LearningNerd

Like lightning, ideas tend to strike when least expected (and they can be quite shocking). But you never think of them when you need to! I hate nothing more than to get a good idea only to know that I’ll forget it before I can write it down. So, here are a few tips and tools to capture those bursts of creative energy:

Collecting Ideas

• Get a PDA or Pocket PC.

• Get a notebook or my personal favorite, the free PocketMod. As for a pen, you could buy one of those useful mini-pens made specifically to fit inside your wallet — or you could get a Swiss Army knife that includes a pen.

• As commenter Brad Shorr suggested, keep your notebook next to your bed to keep track of those crazy, late-night ideas.

• Keep a plain text file or other document on your computer just for listing those random ideas.

• Use your phone to send yourself emails or make online sticky notes via text messaging.

• Get one of those mobile digital recorders.

• Use your phone to leave yourself messages.

• Use a service like Posticky or Evoca to save your recordings online.

• If you’re already working at your computer and you have an idea to record, Springdoo and Slawesome let you send audio emails. This works especially well along with Gmail’s built-in audio player.

• Or, if you need to access your notes from any computer, use one of the many online note-taking services out there. See Fifty Ways to Take Notes for a great list of these.

Organizing Ideas

• Add some extra info (like the date or what you were doing at the time) next to your ideas to help yourself remember the whole thought. See Harry Potter: A Great Example of GTD and Idea Capture.

• Keep all of your ideas in separate emails and use Gmail’s labeling feature to organize them. You might even want to create a separate email account just for ideas and notes.

• If you like to list your ideas in a text document, just make one file for each project you have and organize them in folders.

• If you prefer paper, use different colored sticky notes and stick them on larger pieces of paper to group your ideas together. To keep track of everything, keep all the paper in a 3-ring binder and use dividers to separate ideas for different projects.

• Many of the services listed on Fifty Ways to Take Notes allow for easy organizing, like Yahoo! Notepad and Backpack.

I’m currently using an unorganized combination of several of the above methods until I decide which I like best. How do you keep track of your random ideas?