Capturing big ideas

Something struck me while listening to a recent episode of Cal Newport's podcast. He was talking about systems for capturing ideas and he mentioned how the people who really make their living from ideas or do important things, don't have systems at all. Essentially if an idea sticks with them long enough, they constantly develop it and re-work it in their head to the point that it's something that feels important enough to develop and execute.

This resonated with me on one level, but also does not capture the entirety of my personal experience. On one hand, I absolutely agree that my biggest ideas stick with me. I try not to jump from thing to thing too quickly and I let ideas sit for a quite a while before I start execution, and very few have lasted to the point that I actually did anything about them.

My business, Epilocal, is an example of this, as well as a few side-projects I have done related to the business, this blog and eventually the long-form articles that will come out of it, as well as an idea I can't shake about pursuing writing that somehow blends my experiences of an American living abroad and looking in from Europe and Greece more specifically. At some point, I'm sure I will develop this concept further as I continue executing on the other big ideas that form my current activities.

That being said, around January, I started capturing my smaller ideas in Notion, and I've been really happy with the results. I don't think any really big ideas will come out of there, but it does help me with the execution of my big ideas. I am able to jot quick thoughts about little things I can do with my business or content ideas for this blog. It has definitely been a worthwhile exercise in getting more of my little ideas on paper and putting them to use in some form. But I do take the big point, which is that the big ideas will stay with you... and that's the way it's been for me too.