A single thought called ThinkTank stores thoughts that don’t yet have an obvious connection to elsewhere in a brain. It is an in-tray where you can put thoughts, links and notes when you don’t have time to organise them immediately (i.e.. you would rather focus on the content of Thoughts rather than the tool).
Intent
The purpose of the Thinktank pattern is to prevent the interruption of a research/thinking/learning activity.
Yannick Bollati contributed the initial idea to the PersonalBrain Forum and describes the Thinktank pattern as:
This is a thought that I use as a temporary holding place for new unconnected ideas or information. During the day if I have a new idea I don’t have the time to really think it through and connect it to all the other thoughts its related to, I just enter this new thought as a child of Thinktank. Later I review what’s in the Thinktank. Each of those thoughts are reviewed and if any good connected slowly to other thoughts in the brain. When the new thought is “connected enough” to the rest of the brain, I “forget” the link with the Thinktank. The new thought has now found its natural context. It’s natural habitat…”
Yannick Bollati, PersonalBrain forum post
The Thinktank pattern is no different from a Getting Things Done inbox where ideas are captured for later processing. Others capture information in a Daily note.
Consequences
The Thinktank pattern can lead to an overwhelm of unprocessed Fleeting notes.
There is a balance to be made between the frequency of emptying the Thinktank note into other parts of a Personal knowledge management system and the number of thoughts within it. More thoughts means greater visual complexity yet creates greater opportunities for themes or patterns of thoughts. It is the bane of all personal knowledge managers.
Implementation
- Create a note explicitly for the capture of new ideas (it could also be a folder depending on the tools used). In The Quantum Garden Vault, it is a root folder called
+. Others will use a Daily note for this purpose. - Add ideas throughout the day as they occur.
- Process the list regularly.
Multiple notes can exist. The Quantum Garden Vault has one for Ideas on what to write about or website changes as well.