The legendary German-born painter, Max Ernst, said, “all good ideas come by chance.” That may be true. Without realizing it, our best work is often born from ideas that appear suddenly. Unfortunately, not all of these ideas can be realized because they are often forgotten. Therefore, it is important for anyone to organize their ideas so that they are stored properly.
To help you, you can use the following seven ways to organize the ideas you have, starting from the stages of collection, categorization, to realization.
Bring a Small Idea Notebook
So that your brilliant ideas don't just disappear, the first way you can apply is to have a small notebook and pen to record ideas. You can always carry the book with you or put it in places where your ideas often appear, such as on the bed, dining table, terrace, near the bathroom, and others.
Record Your Ideas with a Voice Recorder
Sometimes, ideas also appear while we are traveling, whether while driving, riding a vehicle, or walking around. When driving, it will be very dangerous if we jot down ideas in a notebook because our attention will be diverted to the road. To deal with this situation, you can try an alternative by using a voice recorder on your cellphone. When an idea arises, you can speak into the voice recorder without having to take your attention off the road
Let your ideas flow, don't get hung up on making it look neat
When you start writing down ideas, you may be encouraged to write them down neatly and in a well-organized manner. In fact, this method will actually slow you down from perfecting or finding other, brighter ideas. Therefore, let your pen focus on moving following the ideas in your mind.
If you pay attention to the notes of the famous American novelist, Mark Twain, the impression will be quite messy. This is because it is likely that Twain only focused on the ideas he developed, not on the appearance of the notes. Therefore, if your notebook looks messy, you don't need to worry about it. That is a creative process that is commonly experienced by anyone, including world-famous figures.
Apart from that, you can also use the trick of writing down key words so you can save time without taking too detailed notes. Keywords can help you find the main idea that you are conceptualizing. Large text.
Collect Your Ideas in an Application
Next, you can use a method that is relatively easier and more practical, namely through an idea storage application. Currently, there are quite a lot of applications that can help you store and organize ideas, including:
This is an application that you can use for free. Through Evernote you can save ideas, take notes, and also collect various kinds of articles. Apart from mobile phones, you can also use Evernote on desktops, iPads, etc.
Just like Evernote, you can also use this application for free. Microsoft OneNote helps you to store ideas and take notes. When you use the desktop version, this application can also be synchronized with the application on your cellphone that you have installed. So this will make it easier for you to organize ideas at any time.
The Trello application can really help you in storing and developing ideas with its board system . First, create a name for the project you will work on. Next, create boards with various topics. For example, a title/theme board , then add an outline board , then in progress, and finally done or published. This system makes your ideas more organized and encourages you to complete them quickly.
MindMeister is a mind mapping application that makes it easy for you to develop ideas visually. You can use MindMeister for free with a variety of mind map options.
Create Categorization of Ideas
Once your ideas are collected, take time to organize them so they are easier to understand. We can start by categorizing them. For example, if you are a fiction writer, you can group your ideas based on the type of writing, including novels, short stories, dramas, and others. Then create another categorization based on story genre, such as romance, sci-fi, history, and others.
Lastly, don't forget to put these ideas into action. You may have an extraordinary idea, but as long as you don't make it happen, it's the same as nothing happening. Therefore, slowly realize your ideas, starting from the things that are most possible.