Scatterbrained or Creative?

I was in a meeting last week during which we were discussing ideas for storyboarding courses.  I commented that there are some great tools out there for those of us who are scatterbrained.  While I didn't think much of the definition of what I truly believe my thought pattern to be many times, there were others in the meeting very willing to defend me (against myself).  It got me to thinking further about the actual process I use when approaching a project and how it gets from my head to the finished product on the screen.

I mentioned that we were discussing different tools for storyboarding and there are some that I've found that help contain the process (whether scatterbrained or creative). The first I like to use is Prezi and if you haven't used this yet I highly encourage you to do so. One of the big selling points for me is that I'm able to just throw the ideas that come into my head onto the screen without worrying about where they fit into the puzzle until I'm ready. I recently used this for a presentation I gave and it was great, every time I remembered something I wanted to cover I put it out there and then when I was ready to formulate the speech I had all my ideas/pictures/etc. captured and I could easily put things in order. Another tool that is out there is Bubbl.us and it is great for brainstorming and goes along with the mind mapping method. It is also good for collaborating with various subject matter experts and all the information stays in one place.

Often when I receive a project it lands on my desk in any number of raw states.  I've gotten things as simple as a business card with a diagram on the back to fully developed PowerPoint's.  With this wide range there are of course variations on my process to get that finished product.  I will often times take a "once over" of the material and try to digest the information before I even start to think about the design of the course.  I've often found that after I've reviewed the material I need to set it aside for a couple of days until the ideas start to come forward in my head.  This is what leads me to feel a bit scatterbrained, especially when I've got several projects at various stages (for example I currently have 3 projects just about completed, 2 I'm at the digesting stage, 1 just came across on my email, 1 that needs updates - you get the picture).  I love it when I get that out of the blue "aha" moment for a project and then everything just starts to flow.  It is when these creative ideas start to flow that I also wonder if there is a method to the madness and I'm not scatterbrained but rather using a creative process that just seems that way.  Whatever it is, it works for me.