Have you ever thought of something cool or great ideas but then you forgets about it? Most of the time when it happens to me, I will think to write it later. Then it vanished from my mind. No matter how hard I try to remember or even saying to myself not to forget about it. Now how do you know whether your ideas worth your time to be considered or it is just not worth it? This is true also for the things needs to be done. Are you in control in everything you can control? There are a lot of times that I think I will remember to do things that I suppose to do, but end up not done.

Many times the ideas comes at the unexpected places and time. It occurs when you are cooking, making a coffee, showering, commuting to work, etc. Our mind is restless or triggering some ideas that might be good idea because of something you read, watched, heard, or anything. Or even something that you thought life will be better. Most of the time when that kind of mind comes to me, I just said to myself  ‘that’s a good idea’ and then I told to myself that now is not the right time and place. I’ll write it down when I get to that place. But I arrived at that place, and time comes and goes, I didn’t do it and I lost the thought.

In this era, a lot of convenience tools are available for us to help us remember. Might as well we use it to collect our thoughts and things to do. These are some tips around collecting your minds:
1. Write/type your ideas as soon as you can
No matter whether it turns out to be bad ideas or good ideas, you’ll never know unless you write it down. You can use whatever available for you to write it down. On a napkin, on a post it note, in your Evernote, etc. Your mind will give you more things to ponder when you see your ideas in front of you.

It doesn’t have to be complete thought. It’s ok to have something that will trigger your thinking. Let your mind rest a bit or untangle itself so that you’ll be able to see what’s on your mind. But keep in mind if it’s not physically possible at the moment, find a way to record it down as soon as you can. Just in case you take my words literally and try to make notes while you’re driving in Highway. My mistake was thinking that I will do it soon. This moment is not the right moment. In other word, I might try to be perfectionist on when and where I should write it down. And that my friend, is another form of procrastination.

My ideal note taking for most of the time is evernote. I carry my phone almost everywhere, so that’s the readily  available tool for me to take notes. And the good thing is it synchronize digitally everywhere

2. Elaborate on it as soon as you can.
Sometime you don’t have enough time or it’s just not possible to follow up on the spot. So when you have time, do it. It is fun to do. I can consider I’m quite lucky that during a bit of stretch of my commute, I don’t have stable Internet connection, so either I read a book, play a short game, or listening to Podcast. But usually after I got of work and just have a bit of energy to ponder on something, I open my notes and just write things down. It doesn’t have to be in complete statements, it can be just bullet points. Just something that makes the mind start. And sometime when I got a chance to write things down, I might have some more fresh ideas that I heard recently. If I do it in different time, it might be that I don’t remember why I thought that way. There’s positive and negative about elaborating now or later. It’s your choice, as long as it’s done.

3. Think on one idea/task at a time
You might have a lot of ideas coming in at a time. You can write down everything at one go, but when you try to elaborate it, do it one per time. Even though there are some research that says you can multi task, I still think it is better to think one idea at a time. It might be that from this one idea, it leads to another idea that you thought before. And beside, focusing on one thing at a time can help to process it faster. Try it yourself.

It is true for doing things also. You might have wrote it down, but when you’re in the middle of doing it, another things comes up and then you switch to that task. As far as you can, complete your current task first before doing the next task. When another task comes up write it down, so that you know what needs to be done after this.

4. Prepare writing instrument near you
When you have idea, do you have something to write on? or some thing to write things? As far as I remember, there might be some occasion that I can’t write things down. Either when I’m cooking, or driving. But, since I rarely do those things, I don’t have problem so far. How about you? Are there any situations that hard for you to write? You might look for alternatives. I think recording things down will be good also. Or even dictate your phone. I’m sure most people are using smartphone that can handle text to speech better. The ‘Writing’ instrument ideas is to record things down. It doesn’t have to be fancy or complicated gadget to record it down. At the basic you just need pen and paper. As long as you comfortable and it’s easy to use, it will work best for you. The idea is to have something ready to capture it as soon as you can.

5. Let your mind be free.
I usually try not to block my thinking. I just try to write things down as it comes out. It might be the positive about doing the ideas, some random thoughts, or anything else. But that’s your ideas. try to write it down. it might open or clear some thoughts in your head. there’s a quote that I remember “A mind is like a parachute. It doesn’t work if it is not open.” – Frank Zappa”

That are some tips that I learned so far. It doesn’t take much time to do it, but spending a little time writing/recording will bring up good ideas. So what are you thinking right now?

What are some other tips that you have to write things down? How do you feel after you collect your mind?

“Every new thought is a revelation, Every time you put a new thought into action you change the universe.” –  Stanley Victor Paskavich