5 Tips for Remembering and Organizing Ideas


If you are someone who never runs out of new ideas but has a hard time organizing ideas and keeping track of them, here are five quick tips to help you preserve those random ideas you seem to get every other day.

1. Write it Down Immediately

Yes. Write down the idea immediately when you get it. Just one or two words that should help you remember them later. Also, you might want to carry a small notebook (one which fits in the wallet) and a pen in case you are on the move frequently.

2. Save it On Your Cellphone

Another way to keep track of ideas is to quickly save it on your mobile phone and set a reminder so that you can enter it on your computer when you reach home.

3. Use a Tool Like Evernote

When it comes to organizing random thoughts and ideas, Evernote, which is multi-platform and feature-rich is probably your best bet (or may be another tool you love…point is you need something to organize them).

4. Add It to Your To-Do List

If you are a fan of to-do lists, adding the idea as a to-do without a deadline is also an option. That’d help you keep a track of things you want to try in the near future.

5. Is the Idea Worth the Effort?

If you seem to get too many ideas, it’s time to take a step back and think about them. Not each of them is useful enough to be reminded of later.

So, how do you remember and organize your ideas?


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Abhijeet Mukherjee is the editor of Guiding Tech, a blog that publishes in-depth articles and tutorials on all things tech, including mobile news and tutorials. He's been into web working since 2008 and continues to enjoy each day of it. He loves to interact with people so hit him up on Twitter.

Discussion

  1. beekeeper on the 24th September

    writing it on the cellphone, i usually do that, i note it down immediately on my notepad in my iphone. and if iam browsing i use ‘UberNote’ firefox plugin(http://www.ubernote.com/webnote/pages/default.aspx) so i can access at home.

    Organizer (notebook) is my second choice (it was my first before i bought my iPhone) i always carry it in my bag its easy to write it down and refer in future even if you are out of technology. 😉

  2. Sergei Tatarinov on the 24th September

    First four points = common sense. The fifth, however, is rarely being concidered, so that’s a good one to share.

    As a side note: google ad block at the end of each post is so annoying, you guys should consider tweaking it a little so that it blends better with the page.

  3. Joshua Riddle on the 24th September

    For me the number #1 rule is definitely the #1 rule. One thing i have learned is I can not count on my memory. Write it down … Write it down … Write it down!

  4. Petula on the 24th September

    I use Microsoft OneNote. I’ve never heard of Evernote. I’ve been trying to remember to use OneNote when I’m home and not at my computer. I always carry a notebook in my purse/bag so that I have something available to write on. I like number five, but I’d like to add that write it down first, consider it then determine if it’s worth the time. Sometimes worthless – so to speak – ideas can fuel additional & better ones. Cool post.

  5. Husien Adel on the 25th September

    thanks i like the first one and 2 write it down and put note on cell phone 😀

  6. Gabriele Maidecchi on the 25th September

    I combine #1 and #2 hehe but on all the rest, I totally agree.
    I wrote something similar (focused on blogging, but it applies to everything really) some time ago ( http://bit.ly/bzcqQF ), and what I would like to add: use a voice recorder. Any decently modern phone has one nowadays, I use Smart Recorder for my iPhone, but there’s one built-in anyway. Sometimes being able to just speak out your idea can mean the difference between a good draft and a “hmm what was it?” moment.

  7. Luce on the 1st October

    Oh yeah, just the fact of writing an idea down gives me a great mental image to keep. There’s even no need to look at the note pad after that !!

    Oh and by the way, Evernote has been my close friend for several months and I recommand it to everyone !

  8. Sergei Tatarinov on the 3rd October

    I have a short story related to the subject. It happened to me earlier today: a great idea came to my mind only to vanish right the next minute, due to a moment of light-heartedness. I couldn’t remember what it was, no matter how hard I tried. Then, suddenly, it popped up again when I was watching Sherlock; but even then I didn’t wrote it down… Eventually, when it occurred again, I had to take an immediate action and wrote it down on… my wall, in a flash. (No I haven’t got a white board or anything like that, nor I had anything else to write on.) Now, I see two positive things about it: I’ve finally saved a very promising idea and am going to make it a reality tomorrow, AND I have a super convincing reason to renovate the interior. 😉

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