My Idea Lab
Microseason No. 48, October 3-7
This is where I can hear myself think in a noisy world.
I call it my Idea Lab. It’s made of paper, ink and my thoughts.
This lab is simple, analog, and unplugged— except for the great music playing in the background. (Who can think properly without great music?) It’s a collection of ideas that I’m slowly building. These are insights rather than a collection of mere facts or information. By that I mean, if an idea is common knowledge or something that I can easily look-up on the internet or at the library, it doesn’t belong in my box.
These are my creative concoctions: my own words and thoughts written on 4x6 inch index cards. They’re ready to be mixed and made into something useful. Mostly, my Idea Lab is a collection of my current favorite questions and answers to think about. My cards are contained in a wooden box that I bought at a thrift shop.
Behind my box is an old chalkboard, where I keep track of the 72 microseasons arranged like a Periodic Table of Elements. Why? Well, I just like an antique science aesthetic. It makes my strange mind very happy and entices me to use it.1
How do I know what to add to my box? I curate tightly, only adding questions that I am excited about trying to answer. Living with the questions and searching for answers is an ongoing practice. It gives me a way to focus my efforts here at Microseasons— a way to pause and consider an idea before I share it with you.
It is a safe space to develop ideas.
See what happens when you try to put words to a thought that interests you.
See if the thought you’re interested in becomes sharper and clearer by making a sentence from it.
It may become more obscure. What does that tell you?
Don’t panic, keep working at it.
—Verlyn Klinkenborg
Several Short Sentences About Writing (p. 98). Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.
An Example From My Cards:
The Human Tendency to Stagnate: The Problem of Plodding Through Life on Automatic Pilot
Question:
How can I stay in the flow of my life and keep starting fresh each day, remembering who I am and why I’m here? In other words, how can I keep falling in love with my life and avoid doing things by default?
My (Evolving) Answer:
For me, it’s about Energy + Time
Walking in the forest checks a lot of boxes for me: prayer/meditation, healthy movement, time with my dog, sensory stimulation and enjoyment, photography, scientific curiosity, imaginative thinking space, problem-solving, creative writing and more.
Observing the microseasons has become a practice that helps me to stay present, inspired, and creatively engaged. It encourages me to reverence the time I’ve been given, so that I might share that energy with others.
It also renews and refreshes me for my clinical work.
Large or small problems are all fair game. I try to choose things that I can potentially make progress on. And things that make make me stop and think in new or unexpected ways.
The late Paulus Berensohn, a former art teacher at The Penland School, encouraged students to find inspiring ways to hang out with their thoughts. He wanted them to seduce themselves into deeper thinking by making their creative practices more beautiful.
Beauty feeds and excites the mind. There’s no better place than the autumn woods to inspire my deep thinking. I always come home refreshed and ready to focus.
Why create an Idea Lab?
For me, it’s a way to get a good look inside my own mind. I’m encouraged to think in writing, thus externalizing ideas into words, and revealing their clearer meaning. In doing so, I’m also challenged to discern whether or not an idea should go into my box at all. I clarify what I truly care about.
And, this is a big one for me: It’s Analog— a break from glowing screens! I have a special place to play with my ideas and explore deep curiosities. I can touch my ideas with my hands and move them around. Problems become like ongoing puzzles to solve. My cards allow me to follow a chain of interests letting one idea point to the next.
Sometimes ideas “cross-pollinate” and create something entirely new for the mind. That’s a golden moment. This is how I obliquely found out about the ancient idea of the microseasons.
Throughout the pandemic, my Idea Lab has helped to calm and ground me in order to serve others better—at home and in my clinical work. I have a number of cards that speak to me specifically about my vocation. They help encourage, inspire, and keep me on-mission.
Also, don’t be afraid to write an encouraging note to yourself and tuck it in the box. You might want to save it to read on a difficult day. A gift from past-you to future-you.
And speaking of gifts, I’ll leave you with a picture of my sassy senior citizen Hiking Buddy, who’s sticking his tongue out like a grumpy lil’ grampa. God, I love him so.
Does your note making system entice you?
Is it beautiful?
Can you make it more to your liking?
Why not try and see what happens?!
For Further Inspiration: Take a look at Khim Tan’s system2 .
His card system is built around several big questions about the field of product design. Each question and its solution cards are assigned a single color: blue, yellow, or green. When he comes up with a new solution (by his own experience) he adds a pink card to the grouping.
I’ll see you in the next microseason,
xo Ann
I should mention that Microseasons HQ is just a little corner of our kitchen, which works just fine for me :)
Khim Tan has figured out The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up for the mind. Impressive.
I love your idea lab! I enjoy witnessing the results of your experiments with deeper living.
Thank you for inviting us to visit your lab, Ann!
(Also: wuff, Killian, good dog.)