Get It In Writing - 3 Helpful Tips To Help Remember Your Best Ideas

February 15, 2016

Doing business isn't easy. Tasks and projects roar by like a runaway train, and it's easy to miss a problem because of the speed you're going. Unfortunately, businesses get bit because of their optimism and quickly deals can turn south because of a simple miscommunication. These miscommunications often cause quality relationships to turn into dysfunction, sending people to the door after years of affiliation. You'll hear it over and over again....

get it in writing!

You may be saying, "I'm more the creative type; I don't make quite the same business deals". You may not make the same type of deal, but you ARE making the same type of mistake. Creative people don't think the same as the analytical type. For those Meyers Briggs junkies, creatives are more Feelers than Thinkers. Ideas pop in and out on a minute-by-minute basis. More than likely you've thought of a few ideas in the last few minutes. The problem you have is not coming up with ideas; it's making the ideas happen.

I'm an ideas guy. I am always thinking of something new. I used to come up with great ideas only to forget them a few short moments later, devastating really. Now when an idea pops in my head, I have an agenda, and you should too.

First, write the idea down. Our short-term memory can only have 7 items of information in it at a time. In the world we live in the odds of you remembering the idea a few minutes later...well they aren't good.
After writing the idea down, you're not done. In order for you to come back to the idea and actually make something of it, you must write down why you came up with the idea. Was it to solve a problem you faced? Was it after a conversation with a friend? Having this point of recognition will help you relive the excitement you had when you first thought of the idea.
Lastly, write out everything you can think of that will take you beyond the idea stage. Whether that is a person you need to share it with, research you need to do, or a prototype you need to create, it's so important to create an action plan.

Looking through the notes on my phone, I sometimes chuckle at all the ideas I have. Most of them are silly and looking back, I realize they would never work. But, some of the ideas stick and I know if i hadn't written them down, they would disappear like the millions of other ideas that are unwritten. One of those ideas was this company. Knowing there are so many great ideas out there, we can't afford to let them go to waste. The next company, song, book, technology, or innovation is somewhere in that head of yours, the only thing left is to "Get it in Writing".