One of the most productive uses for a journal is to just sit down to figure things out.  When things stick in your mind or there is a decision to make or a problem to solve, your journal can be the perfect place to get it all sorted out before you make a move.  Using your journal for something as simple as a sounding board for you ideas can take you a long way toward refining them.

I discovered a book a few years ago that addresses this very subject.  Its called Accidental GENIUS; Revolutionize Your Thinking Through Private Writing (Mark Levy).  It’s a short but powerful book that takes you through several techniques of uncovering your own genius, creativity and problem solving skills.  These techniques include fast, nonstop timed freewriting, having conversations with the page and finding (or not finding) evidence to support ideas.

The book is short and to the point.  Reading it is a small investment in time that can lead to BIG changes in the way you approach your thought processes.

I find it usefull to use some of these techniques with a two-page-spread that I’ve discussed earlier.

I have to admit I get interested in a lot of things.  Sometimes there is no rhyme or reason to what I am suddenly interested in.  I might start out the day with a slight interest in soap carving and suddenly around lunchtime I am introduced and obsessed with the Tung shing (Chinese almanacs).  I am only partly responsible for this.  Yeah I am easily distracted but the Internet is MADE to take me from one subject to another.  What’s a guy to do?

Well I take a page (figuratively and literally) from Barbara Sher’s book, Refuse to Choose.  Barbra identifies with so many of us that go through a half a dozen interests a day.  She has coined the term “scanner” for us.  She realizes that for most of these ideas and interests we don’t necessarily want to get a Ph.D. in the subject but feel the need to at least explore it for an indefinite amount of time.  She suggests the use of a journal that she calls a daybook to record these ideas for later and to explore them for as long as we feel compelled to.

The main tool I’ve adopted from this concept is her use of a two-page spread in the daybook.  Basically what it amounts to is opening your journal (this works great with larger format books) and using two facing pages to record everything regarding the subject you are pursuing.  Anytime you are researching this subject, you turn back to this spread and just add to it.  Soon you have a spread that is very dense with lists, names, websites, drawings, mind maps and thoughts.  It’s all neatly contained on the two-page spread for later reference if needed so you don’t have to cull the information from various pages scattered throughout the book.  If you need more than a two page spread, make another.  I generally use the next spreads to explore a detail from the first spread.

A quick 2-page spread planning a hiking trip to Moab this year.

Uses I’ve found for a two-page spread:

Taking a trip to a new city?  Do some research on what you might like to do there.

Buying a camera? List your pros and cons, wish lists and price lists and even glue in some pictures from the web.

A day at the beach? Sketch some shells and then later you can identify them.

Reading a good book?  Keep notes on the mystery or info from the biography.

Joined a new club?  List new friends names, meeting times, buzzwords etc.