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How I Keep Track of Ideas · The Daily Writer

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Hey my friend, welcome to the Daily Writer, where we help writers become authors of their own lives.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: I was recently going back and forth on the Voxer app with one of my email subscribers named Lori, and she asked how I keep track of all my ideas for these daily emails that I send out.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I explained that it's really quite simple.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: I have two places where I keep these ideas.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: The first is a holding tank of sorts, and the second is a more permanent location.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: So let me break this down for you just a bit because this might be helpful for you as well.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: So here's how this works.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: When I get an idea for an email and I'm not in front of my computer, I dump that idea into a note in my iPhone notes app, and I type or dictate a couple of lines so I remember what the idea is.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: And I've titled that specific note in my notes app, email list topics.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: Again, it's like the least creative name for a note that you can come up with.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: Email list topics.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: And it's a running list of anywhere from a handful to maybe a couple dozen ideas at any given time.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: And then once every week or two, I dump everything in that list into a document and scrivener called Content Ideas.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: And this is a permanent holding tank for potential email ideas.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: So that is literally my system.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's nice and simple, it's almost ridiculously simple.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: Here's the thing though, the particular app or the system is not important.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: So it doesn't matter whether you use Microsoft Word on your phone.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, not that anybody uses Word on their phone, probably, or whether you keep track of these and emails that you send to yourself, or whether you use the iPhone Notes app or whatever you use doesn't really make any difference.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: The important thing here is that you have some kind of system to begin with.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: So I like to keep things really simple.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're writing something on a regular basis, and I hope that you are, I recommend using the notes app on your phone as a place to dump ideas.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: So if you don't have a system currently, just use the notes app on your phone.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: If you have an Android, obviously it's not an iPhone.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: So it's the notes may be called something different on Android.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: I have no idea what it's called, but I imagine they have a notes app of some kind.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so dump your ideas into a note and then transfer those notes somewhere more permanent every week or two.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: Or maybe you don't transfer them anywhere.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you just keep them on your phone, and that's totally great depending on how you like to work.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: Here's the thing ideas can come to you at the weirdest times, and it's not unheard of for me to get an idea in the middle of the night and then dump that idea into the note on my iPhone.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's why I like having something really simple.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: I know where I'm gonna dump it and I can come back to it later.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: Because the thing is, if you don't write it down, it's probably gonna be forgotten.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: So whether you use the system I'm recommending or something else, again, it doesn't matter.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: The important thing is have a place to record your ideas so you can come back to them later.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's gonna save you a lot of time when you sit down later on to flesh out that piece that you're working on.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, thanks for listening.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: Keep writing, keep showing up, and I'll see you tomorrow.