We all have hundreds of great ideas that come to us – while we’re sleeping, while we’re working on other projects, or just sitting and relaxing. Unfortunately, most of these ideas will simply be passing thoughts, forgotten about as soon as they were thought up. This can be very frustrating down the road when you are looking for great ideas but don’t have any put away.
This is where all those extra ideas come in handy. Rather than allowing yourself to let an idea tickle your brain and then disappear, find a way to translate the idea into something usable for the future, even if it’s just a simple note in your idea book.
What? You don’t have an idea book? Okay, step 1: Get an idea book (anything that you can write on will do). Step 2: Keep reading.
“Idea” does not mean fully developed plans of action, “idea” means random titles for a blog post, websites that would be fun to create, a picture you want to take or a type of person you would like to meet, etc. These are all quality ideas, and need no more than a couple words to remember them. Then, you can come back through your idea book when you are looking for inspiration and poof! tons of already started ideas for you to develop further. I know many people who love their moleskine notebook’s
Your ideas are like tiny little pieces of gold, one or two may not be worth much now, but if you can gather hundreds of them, well, that’s worth a lot. (wow, that’s really cheesy, but too true not to type!). Anyway, keeping your ideas somewhere that they can be built upon allows your mind the freedom to jump from one place to another, without concern of forgetting your thoughts. You can always go back and look at something later, add to it or get rid of it. Although, I caution throwing ideas out too quickly, I recommend keeping them for a month or two before giving them the heave-ho. This gives you a chance to really see if you can use it or build on it before just getting rid of it.
Let’s take an example…my sister-in-law got engaged at the end of August and wanted a website that she could update with details of the wedding, the wedding party and of them as the wedding got closer (for all the out of town guests). So, I designed a site that was fun, colorful and really captured her and her fiance’s personalities. Unfortunately, I caught the wedding bug, and all I could think about after designing their site was the designs for other bridal sites (either for the bride and groom or for a wedding planner). Instead of brushing off the idea, I started jotting down notes, what would go where, the styles, fonts, etc. Pretty soon, when I had a few extra minutes to spare, I was working in photoshop to create a mockup. Finally, after 3 months of tinkering with this random idea, I created a complete mockup, ready to code and deliver to some lucky bride or bridal consultant. (oh! you want to see it? Oh okay…here it is; my bridal or bridal consultant wordpress theme!)
Was it sold already? Nope. Do I have someone to sell it to now? Nope (unless of course you know someone looking?). Will it make a good piece for my portfolio and hopefully entice someone to purchase it or hire me for something similar because of it? Absolutely!
…now what if I had just let the idea pass through my mind without a note to spare? I wouldn’t have a gorgeously fun new design to show off, and I certainly wouldn’t remember my idea should someone come to me desiring a beautiful wedding site.
So what do you think happens when you let your ideas slip away? Exactly.
Related posts:
- Ideas that I WANT you to steal!
- Your mind is filled with new ideas…
- You can actually find blog post ideas!
Kirsten
