Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever ~ Mahatma Gandhi
A habit that I have adopted over the years is to write down great ideas when I find them from others or think of them myself. In the past, I have done this as they come to me; but I have recently started doing this on a daily basis. I would like to invite you to consider a similar endeavor.
This particular “great idea” of mine to formalize the process of a daily recording of great ideas came about as a result of my creating a Python app called “Learning Log.” As some of my friends and family know, I engage nightly (usually in the wee hours of the morning) in studying a variety of subjects which include philosophy, statistics, economics, finance, Python programming, and many others – basically whatever interests me.
In doing the Python programming, I was studying a book called Python Crash Course (Matthes, 2019). One of the projects in the book was to create and publish the Learning Log app. Once I finished this project, I asked myself if there was some useful purpose I could think of for it. It then occurred to me that it could be a useful place for me and others to record our great ideas. Accordingly, I gave the app the URL name, Great-Idea-For-Today, which coincidently and conveniently is abbreviated, “GIFT” (I didn’t plan it that way – but noticed it after I created the URL. I guess that was an unintentional “great idea.” Some of the best ideas come about that way!).
So, here is what I suggest you do:
- Every day, try to find or think of one great idea.
- Great ideas can be anything – quotes like the one from Gandhi (above); new things you have learned; something you researched; something you learned in school, etc.
- Go to the Great-Idea-For-Today app and record your great idea(s). If you have more than one great idea, put them all down. But at least try to get one for each day.
- If you haven’t found or thought of your great idea for today, find one or think of one before you go to bed. Developing this habit is very important.
- When recording your great ideas, you can list them in any way that you would like to. The app is designed for complete flexibility. The way that I record my great ideas is to put them in categories that interest me. For example, I have categories for philosophy, research study, economics, finance, etc. I am adding new categories all the time.
- Please make a backup copy of your great ideas from time-to-time, as things go wrong in cyberspace and something could happen to the app. It would be a really great idea for you to have a backup copy (digital or print) in case something goes wrong.
- There are two known issues: (1) Category names cannot be edited or deleted; and (2) there is no way to recover a lost password – so keep your password in a safe place.
- Please see our Notices, Disclaimers, and Privacy Policy below.
- This is a totally free app for you to use.
Enjoy this endeavor. You will gain a great deal of wisdom by engaging in it. It’s really all about lifelong learning.
Reference:
Matthes, E. (2019). Python crash course: A Hands-on, projec-based introduction to programming. San Francisco, No Starch Press.