If you’re a bit like me, then you probably have a heap of ideas and even more inspiration sources that you need to tame and keep track of. There is no point having great ideas and finding amazing, inspiring stuff if it goes in one ear and out the other… or in one eye and out the other! Here’s seven useful ways to wrangle those sparks into some kind of tangible filing system. It’s probably good to use a combination of a few to keep track of your bits and bobs, but don’t go too crazy. Less is best and will make your idea ‘filing’ system much easier to navigate.
Audio Recordings
Head to UTILITIES in your iPhone (or similar in Android!) and hunt down the voice recorder app. Whenever you have a bright idea you can dictate it straight into your phone for later use. Save each audio file with your idea’s ‘name’ for easy access and prompting!
Mind Map
Take a peek at the awesomeness of mind-mapping here. A mind map is a bit like taking the essence of all the bits and pieces related to an important topic, challenge or task and illustrating them simply to show their priority, meaning and relationship to each other. For bloggers this is great exercise to do, especially if you are working on your blog’s ideas or purpose. You can mind map the ideas you come up with for your blog, to develop them further (or simply to document them!) You can also create a mind map for your blog’s mission, your strengths and purpose… and other ace things!
Pocket
Install Pocket in your toolbar and you can save things to read/blog about/learn about later. This is a good way to collect articles or posts that you want to go back to and serves as a bit of an information mine for those times when you are not sure what to write about. Like it? Pocket it!
Feedly
A tiny bit of me died when Google Reader bit the dust. Still, Feedly is quite good too and is a pretty and easy to use RSS reader, just perfect for keeping up to date with all that inspirational reading. It’s really very important to stay abreast of what’s going on in your community/the world and Feedly can help you to stay current and informed. If you like to publish curated posts or profile other bloggers, Feedly is your friend, keeping you in touch and inspired by your favourites daily.
Tumblr
You might think Tumblr is all thinspiration and angsty teens. Granted, there is a LOT of that over there, but Tumblr is also the perfect platform for clever bloggers. Set up an account (keeping the details to yourself) and it’s a great way to clip images and articles to scroll through or refer back to later. Unlike Pinterest you can view images/articles in more detail/larger sizes and the ‘archive’ function lets you sort through your ‘Tumbl’d’ posts quickly to find what you want. Tumblr has a bookmarklet which you can pop in your browser toolbar and click whenever you want to add something to your Tumblr account. Kind of like your own private visual diary. Win!
Google Calendar
I’m a big fan of Google Calendar. It’s super easy to use and can not only talk to your phone, it can talk to other people you might be working with too. Use Google Calendar to create an easily updated Editorial Calendar or create a one-off calendar for blog events or guest posting schedules. If you’re trying to whip your blog into shape and post to certain categories on specific days, Google Calendar is a great way to remind yourself about what’s upcoming and plan for future posts.
Pinterest
Private boards on Pinterest are the perfect placer to store ideas for upcoming posts as well as inspirational images. Add the ‘Pin It’ bookmarklet to your browser and when you come across something that piques your interest or sparks some bright ideas, pin it to your private board. (NB: I am not encouraging you to copy other people – but sometimes a whole bunch of images can lead to a new original idea – and that process does not have to be a public one.)
Notebooks
Notebooks are the undisciplined friend of the diary! I am sure you have a notebook or two already, but I would strongly encourage you to have one by your bed, in the car, in your bag, in the kitchen. Be sure to take note when an idea strikes because ideas are like little seeds and you never know what they might bloom into. Don’t take those seeds for granted! Make sure you save them nicely in case you want to grow them.
Evernote
Some people love Evernote for clipping and tracking things. I haven’t used it much, but I do trust the word of those people! Are you an Evernote user?
How do you keep track of your ideas and inspirations?