Everyone has ideas - good, bad, outlandish, innovative, safe, we all think of ways to improve and change our everyday lives. For me, I'm struck with ideas at odd hours for a variety of topics - whether it be social media based or a new way to watch sports, I often have ideas that I either don't have the opportunity to follow through on, or can't due to a lack of a particular skill. I'm certainly had a few crazy ideas, and hopefully a few good ones, but the one thing all my ideas have in common is this: They all end up in the Graveyard of Good Ideas.
The Graveyard of Good Ideas was something that a few programs directors at my old summer camp came up with after getting frustrated that they couldn't execute them for any number of reasons. Rather than discard the ideas completely, they took a plank of wood that looked suspiciously like a tombstone, nailed it to the wall of their office, labeled it "Graveyard of Good Ideas", and wrote all of their abandon ideas on it in Sharpie. Even as the faces at the camp changed and new directors used the office, the Graveyard was still there, with an ever growing and expanding list of concepts. Eventually, ideas for new events and programs came off the Graveyard and were implemented - some a couple years after they were conceived, and some almost 10 years later - and they were crossed off the plank.
When I got to college, I created my own Graveyard of Good Ideas - first starting out with my own plank of wood that I had in my desk, and slowly evolving it to a Word document on my computer. My list wasn't targeted like the one at camp, but rather anything that I thought of and wanted to remember - almost a diary of sorts, but with one line comments. My college lists focused on study techniques (ok, it had maybe 2 but still), broadcasting for the student radio station, and a ton of ideas for my fraternity chapter, many of which ended up getting used.
I still keep a Graveyard of Good Ideas, although it has evolved with technology - it's now on Evernote so I can access it from my phone, and has more formatting because I'm a stickler for pretty looking documents. However, it has become even more important to my professional and personal development, especially when it comes to job hunting. I have about 3 pages of ideas in the Graveyard right now based on jobs I have applied for, most of which could be implemented in days of starting a new career. I used the Graveyard to keep my mind and skills sharp for interview prep, and to challenge myself to create something unique that a team or company would be interested in if they were to hire me.
Most of the ideas in the Graveyard have gone there to die - they either are too complicated to ever be implemented, or they wouldn't be relevant now with advances in technology or social media technique. Some are there because I lack the technical skills to complete them right now. However, the idea behind the Graveyard - the reason why I still use it and the reason why I encourage everyone to have their own equivalent - is to keep you thinking, creating, and challenging yourself to make something new and exciting. Even if it can't be done, getting the idea down is a great way to keep innovating, and you never know when that idea might be resurrected for use.