This article was first published in French on Medium by Sarah Jammernegg, former and beloved facilitator of Stormz. She's now freelance facilitator in Nantes, France.

Two years ago, we took a leap of faith. We packed our bags and left the bustling metropolis for another, smaller, city. Freed from our jobs, my spouse and I decided to take some time for ourselves. Oh? Really? Yes. Back then, I wanted to write. I had an incredible urge to do so. But you know the strangest thing about it? The inspiration had suddenly left me. Poof. Absconded.

Four months. That’s how long it took for this article to be written. Four months spent in utter idleness, doing absolutely nothing of my so-precious time. Up until the day when I finally decided to take matters into my own hands and got down to writing this little “tutorial” for all those of you who, like me, struggle to make sense of what’s going on in their minds. This was two years ago… Flashback!

Nantes, July 21st, 2016

One month. One month has passed since we left Paris; quit our jobs, put all our stuff in boxes, temporarily stayed at friends’ flats, drove several times, back and forth, 450 km to get everything, move in, unpack, eat pizzas 4 times a week due to a lack of oven. An incredibly busy, intense and helter-skelter month. Longer days should be specifically invented for that type of occasion.

Once our last souvenir-plate of the Mont Saint Michel had been unpacked and dutifully displayed on the mantelpiece, something strange happened: I didn’t have anything to do anymore. Days just… went by. From quick luncheons to Leroy Merlin outings, hours just slipped away, slowly, naturally. No employer, no night out with friends, no exercise, no schedule… Nothing, nada, nichts!

But you know what’s great about boredom? It makes you think. So, I started to think: when I was working, I had at least 15 different ideas and dozens of projects every day (becoming a dog breeder, opening a pastry shop, travelling the world in a van, learning Italian or Slovenian, opening a burger restaurant (before it was hip!), and many, many others!). Quite naturally – and, as I soon realized, naïvely – I thought that once I freed myself from all professional duties, I would finally have the time to work on all these projects; and I mean every single one of them (being optimistic is no sin)! All I needed, I thought back then, was more time.

But now, with all the time in the world, I found myself completely uninspired and unmotivated. What a waste! At the exact moment everything seemed possible and after I had left my job precisely to create something! Something had to be done. That’s when I started to put my ideas in order. To do so, I used a SaaS tool, Stormz, created by the eponymous start-up where I worked for the two previous years – two years which happened to be, probably, the most inspiring ones of my career.

Ready? Here’s, step by step, the method I followed

It’s not easy to remember everything! In 10 years, I’ve had ideas with great potential, if only I had had the courage to follow them through (remember the burger restaurant?). In order not to miss out on the next little nugget, I had to go through it all over again.

I started by rereading my old files, notebooks or emails I had sent to myself before Google Drive was invented… Slowly, an idea summoned up another, and I managed to unearth projects of all kinds, from the most whimsical to the most promising ones. I noted all of them down, even those I didn’t really like anymore. I also made a list of my interests, yearnings and non-professional projects (theatre, learning how to sing or sew…).

End result: nearly 30 idea cards (NDLR: since then, I thought of 15 new ones!). To think that I didn’t know what to do with my free time…

To make sense of it all, I split the whole and categorized the ideas into smaller groups (we call this « clusterization »). Categories can evolve and vary from one individual to the other. Ideas and projects can, for instance, be divided following the type of activity (training, leisure, start-up…) or the industry (sports, consulting, IT, restauration). Personally, I preferred the latter.

I had to face it: an entire lifetime would never be enough to implement even a third of the projects I had written down. I had to choose and prioritize to be able to make real progress. For every project, I created three assessment criteria: the pro’s, the con’s and the obstacles. Different “filters” can of course be used, and many well-established methods exist for that purpose (PINC, PPCO, Pro/Con, Obstacles/Levers, 5P…). Stormz is an excellent tool and provides you with countless ready-to-use templates. Keep in mind that what’s most important is to find the most relevant framework able to address your own personal situation.

In my case, I had to find a way to “filter” as much as possible. By analysing the pro’s and con’s, I would first be able to eliminate the most unrealistic ideas in the short-term (learn how to sing, for instance – you’ve got talent or you don’t). The third criterion on the obstacles would then help me identify anything that could come in the way of my aspirations and what should be done to overcome it.

There, my goal was to find the idea that really stood out, or identify at most 2/3 projects – mutually compatible, if possible. Obviously, it would be hard to open simultaneously four companies in the food industry and consulting sector, or take up two new sports and one training at the same time. On the other hand, getting back to sports, dedicating myself to a specific training program and then attempting to create my own company seemed fairly possible.

Once more, several methods are possible: with Stormz, you can vote for ideas and give them points. With so many cards and being the only voter, I considered this method wouldn’t be the most efficient (I would’ve ended up giving 100 points to all of them). I preferred an approach directly linked to my own goals. My priority was to start with a project which had a strong financial potential, achievable with my low income and – above all – that really motivated me. For every project, I gave a note from 1 to 10 for each one of these criteria to identify the top 3.

Sometimes, an outside point of view helps get a more comprehensive and objective understanding of what’s at stake. Whether it’s a criteria-based assessment or a pro/con list, friends, relatives or colleagues can help you solve your personal dilemma and conundrum. Don’t be shy to ask them, moderately, and of course, always keep in mind that the final decision is up to you.

Conclusion

The first positive outcome of this process was that it really helped me get back on my feet and act. My motivation grew stronger, as did my involvement and interest in daily activities (I had to find an official status to work as a freelance consultant and facilitator, something I had been postponing for months). My ideas are clearer and more structured, and I summoned the strength to write my first article for this blog, which had remained empty since April!

The second positive outcome: I quickly saw where I wanted to go and what didn’t really pique my interest. I didn’t go through step 4 as one of the ideas clearly stood out even before the assessment. Since then, everything fell into place as naturally as could be. I’m now extremely busy learning Ruby / Ruby on Rails development, the first step of a wider and much more ambitious project which I hope to tell you more about very soon!