A Tool for Capturing Inspiration

Do you have some of your best ideas driving to work in the morning with no way to write them down? Do you wake up in the middle of the night with the solution to a problem you have been thinking about for weeks - but then not only forget the solution by morning but forget that you came up with the solution at all?

The mind seems to be background processing all the time - with solutions constantly bubbling up out of the cauldron of the unconsious - but if you don't catch them when they float by, you've lost them forever.

How do you keep from losing those flashes of inspiration. Here's a solution that I read about in Wired that I've been using for four years - maybe it will work for you.

Carry it with you always.  When you have an idea, record it. You can use it for appointments, things you read in the newspaper you want to know more about, books you should read, action items from phone conversations. Once a day download the 10 or 20 ideas into a database and evaluate and classify them. If this saves you one good idea a year, it's paid for itself.

Return to Tools Page here.