Where Do You Get Your Ideas From? II

I have long been a fan of having a system for tracking ideas when and where they hit you. The system I use at the moment is a Daytimer company wallet. This carries my money and both a daily and monthly calendar. Daytimer also sells add-in sheets that I slip into the back into each monthly calendar to capture ideas as they strike me. Levenger also has a 3x5 card based system that they call a pocket briefcase that I am in the process of trying out. I don't use a PDA for this for a number of reasons... 1. A paper-based system never runs out of batteries. 2. You can sit on a 3x5 card. 3. Paper tends to be much easier to archive. 4. With a paper-based system, it's much easier to quickly review a number of different projects. However, the most important thing is that your system is ALWAYS with you.

I recently purchased a 6x9 chunky spiral bound notebook with plastic covers. I write EVERYTHING in it. Three sections make up Professional Personal and Other. I may not know where I put all my ideas and numbers, but, I know that it is all definately in the book.

The only problem I have with spiral notebooks -- whether 6x9 or 8.5x11 -- is they often aren't ALWAYS with you. Women have the advantages of carrying a purse, but men (at least here in the Midwest) don't. Experience has taught me that any system that won't fit in your pocket (and stand up to being carried around day in and day out -- and sat on) is too big. This is an issue because I find the best ideas tend to hit me 1. When I am the most relaxed 2. When most people would be the least prepared to capture them. Go to the rock and roll hall of fame in Cleveland and look at all of the song lyrics that were written down on matchbooks, napkins, and coasters. Following the lead of Dr. Seuss, what will you do when an idea hits you... - In a plane - On a train - In a park - After dark - On the beach - Holding a leash - In your car - In a bar - In a van - On the can Don't laugh, it happens more often than I'd care to admit.

For a long time I've just been jotting down notes in my dayplanner. And while this was great for recording ideas that popped in to my head while sitting in a car or walking through a mall, it doesn't help me much when I want to retrieve an idea. I'm also an avid blog and email discussion group reader and I'm always collecting ideas from these resources. I've recently created an Ideas database in Filemaker Pro and filed away all of my dayplanner notes and sketches in this database. If I see a blog entry or a message in a discussion thread that I'm interested in, I just simply cut and paste the text, put in a reference note (the author of the idea, the author's contact info, the date, and where I found the idea) and file it away. All of my ideas are categorized so I can find ideas by subject matter (marketing, pr, product development, etc). I also carry a copy of my database on my Palm, so it's never very far away. Kind of geeky, I know, but it works great for me!

Thanks for sharing your thoughts -- fascinating! You might be interested in a new article entitled "Ten power tools for recording your best ideas" that I just posted last week to my InnovationTools website. It covers a variety of paper-based and electronic tools that you may find of interest. Here is the URL: http://www.innovationtools.com/Articles/ArticleDetails.asp?a=113 Enjoy!

Great stuff -- fascinating! As part of this dialogue, I'd like to alert you to a new article that I just posted to my website last week. It's entitled "Ten power tools for recording your best ideas," and it covers both paper-based and electronic tools. Here is the URL: http://www.innovationtools.com/Articles/ArticleDetails.asp?a=113 I hope you find some of these techniques useful! Chuck Frey

Where do good ideas come from? This is probably the second most asked question that I hear from people, usually right after How do you get paid to think for a living? It's a legitimate question and one that most people spend a whole lot of time pursuing. I definitely don't pretend to have the single answer to this query but I do have some simple tips on how to generate good ideas and lots of them. Check out my article from the November issue of gearShift! http://www.thinkcrank.com/gearshift/nov03.html Jose www.thinkcrank.com

i have some good new ideas for fashion and i heard that you try to put new things out and they sell.