Avoid Too Much "Buffering" to Stay Creative

Staying creative is tough enough as it is, but eventually you end up with a backlog of ideas sitting around that you plan on getting to at some point. That's great to a point, but Fast Company points out that your backlog, or "buffer" can sabotage your creativity moving forward.

A buffer is a collection of ideas for something you want to do. That's great, but it might also mean you're not paying attention to what's happening right now:

My friend Peter Bregman confided that he also had a folder with article ideas and snippets, just in case his creative well ran dry as a deadline approached... When he realized that he always had something new and fresh to say—that in fact, having something new and fresh to say was his impetus to write in the first place—he deleted the folder and trusted the future.

Keeping notes of your ideas and preparing for deadlines certainly isn't a bad thing, but Fast Company's point here is when you "buffer" too far, when you're too prepared in advance, you might lose touch with what's going on right now.