Mitch Hedberg , the comedian has a famous bit that when he is in bed and thinks of something funny he has to either get out of bed and find a pen and paper to write it down or convince himself that whatever he just thought about was not funny.
Everyone is pretty much in the same boat at Mitch. It may not be writing down jokes but everyone has something that they need to write down. It can be business ideas, things to do, movies to watch, blog article topics, errands etc… we often think to ourselves that whatever we thought about is either important enough that we won’t forget or not important. The truth is that everyone forgets at least some of the time and if you decide not to write it down, you’re probably just lazy.
There are so many ways to take notes in any situation that we have no excuse not to take notes. There is the old fashioned pen and notepad which I use most of the time, or you can use email, text messaging to yourself, recording your thoughts on an audio recorder, or any of the many ways you can use a pda.
Worst case, you may look at your notes a week later and think that it’s ridiculous but at least you’ll get a good laugh. In a better case scenario, you will have a goldmine of thoughts that you would have otherwise lost. They may trigger new thoughts as you’re looking them over. It’s like brainstorming over time. Sometimes when brainstorming, no matter how hard you try and think, nothing comes out but when you’re relaxing, taking a shower or playing ball the idea just comes to you.
Once you start recording your thoughts, make a point of looking through them on a regular basis and putting the good ones into action. You may want to write about them or discuss them with a friend which will make for an interesting conversation and even more good ideas to take note of.
It’s amazing how much smarter you feel after doing this for a while.