Hello everyone, and a happy Wednesday to you all ❤
This post ended up being long (sorry for that), so grab yourself a drink, set the mood 😉 and enjoy reading.
I tend to forget a lot of things, things I was sure my mind will capture but sadly it didn’t. So I learned to write everything down and capture all the things I need to do, want to remember and just ideas that float in my brain. I think we are all experienced at some point, having a great idea (the best idea) pop to our head while we’re doing something, and as soon as we are about to go write it down, the idea is long gone.
Studies show that our brain can hold in our immediate memory bank about 6-7 thoughts and adding more information will just get lost in the sea of thoughts or will get replaced by another item in your memory bank that you held onto from before.
I know it sounds weird but it’s the truth an more so if you are suffering from any memory problems like myself, but still need to function as normal. But there are a few things that can help us all, whether or not you have any memory problems, these tips will help you capture any thought or ideas you wish to capture.
Pick one place for it all
I have many notebooks for a lot of things: I have a planner, a bullet journal, a dream journal, a tarot reading journal and many more. But for capturing our immediate thoughts or ideas I suggest using only one item if it’s a notebook you can carry around with you everywhere or an app on your phone.
There are so many ways and apps today that designed to help you capture ideas like Trello, Google Drive, Evernote, Milanote, Goole Keep and many more… What you choose is up to you. I used them all because I love trying out new ways to improve my work but I always find myself going back to the same tool and for years now I am using Google Keep and I just love it ❤ I have it everywhere and it syncs with my computer, laptop and phone easily and you can add pictures, voice memos, drawings to your text, and even add another person or your team to your specific note.
I also use Milanote for a more visual aspect of my goals and ideas.
Not all ideas and thoughts are made equal, but you should still capture them all
Make it a habit to capture everything that comes through your mind. Ask anyone who really knows me, they will tell you straight away that if it’s not written it doesn’t exist, hehe:D If you do it every time you have an idea and make it your habit, you will be able to focus better and with less stress.
Categorize your ideas
I have a few categories I add my notes to (like home, recipes, husband, me, my mom, my writing projects, my blog, Instagram, things I want to buy and many more). Adding categories makes things easier to search.
Color Code
Besides categorizing, I also color-code my notes and just by color I will immediately know what the note is about, (Blue is for everything related to home and my husband, Green is my for my mom, red is for writing, yellow is for important, and purple is my blog and social media).
Needs more work or done
What I love most in google keep is the ability to pin the cards that are important to you and you can archive the cards to your “categorized file or label”and this way you can organize your ideas and thoughts in so many ways to help you get the most of your ideas and never lose an important idea.
What I do is: what’s important I pinned-up, what I need to go through is in my home feed, what I archived is all done, every category but my writing, hehe. Once a week I go through them all and see what to keep, organize, or trash.
Revisit – Go Through your notes
Writing your ideas is the perfect way to never lose them but you also should go through them from time to time and revisit those old ideas and see if they still serve you in any way or not.
This is kind of like a kanban board of To Do, Doing and Done. This is not to keep forever and for all eternity, it’s just to help you keep your ideas and your immediate thoughts but also to go through them and work them through.
But Galit, I had a great idea in the shower how do I remember it before it’s all gone?
Well, I know this all too well, hehe. Our best ideas are always coming to us while we in the shower, driving home or even in our dreams. I found the google assistant to work well for me while I’m driving. I am more and more using my google assistant, hehe to make calls, and voice record my ideas while I’m doing other things.
If I’m in the shower and I get an idea I start to elaborate on that idea… Let’s say I got an idea about a book, I see a character doing something… I start asking questions and try to write in my head the idea with as many details as I can. As soon as I get out of the shower I quickly jot down my idea with all the details I could remember, that way the spark of the idea is not gone.
Braindump before you fall asleep
I am especially using the word braindump and nor brainstorm because it’s what we need to do before we fall asleep, more so if you are having trouble falling asleep.
Take 5 to 10 minutes and just write down everything that goes through your mind. Just brain dump your thoughts, your worries, needs and wants, tasks, ideas and everything else that comes to your mind. If doing this every day doesn’t work for you, that’s okay but I still recommend to do this at least 3-4 times a week. You will be able to fall asleep faster and sleep better.
Sweet Dreams
Remembering our dreams is not an easy task, but if you do want to make your creative well even more bountiful, keeping a dream journal will help you not only fight your daily battles more easily but also help you build a creative well that fills up every single night 😀 Especially after you braindump all your worries and ideas of that day/week.
If you made until the end, thank you so much for reading, you are amazing ❤
What is your best method to remember an idea or a thought?
As always, thank you so much for reading ❤
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