Take Notes! (You don’t want to let ideas slip away!)

“I trust a short pencil more than a long memory.”

Do you ever have one of those amazing ideas – for a book, article, meme, or program – and you’re so certain you’ll remember it forever… only to realize that it’s lost?

Yep, me too!

Years ago, when I was involved with a network marketing company, the trainers would trot out that quote about a short pencil being better than a long memory – the underlying message being that writing things down would always trump thinking you’ll just remember.

And after having a few amazing ideas slip away and only leaving the memory that there WAS an amazing idea, I finally took the hint! Now I write things down.

I just got back from four transformational days with Dr. Venus Opal Reese at the Black Woman Millionaire LIVE Transformational Experience. I know going in that it would be way too much for me to sit and absorb. And I didn’t know if Dr. Venus would be selling recordings from the event (so I could re-listen and take notes then!)

So I made sure to go with a fresh notebook and plenty of pens.

I wanted to be able to capture the training, add in my ideas, and be able to come HOME with transformation.

If you go to events regularly, you’ll know that you’re often presented with a big notebook. That may or may not have enough information in it for you to remember what you were learning!

Years ago, I attended an event and was presented with a “coursebook” that easily had 300 pages in it. But upon closer inspection, many of the pages were unreadable because they were printed from PowerPoint slides and the slides themselves were so dark they appeared as black blocks on the page.

So now I never trust that there WILL be a course book (I don’t usually do one) or that it’ll be usable FOR ME when I get home.

Outside of an event when you know you’re learning and need to take notes, you need to be open and ready for an idea to come your way. And record it!

But it’s not just grabbing the nearest piece of paper and scribbling away (although that’s preferable to nothing!) – it’s recording the ideas in a way that actually allows me to find them later and put it into practice. My primary method of idea capture is my business journal but I’ve also used sneaky ways to capture ideas in the moment so they’re saved for later.

Kim’s Top 10 Ways of Capturing Your Ideas

  1. Record it in a dedicated journal
  2. Use an on-line, cloud-based notetaking system like Evernote
  3. Leave yourself a voicemail
  4. Write it in the dust on your car
  5. Keep a dry erase marker in your bathroom and jot a note on your mirror
  6. Write a note and pin it to your shirt
  7. Keep a mini-notebook in your purse or pocket
  8. Use your phone’s voice recorder app
  9. Write notes in your day planner
  10. Call a friend and ask them to take a note for you (perfect if you’re driving!)

The key with all these idea capture methods is to record the idea – and then save it in a place that is not only secure but easily assessable! Here’s an article about how to index your business journals so you can find the information again: here.

How do you record your ideas in the heat of the moment so you don’t lose them?

Kim Galloway
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