Why getting your thoughts out there makes such a difference

Frances Hatch

Keeping a sketchbook, notebook or journal can help connect your thinking, make learning more productive, and increase creative thought and action.

Why? We think it’s got lots to do with the fact that if you keep a sketchbook, you are more likely to externalise your thoughts. And if you externalise thoughts, we suggest several things happen:

Stage 1. If you get in to the habit of carrying your sketchbook around with you, it becomes an extension of your thought and action. It becomes easy to jot down thoughts/ideas/references as they present themselves to you. Nothing gets lost in the fray; everything gets recorded and saved.

Stage 2. Moreover, once you start to get into the habit of jotting down even the smallest thing which appeals, or resonates, or captures your imagination, you begin to tune in further to your thoughts and thought processes. As a process, it’s fascinating how once you begin to pay attention to your thoughts, and nurture an awareness of your thinking, the whole thing steps up a cycle and more thinking seems to occur.

Stage 3. As well as thinking more about something, you’ll find that your thinking becomes more creative – with sudden leaps and gradual journeys. Once your thinking/sketchbook work is at Stage 2, and your head is fully occupied with your learning, you’ll find that when things occur in your day to day life which are outside your learning, you start to refer these occurrences back to your learning. You thinking becomes more “open” (lateral): that is you start to cross-reference, think playfully and think about new scenarios. This is when creative thinking really starts to grow.

Stage 4. Throughout this process, and as your sketchbook starts to grow, you’ll be keen to reflect upon your work – flicking through yesterdays, last weeks, or last years sketchbooks or notebooks becomes a huge pleasure, a satisfying resource, and a confidence booster. This is your head, made real. It’s your thinking: as a series of snapshots. It’s a richness of thought which might otherwise have been lost.

What Next?

See an exercise which helps you learn how to externalise your thoughts: Out of your head and into the book…