Notebook Snippets As Screen Savers

Susan diRende
Aug 25, 2017 · 2 min read

“Call me crazy. Really. It’s on my birth certificate.”

I wrote this in a notebook some time last year. I have been tormented by short entries like this as I have been transcribing my travel journals and random notes from my life on the road. I don’t want to toss them but whenever I’ve collected them in documents, they vanish into the random wasteland of forgotten files.

I’ve tried post-its and file cards, but they end up just being clutter subject to the normal human clutter blindness. These work fine for “to do” items, but not for the dreaming pool of possibility that my unconscious taps for inspiration.

So I came up with an idea this time that I’d like to share: infographic screensavers.

I make these snippets into text over bright backgrounds and save them as images to a single folder. That folder is then designated for my screensaver. Now these random ideas cycle through and occasionally trigger a bit or work or follow through. If one passes usefulness or ends up getting used in finished work, I can delete it by dragging it out of the folder.

I’ve been so happy with it that I’ve started getting creative, putting images with the words sometimes. I’ve never been so happy to have my screensaver kick in. Sometimes, if I’m working but haven’t input anything for a while, the screen will fade to black while it’s accessing the screensavers. I used to hit the space bar right away to keep my screen active. Now I wait for it, wondering what will pop up for me from my collected bits of creative confetti tossed in a celebration of happy ideas.

)

Susan diRende

Written by

Author. Artist. Philosopher Clown. Founder of Broad Humor.

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade