Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is about how to capture and make the
Speaker 1: most of new ideas. A listener named Claire wrote in
Speaker 1: wondering about how to do just that, lots of your
Speaker 1: advice mentions giving your mind some space through exercise, walks,
Speaker 1: downtime for great ideas to appear. She writes, this works
Speaker 1: really well for me, but then I struggle with how
Speaker 1: to capture those ideas and make sure I make the
Speaker 1: time to bring them to life after. Sometimes, when I'm
Speaker 1: on a run, so many ideas come to me that
Speaker 1: I end up standing still every few minutes to log
Speaker 1: them into my phone. I think this is a great question.
Speaker 1: Many times great ideas come to us when we step
Speaker 1: out of our normal workspaces, but of course, when we're
Speaker 1: away from our desks, were slightly less prepared to capture
Speaker 1: great ideas. Writing things down as tricky if you're in
Speaker 1: the shower or driving. I actually think Claire's solution of
Speaker 1: logging ideas into her phone is great. I know that
Speaker 1: sometimes it's fun to run without a phone to feel untethered,
Speaker 1: but I tend to run with mine, partly so that
Speaker 1: if I do get a good idea, I can just
Speaker 1: send an email to myself. If Claire is getting good
Speaker 1: ideas every half mile or so, she should just count
Speaker 1: her blessings. That's as good a reason to stop and
Speaker 1: take a break as anything. Now back to my method,
Speaker 1: Why an email to myself? Well, I know I'll check
Speaker 1: my inbox at some point when I am at my
Speaker 1: desk and able to process ideas. I know that I
Speaker 1: will at least glance through my inbox to get to
Speaker 1: current since that's somewhere i'm sure to look. This works
Speaker 1: for me. Many other people have found the same thing.
Speaker 1: But if you know you'll check your notes or some
Speaker 1: other app that can work too. If you're driving, you
Speaker 1: can use your voice assistant to send a text to yourself.
Speaker 1: If you're in the shower, well maybe you've got your
Speaker 1: phone nearby, or you can keep an old fashioned pen
Speaker 1: and notebook somewhere in the bathroom and use that in
Speaker 1: a pinch. Now, as for making the most of those ideas,
Speaker 1: the upside of an email or text to yourself is
Speaker 1: that you can then process this information when you process
Speaker 1: all the other information that's coming in every other day
Speaker 1: or so, I sit down with my calendar and my
Speaker 1: planner and work through what's come in making decisions or
Speaker 1: entering time specific commitments or items on my to do lists.
Speaker 1: We've talked in past episodes about the fun of list making.
Speaker 1: There are all kinds of great lists that can shelter
Speaker 1: your new ideas. You can keep a to be read
Speaker 1: list of books to track down. I keep a list
Speaker 1: of potential before breakfast podcast ideas in a file. I
Speaker 1: make seasonal fun lists. I make lists of presents that
Speaker 1: people might like. I have a nagging tasks list. I
Speaker 1: have a list of a hundred dreams, basically a bucket
Speaker 1: list of anything I might want to try in life.
Speaker 1: Devotees of David Allen are familiar with the idea of
Speaker 1: a someday maybe list. That's anything you might want to
Speaker 1: do but you're not committing to, or at least not
Speaker 1: committing to a specific time. Perhaps your ideas fit in
Speaker 1: with these lists or any other categories you create. The
Speaker 1: point is to have lists somewhere and then get in
Speaker 1: the habit of occasionally looking through these lists as you
Speaker 1: set your weekly priorities. For example, while out on a run,
Speaker 1: you might suddenly remember that Joe from work and Chris
Speaker 1: from your softball team both went to Texas A and M.
Speaker 1: This is the kind of thing you haven't recognized before
Speaker 1: because it's nowhere near where you live, and so it's
Speaker 1: not something you normally think of. They have both independently
Speaker 1: mentioned being obsessed with the football team, So you send
Speaker 1: yourself an email to connect the two of them. Then
Speaker 1: you can do this during your next email processing time.
Speaker 1: But to do it well, you can take it up
Speaker 1: a notch and actually turn it into relationship priorities for
Speaker 1: the week. If it's football season, you might look at
Speaker 1: the calendar and suggest that Joe and Chris both join
Speaker 1: you at a sports bar to see the Texas A
Speaker 1: and M game to Saturdays from now. Now, your idea
Speaker 1: has both connected people and given you a fun social occasion,
Speaker 1: and all because you sent a note to yourself before
Speaker 1: you forgot the idea, and then you processed it as
Speaker 1: part of your regular habits. How do you capture and
Speaker 1: make the most of your ideas? You can let me
Speaker 1: know at Before Breakfast podcast at I heart media dot com.
Speaker 1: In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and
Speaker 1: here's to making the most of our time. Hey everybody,
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear from you. You can send me
Speaker 1: your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with
Speaker 1: me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod.
Speaker 1: That's B the number four, then Breakfast p o D.
Speaker 1: You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: At i heeart media dot com that Before Breakfast is
Speaker 1: spelled out with all the letters. Thanks so much, I
Speaker 1: look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a
Speaker 1: production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from I
Speaker 1: heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. H