The Problem With Having Too Many Good Ideas

Having a good idea is great. Having too many good ideas is a hindrance. This might sound like it shouldn't be an issue, but it is, and it plagues my time management. Every day I come up with an interesting concept that I perceive has value and that is asking for my attention. A lot of the time I think these ideas are perfect, but then two days later I bastardize them together into an even better one unable (or unwilling) to see fundamental flaws. It's a relentless process that doesn't stop. There are some glaring problems caused by this though, so let me explain where I am coming from.

Too Much of a Good Thing

Having ideas is great, and should never be knocked. The problem arises when you have too many ideas on a regular basis. I can come up with a new concept every day, and these ideas are usually something that I would definitely invest time in (and a lot of the time I do). This literally wreaks havoc upon my time usage, and makes completing projects a real uphill struggle due to getting sidetracked. Some of the ideas that I have are beyond my capabilities which is fine, because I can keep them on the back-burner. They give me the aspiration to get better at my craft and learn the required skills to make them an actuality. A lot of the time though, I am coming up with ways to work around my shortcomings. These ideas are the dangerous ones, because I believe them to be achievable.

The issue with this is that I generate a vast quantity of projects that I could work on, or that I start working on, and I do this very quickly over a short amount of time. This is usually to the detriment of projects currently being developed or quite far into prototype. 

Part of this is due to my short attention span. It's very easy to get caught up in the initial phases of prototyping, as that is where you can make huge amounts of progress very quickly. The feeling of achievement as you solve all of these massive early problems is intoxicating. You are compelled to push on and implement more and more components or features. Eventually you get to a point where the prototype does a lot of what you set out to complete and then you hit a productivity wall. It becomes less about massive steps, and more about tweaking what you have got. I think this is where I hit my hurdle.

There is a period of time where I have to wait for art and asset production, hit a wall that I cannot solve without help, or I have completed a lot of what I can accomplish with the core functionality. It is at this point that my mind starts to wander, and I start thinking of other ideas that I could work on. I generate more problems for me to solve when I could be fine tuning what I already have.

This all still sounds like a ridiculous self generated problem that shouldn't really cause any huge/far reaching issues though right? And under certain conditions it is.

But then you have to factor in other people and the problems begin to become a little more opaque. To a lot of the guys that I work with, I am the attention deficit kid that gets bored of their toys too quickly. I am the fickle person that is super passionate about a project one minute, but then discards it to the "something to do later" pile shortly after. Even though my inability to stay focused with a project is viewed as a humorous annoyance by others, it makes me mad at myself. One of the notable side effects of this is that bombarding your peers with ideas makes it very hard for them to get enthused over just one. And if you can't fire up the team, then your group productivity falls substantially.

So What Can a Person Do?

For me personally, this is an ongoing battle with myself, and one that I don't think I will ever truly win. I like generating new ideas, and I like working on new ideas. I have created a few workarounds to help mitigate the damage it does to my use of time however:

Write ideas in a big notebook

This sounds kind of obvious but it really does help. All of my ideas get written down before I do anything with them. It helps me consolidate my thoughts, and get a solid grasp of what I am thinking of. These ideas can vary in length and content (from an individual mechanic to a fully fledged pitch) but they all go in the book for a certain period of time before I do anything with them. People usually fall out of love with their ideas after a couple of weeks, so if you go back to it with a fresh set of eyes and it is still good, you know you are onto a winner.

Find those savage (and understanding) friends to destroy your ideas

Without a doubt this is the most important one to me. My ideas go through a phase I like to call "trial by Cris/Sam". I present my ideas to them with a little pitch. Responses are usually immediate and brutal, poking massive holes in areas I didn't even think could have holes. Usually it allows me to sort through the chaff and cut away all the non-essentials and leaves me with a component or mechanic that can be utilized somewhere else.

Be ruthless with your idea process

This for me is the hardest part. My ideas are my babies, and I love them all dearly. But like any pug owner, I sometimes choose to ignore the flaws, no matter how glaring. But in getting ruthless with my ideas, and acknowledging that a lot of them will be far from perfect, I am better able to focus on the good and discard the bad.

So in summary, too many ideas can seriously impact your time management and project completion abilities. Get savage with yourself, and prevent that precious time from being wasted! As always, this is my opinion and I am interested in other peoples thoughts!