Don’t hang on to bad ideas

Posted by Jaan on October 15th, 2008 | Add your comment

I came across the Adaptive Path Web 2.0 Expo presentation “10 Tools for Managing a Creative Environment” today while working on a client project.

Point seven is “Kill your darlings softly. Put something in a ‘parking lot of ideas’ until it fits in a different context.”

I think we all have a short-list of ideas and general stuff that we’re hoping may one day be allowed to blossom. That’s fine, and an “idea book” (or “black book” as Andreas likes to call it) should be part of every web workers tool box.

But if there is a need to “kill your darlings” it has to happen swiftly. If an idea or concept doesn’t contribute to an overall project goal, it needs to be taken out and no longer be allowed to suck up time, energy and attention. Waiting for ideas to work is as useless as waiting for slacker team members to pick up the pace and contribute.

And possibly the biggest downside to keeping “bad” ideas parked is that they take up mental space from new ideas. Don’t do it.