Do you know how we get ideas when we’re not thinking about problems? I don’t know about you but I’ve never gotten good ideas in the middle of a brainstorm, I’ve gotten them after the brainstorm when I’m not even thinking about problems.
I’m a big believer in understanding how one thinks to improve how one thinks so I’ve been playing around with a habit I have. When I get a gut feeling about something I either write it down on my Moleskine when I’m away from the PC, create a note on Evernote if I’m using my computer or snap/type it into the Evernote app on my Palm Pre.
If you capture ideas I bet you have a similar habit, I’ve been writing down my thoughts for a long time but for the last month I payed attention to my own idea capture behavior to figure out which one I use the most and therefore which works for me. The pattern I noticed was that I do a lot more capturing on my Moleskine and phone app than when I’m sitting in front of my computer. Why is this?
Because good ideas comes to mind once we are in a relax mood and not in a sick hurry. When I write on the Moleskine I do so when not engaged in focused thinking, thoughts come out of pure observations. I use the Evernote app on my phone to snap photos of things so I can come back to them later and the Evernote app on my desktop works as a brain bank of clips of my daily browsing.
On the weekends I retype the notes on the Moleskine into Evernote which I shouldn’t have to do but I’ve found that it may spur some insight when I’m retyping them into Evernote because those notes have been simmering in there and gives me an opportunity to revisit them. It’s a long process I know (if you have other ideas let me know!) but it’s an experiment I’ve been doing and thoroughly enjoy, I just can’t seem to let the notebook go!
Innovation is everyone’s job and capturing ideas is one technique that people could start applying today to bring more creativity into their work or their business organization.
How do you capture ideas? Which one works for you?
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I've started scanning my notebook and using Evernote's OCR functionality when I want to find it later.
Great advice Jorge, capturing ideas has always been a challenge for me. I have a Moleskin as well and keep it with me continually. The touch of paper and pen, always invigorates my creative side. I like how you have a mix the two, almost right brain and left brain approach to capturing ideas. I think continual exploring what works best is the art to it…
Hi Phil, there's something about writing ideas on a piece of paper that makes it just more 'real'. Still getting used to the digital but seeing some improvement, process is still in beta!
Thanks for commenting!
Great advice Brian, will definitely try that out.
Thanks!
Great advice
Have you tried taking pictures of your Moleskine journal into evernote and then adding note from there? I only wish there was a way in evernote to select your line of notes and have evernote auto convert it into searchable text or at least allow you to correct evernote where it mis-reads your handwriting.
Hi Brian,
I know Evernote also searches text in pictures and don’t know if it will recognize everyone’s handwriting. But to answer your question, no I haven’t taken pictures of my moleskine notes.
Cheers,
Jorge