6/100 - Write every idea down immediately (or how to never run out of ideas)

A friend asked me yesterday how I will be able to come up with things to write about for the next 100 days without running out of ideas.

Here is my answer.

Every time I come up with an idea for a post, I immediately write it down. I either jot it in my journal or more likely tap it into Google Keep, my current favourite piece of software. When I enter things into Keep, I simply include the tag #blog, which lets the software know to add it to that category. That information is immediately synced between my phone, my tablet, and my desktop computer. Earlier today I went through my journal and added the ideas in there that I hadn’t put on Keep yet and after I publish this post I will spend some time adding these ideas as drafts to my CMS.

Using this strategy, within 4 days of starting my blog, I had an extra 9 ideas prepared as drafts. Now whenever I think of something to write about one of those topics, I can quickly add that idea to the existing draft. So when I go to actually finish that article I have less work to do and never have the excuse that I don’t know what to write about. This is part of my Mise-en-place as a writer.

My other strategy is to start out with a low bar. I am not trying to only write down “only the best stuff”. If I did that, I know I would fail. But I know I can write something every day. Some of my posts will be below the standards that I would like to eventually achieve. Trying to start a new good habit and sticking to it can be a really difficult thing to do. You are trying to change your brain’s programming. So wait until you have developed that habit and then raise the bar.

People describe coming up with a great idea as divine inspiration, a spark. As feeling like a light bulb going off in your head. But it is hard to tell the truly great ideas until you have thought about them for a while and tried to work with them. Sometimes a great idea feels mediocre and others a mediocre idea seems amazing at first glance. If you don’t write your ideas down, you will inevitably forget them, even the ones that seem so amazing that you feel as if you couldn’t possibly ever forget. That your life will never be the same.

We know it’s hard to come up with ideas on the spot, but if you have a list of them already written down, you will never need to.

Writing great ideas down is easy, coming up great ideas is hard.

Do the easy part.