Generate Ideas

Evening Reflection: Mike Pesca of The Gist interviewed professional storyteller Matthew Dicks, who shares a daily exercise useful for training attentiveness and generating ideas. At bedtime, Dicks says, think of the one story from the day that has the greatest meaning—something that made that particular day different from all the rest. Take just one to five minutes to write that story down. This refines our lens, he says.

He writes the stories in a spreadsheet, stretching the column about three quarters of the way across the screen and limiting himself to that space. The people who fail at the exercise and give up tend to write too much. Do it daily for only five minutes or less, though, and you’ll have material to last a lifetime. I’ve begun this practice, and it trains me to be attentive as I faithfully reflect on and record the most meaningful event of the day. Not only do I have ideas to write about—I end up with a succinct record of my days.