They say those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it… Don’t reinvent the wheel. You can “import” ideas across time and space. Look outside your area for new ideas that you can introduce to your circle. And look back in time to find forgotten ideas that you can bring back. Think how often that happens with songs. Here are just a few songs that you may not realize are actually covers:
Consider bringing it back. I know I’ve personally done that, partly because I’m a digital packrat. I rarely delete anything from my computer. As long as I have enough storage—and both hard drive and cloud-based storage is getting cheaper and cheaper—why should I? Even if my files aren’t well organized, a simple search on the computer can usually deliver what I’m looking for, and I can bring back an idea that most people have forgotten about. For instance, I recently wrote a continuing education class on an something you don’t hear about much anymore: medical expense reimbursement plans, or MERPS. I found some slides from a presentation I did about fifteen years ago, updated it, and called it “MERPs: an oldie but a goodie.” These tax-advantaged employee accounts were popular years ago, and one could argue that they would work even better today if implemented properly. Because I still had the old presentation, it was quick and easy for me to reintroduce this idea to health insurance agents.
I sort of think of these old files as a digital junkyard, where I can go pull the pieces I need to make a new presentation or article even better. And I’ve used this strategy again and again. It’s a real time saver.
A couple words of caution, though:
1) These old files should be somewhere separate from your current files; otherwise, it can get overwhelming. This can be easily accomplished by creating an “Archives” folder on your computer or cloud storage account and putting everything that isn’t current in it. This will help you stay much more organized with the files you use frequently, but you’ll still have access to the old stuff, just in case.
2) Be very careful about applying this idea to your physical world, because you definitely don’t want to let house turn into an actual junkyard. The truth is that most things, even if they objectively still have some value, will never be used again. If you upgrade to a new vacuum, for instance, the chances of you ever moving back to the old one are pretty small, so go ahead and get rid of it. Most people should not keep stuff around “just in case”. The exception is someone who is good at repurposing stuff and who has the room to store it. On HGTV’s “Fixer Upper,” Joanna Gaines would store old wood, furniture, and other cool items in a big shed. Then, when working on another house, she’d pull stuff from the shed that she could incorporate into the new design.
Recycled ideas. Think of all the movies they’re remaking and TV series they’re bringing back (The Conners, Sex & the City, Will & Grace, etc.).