice” when I came back to it later.

The creativity crisis for me is being able to act on the creative impulse when I get it.

The thing is, I don’t get these great ideas every day.

Inspiration doesn’t come on demand.

But it is something for me to think about.

What if I tried to recreate some of those situations when I did have time?

I could try going for drives on the weekend…

And then I could pull over when inspiration hit.

If it hits.

I can’t be sure that inspiration would strike.

But I can try to recreate the circumstances that generate them.

And do it at a time that is convenient for me.  Instead of whining that they come at inconvenient times.