Maybe you return to your old notes, maybe you refine them and turn them into something incredible.

But, if you're like me, those notes just sit on your desk until you throw them away. Or you take another crack at them, but they never seem to inspire the way you hoped they might. You try to rework them into something usable, but then you give up.

And now you need a new idea. So you set aside some time, sit down to work — and repeat the same creative process. You struggle to find an idea, second guess yourself and decide to tackle this another day.

Lots of people burn out and give up.

Which makes sense. This process is exhausting. Revisiting a frustrating and difficult process where you don't see results will wear you out.

I've seen people repeat this process so often that they become convinced that they are not capable of creative, meaningful work. What other conclusion is there? If every time you sit down to do this work, it's a deep struggle — doesn't that mean you aren't very creative? 

It's not an exaggeration to say that the system I've developed has greatly improved my life. Now, when I sit down to do work, I'm not straining to generate ideas or "be creative."

Instead, I'm looking through my enormous catalog of high-quality material and building fresh, new concepts related to my previous notes. I'm developing unique and exciting work by investigating the relationships between different ideas.

Now, when I sit down for any creative work, I'm excited by what I might find. A significant source of tension and pressure has been removed from my process because I'm never starting from scratch.

You're going to love building this system — it will change how you work and think. Once you've developed a few ideas — typically between 5 and 10 — you'll start getting momentum. You'll be amazed at how rewarding it feels to capture and develop ideas. It won't be long and you'll have a library of high-quality material. You'll have an ever-expanding storehouse of building blocks for your future work.

And while this may seem geared toward certain types of creative work, I promise you that these concepts are applicable across fields and disciplines.

If you're an aspiring cook or chef and want to document what you're learning — this is a tremendous system. If you're doing research and need a system to store your work — this is for you. I know people who have applied these concepts to everything from parenting to gardening and found it extremely helpful.

The beauty of this system is flexibility and customization. You can scale this system to highly complex levels — or keep things remarkably simple. The goal is to help you create a tool that serves you, so you don't need to rely on generating ideas off the top of your head.