Posted on
December 30, 2011 by Debbie Dragon
Ideas and
inspiration can strike at any moment. You may have ideas for a new business, a
product or service, or new ways of improving the efficiency of your operations.
Regardless of what your ideas are about, if you don’t want those ideas to
disappear from your memory as fast as they arrived, you need to develop an organized
method for recording your ideas when they occur – and another plan for what to
do with all of those ideas you generate.
Digital-Based Idea Organization
You’ve probably
discovered it doesn’t work to jot down ideas in your mobile phone, laptop,
tablet and computer depending on where you are when inspiration strikes –
because you have no idea where anything is later when you need to put those
ideas into action!
Your best
solution is to implement a web based application that you can access from any
of your internet-connected gadgets. This way, you can add ideas wherever you
are, with whatever devices you happen to have with you at the moment, and they
will all be in one, organized place for later retrieval.
You might keep
it as simple as using Google Docs, and create folders for each topic you come
up with ideas for (advertising, training, products and services, etc). Within
each folder, you might then have a document of ideas pertaining to each topic.
If you want to save web pages, you can create a spreadsheet of links within
each topic and jot down a description or why you have saved that site in your
idea bank.
If you are a
fan of mind mapping for idea generation, you might like Comapping –
an online version that lets you keep track of your ideas and tasks in a single
map. You can use it alone or share it with others.
Alternatively,
if you like to see your ideas alongside the tasks you’re currently working on
or the projects you are responsible for – you might try using an all-in-one
solution like a web based project management system. There are several on the
market, including paid software and free options. WorkZone allows
you to set up your entire work responsibilities, personal to do lists, and make
use of the popular Gantt charts. Create a project for ideas and keep adding to
it – the benefit to this system is you can literally schedule ‘due dates’ to
remind yourself to review ideas and put them into action later so they don’t
just get recorded and forgotten.
Paper-Based Idea Organization
Many people
find a three-ring binder is ideal for keeping their ideas organized. You can
quickly jot down ideas as they occur to you, no matter where you are, and slide
them into the appropriate section of your binder. You can also print
information from a computer and insert into your binder, or rip pages from
magazines and newspapers. Office supply stores sell inexpensive dividers that
allow you to label each section in your binder. The labels you use will depend
on the type of ideas you are organizing, but some examples may be: Advertising
Ideas, Increasing Efficiency, Staff Training, New Products/Services, etc. For
paper that is the wrong size for 3-hole punches, you can include dividers with
pockets, or insert a folder to hold odd-shaped paper.
You might also
decide to use the expanding accordion-style folders. If you use these to
organize your ideas into the various pockets, it’s recommended that you
purchase the flexible plastic type rather than the cardboard file folders, as
they will hold up longer.
Whichever paper-based organizational method you
choose, you will still need to schedule time to review the ideas after they are
saved. On your calendar or to-do list, make a date weekly or bi-weekly to
review ideas and start putting the best ones into practice.
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