Entrepreneurs are the mainstay of most economies. One of the most important characteristics of entrepreneurs is the capability to generate idea after idea after idea.
For some, it’s a wonderful trait that can also be annoying because we often can’t get focused. And not being focused can lead to not being successful. There’s a big difference between having a wonderful idea and actually implementing it.
Action – So, to capture all those great ideas, use a small card box to create an Idea Safe.
Whenever a new idea pops into your head while you’re working on something else, write it out on a 3″ x 5″ card, date it and put it in your Idea Safe. If that idea still gets you excited in 4 weeks, then it’s worth giving it some further consideration. If not, you can simply throw out the card.
In the meantime, you can stay focused on current priorities, knowing your ideas are safely locked away.
So this does this mean sometimes the ideas came out of the entrepreneurs’ mind are always useless or unhurried? I do not understand so much.
Sometimes ideas are the brain’s way of creating a distraction to avoid doing something else. Sometimes they are indeed useless. Sometimes they are stepping stones to somewhere else. And sometimes they are absolutely fabulous, but not ‘right now’. An Idea File can help sort all of that out.
I can’t always remember those quick ideas that came to me as I was working on an unrelated task or the additional thought on a previous idea. This is a terrific way to keep them all together and maintain an idea file. Thanks Nancy!
My Idea File has been a mainstay of the “Morris Code” for years! Great to hear that it may become part of your “John Code”!
I do a version of this using our online content management system. One of the files is called ideas. The trick for me is to remember to go back in there and check them out! Do you have an app that can bong me on the head and remind me? 🙂
For years, I followed a system I learned about in a course, where all of your organization is in an index card box. It worked wonderfully. Somehow, a computer isn’t quite as powerful. A box just sits there, staring at you. It doesn’t have email, Facebook, or a million work distractions on it. Life used to be so simple! Hmmm…. I still have that box, a nice wooden one with a little slot for putting the current card in (helpful if you’re using it as a recipe)!
I have no doubt that at some point, a raging entrepreneur will develop a tool that does indeed fly out from your cellphone or computer screen with a rubber mallet to bonk people on the head! I would invest in their stock!
Simplicity is the name of the game. Think Occam’s Razor wherein “entities must not be multiplied beyond necessity” (in other words, if there is more than one way to solve something, take the simplest route).
There’s an obvious reason why that particular problem-solving strategy is still around 700 years later … it works!