What do you do when an idea clicks in your mind? Some suggestions are: apply it then and there, write it down and work on it later, and keep it in your mind and then apply it later. Many people have numerous ideas on things they would like to pursue, especially in business, but they don’t have the time or the know in how to prioritize and pursue them all. By putting all the ideas on paper, and later organizing and prioritizing, it can allow you to unclutter your mind and focus.
I was bombing around the 9 Rules site the other day and came upon a note by a member asking: “When some idea clicks in your mind, what do you do?” The author offered these three choices as possible answers:
- Apply it on that moment.
- Keep it in mind and apply later.
- Write it down on a piece of paper or in organizer and work on it later.
I posted the following short answer to the forum:
It took me a long time to get into this
habit, but I record a short note on the voice recorder on my phone. As
soon as I get back to a place where I can research my idea further and
write about it, I do so.Before I had use of this technology, I carried around a pocket notebook.
This is one way I keep track of all those brilliant (or silly, ill-conceived, senseless) thoughts that pop into my head as I’m filling my car with gas, sitting in on a meeting, or out to dinner with friends.
What does this have to do with why I love what I do?
I had run into a long-time friend at a party recently and met her, at her request, at her place of business the other day to talk with her about the wonderful opportunities that existed for her as a result of her business having grown and expanded.
As the conversation progressed, we began discussing the many paths that existed for her to grow her business, as well as the obstacles and challenges that stood in the way of that growth.
As many businesspeople can relate, one of the challenges my friend faced was that she had so many excellent, exciting, and achievable ideas, but didn’t have the time to quantify them, prioritize them, and pursue them all. She simply felt overwhelmed by the sheer volume of possibilities – by the number of choices that she had.
We set out to commit some of these ideas to paper – to journal them on paper or in some word processing software – so that she could become clearer on the concepts. We’d worry about prioritizing at a later time.
I don’t want to oversimplify what transpired over the course of our 2 1/2 hour meeting, but suffice it to say that by applying this simple productivity – efficiency – effectiveness – thought process, my friend allowed herself to unclutter her mind of all those thoughts that had seemingly been flying around with no place to go.
This allowed her to focus on the “big picture” – She was disentangled from the tunnel-vision we often get into when we feel inundated with all that’s going on to clearly see what she really wanted, beyond the obstacles and fears that were standing in her way a few short hours before.
A new way of thinking and seeing had been revealed to her, and I was witness to that and a part of that process.
