I know that there are multiple devices that help you record your thoughts, ideas, visions and inspirations.
There are apps that simplify the process and help keep things neat and tidy.
Don’t get me wrong, I love my iPad – wouldn’t trade it.
But for me, nothing beats a little notebook.
I call it my PaperMind.
It’s my mind on paper.
Very stream of consciousness.
Sometimes messy.
Sometimes sporadic.
Most times, full of mistakes.
Just like my mind.

I prefer my PaperMind because:
1. It’s tangible
I love to feel the pen or the pencil on the paper.
2. It helps me stay loose
Trying to use my finger on a tablet is cool, but there is a fluidity that cannot be achieved when I use my entire arm, wrist and fingers to record some thoughts.
3. Doesn’t take a battery
It’s portable, it can sit in my blazing hot car and can double as a coaster.
4. It’s history
I am able to look at the evolution of an idea over a period of time. Some of my best logo designs and taglines have transformed over a series of 3 or 4 pages.

What do you do to record and keep your ideas as they come to you?

Every morning, I wake up and sit at my desk that faces a window.
With an unswerving devotion I sit there faithfully in the predawn hours, and though I find it counterintuitive, I work.
I write and I think and I create as I patiently wait for my Muse to dance at my window just one more time.

She is faithful.
She arrives as the sun peeks over the horizon.
She dances and she swings and she sways and she sings.
She leads me to another time, another space, another dimension — an alternate existence.
She inspires me.
She rouses the reluctant artist in my soul.

Actually I was recently informed that my Muse was my neighbour.
She was recently arrested for drunk and disorderly conduct.
I guess that explains why my Muse wore an oversized Tweety Bird shirt and put cigarettes out on my window whilst yelling profanities.
I just thought my Muse was hardcore.
I will miss her, and so will my work in the early morning hours.
I wonder if she has an equally deranged sister?

What inspires you to keep doing what you do?
What keeps you going?
I’ll go first.

When I grow up, I want to experience the staggering heights of owning my own successful business.  After I milk it for all it’s worth and lay off thousands, I will then drive it into the ground and blow all of my money.  After swallowing my tears among the urchins of the streets for 10 years, I will then start a new business and just do okay.  I will do all of this to inspire people.  Because I love to inspire people.