Nebula:
- Directed & undirected thinking/creating
- Input
- Gather ideas
- Undirected (freestyle)
- Generate ideas
- Semi-directed
- Connect ideas
- Think about X (more general)
- Directed
- Refine ideas
- Think about X (more specific)
- Input
- General ideas
- We have mental and physical energy, which is exerted on doing activities, which are usually a combination of mental and physical activities; hence, mental and physical energy usage overlaps substantially.
- We can impose constraints on how to use our energy, to achieve more with that energy.
- For one, we can impose the physical constraint of “do nothing” (e.g. no housework, homework, workout, etc.) and so, all our energy is diverted to the mind, and generating thought. This is “undirected thinking” time; while physically constrained, you are mentally completely free to pursue whatever avenue appeals in the moment. But restricting yourself in this way allows you to direct your energy beam into the mind, from which it becomes undirected. So paradoxically, this undirected thinking actually originates from some kind of direction.
- We can also impose and additional mental constraint: on top of not being “allowed” to do anything physical, you are also only allowed to entertain thoughts that pertain to a specific matter (e.g. solving a particular problem, answering a particular question, contemplating a particular idea). This is “directed thinking”.
- The aim is to impose these constraints for a finite period of time (e.g. 15 minutes), allowing yourself only e.g. a notebook and potentially laptop purely for recording thoughts (no input, only processing and output), and see what your mind generates.