It's deep into the night. Everyone and everything is quite. Except your mind.
Thoughts seem to be racing and you now have a dozen ideas for a dozen problems you or someone you know have. They all sound amazing, like things you really need to say or do or plan further.
And now you feel anxious. It's deeper into the night. Your mind won't be quite any time soon, you know it. And the worst part? Experience says you will not remember most of these great ideas, and the others will probably sound dumb in the morning.
So, what can we do when inspiration strikes at midnight?
Of memory and fear
Not remembering is something our brains sometimes (the worst times) excel at. You remember that song from your childhood's summer lyrics, but can't muster the details of that world and life changing idea you had last night.
Our memories are tricky things, and we better not over rely on them. The good news is that we have tons of tools to solve that at our disposal.
Whether if you have an advanced and fancy note taking system in place or you just use Notes on your phone, the best thing you can do is just put those thoughts down.
Of course, turning your phone could expose you to time sinks and dopamine dispensers like your favorite social media or something cool on your inbox, but keeping your data or WiFi off and just sticking to open your notes can help you get straight to the point.
Notes can then be organized by tags or whatever your note taking system has as a process, but even having it down is useful already. Don't forget to check it again tomorrow! Or at least make them easy to find next time.
Another tricky thing to keep in mind is fear. It's probably what makes our ideas look dumb in the morning. Fear of doing something dumb to solve an important problem. Fear of saying something to the actual person, instead of the mental version you have of them. Fear will make your ideas look smaller, and you feel guilty for not sleeping for useless ideas.
That's ok. Our fears get in the way of trying things out and adapting on the process. Reviewing your notes should not happen as you take them, but rather on the next day. You must stick to write those notes as pure as they come.
Mind download as an exercise for sleeping
Translating everything in your mind down to paper (or most likely virtual space) can help release all of those thoughts without feeling like they were not important.
Giving ideas and thoughts a place outside of your skull might be the exact remedy you are looking for, instead of simply spending the whole night thinking about everything all at once.
Try notes next time you have a thoughts midnight strike. I hope it can help you the way it's helping me right now.