Q.
Do you have an idea pad – either paper or a dedicated section in your phone notes? Over centuries, great innovators have jotted their lightbulb ideas and preliminary art sketches in portable journals. Can idea pads boost our personal creativity?

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A.
Yes! Fleeting ideas are a menace. They light up our brains at inopportune times then resist later attempts to recreate them. Wily creators have long carried notebooks wherever they go to trap those inklings before they slide out.

Idea books also help us with:

a. generating more ideas – more bad, more good.

b. stimulating divergent thought.

c. tapping into different types of creativity. The artist writes more. The scientist takes to drawing.

d. making connections between seemingly unrelated ideas – the basis for so many great innovations. Einstein called it combinatory play.

One advantage of portable paper over stylus pens and touch screens? If your creative doodles spark future genius, your paper journal will be much more compelling for others to review.

Some inspiring examples from creators past:

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Jean-Michel Basquiat

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Beethoven

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Agatha Christie

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Marie Curie

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Thomas Edison

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Frida Kahlo

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Isaac Newton

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Picasso

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Beatrix Potter

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Leonardo da Vinci

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www.justcurious.ca

Header. The Diary of Frida Kahlo. An Intimate Self-Portrait.