We learned the ideation processes of the predecessors. The process consists of many small tasks. I rearranged the small tasks into three phases - plowing, seedling and growing. We can manage the plowing phase and the growing phase. However, we can not manage the seedling phase. The seedling is not generated by effort. The seedling does not occur just by waiting. It occurs by chance.
So, when you do a task that need to create ideas, you need to plan on the assumption that the seedling will not occur. Let’s suppose you have to give a presentation about a new idea in a week. It is not good to plan based on the premise that a good idea is born. If you do so, when the idea is not born as planned, you will feel strong stress. The deadline is approaching, but there is no idea as planned. The stress harms your intelligence.
Instead, let’s record all temporary incomplete ideas in the plowing phase. Incomplete ideas are more valuable than perfect ideas that do not exist. And plan to move on to the growing phase with incomplete ideas if a good idea is not born within the planned period. You should start making presentation materials with incomplete ideas. (*1)
Let’s invest time in the plowing phase. To cultivate well increases the probability of idea generation. Also, if you spend your time waiting for a good idea to be born, you will not have enough time to grow the idea. Let’s secure time to grow it in advance. By subtracting the time necessary for growing from the deadline, you can make the advance deadline. It shows how long you can spend on the plowing phase. We should manage what we can manage and we should not manage what we can not manage. It is the utmost effort to produce good ideas.
Footnote *1: Related quote: Done is better than perfect. It is a motto of Facebook.