What is your Process for Tracking Writing Ideas?

Four simple strategies to gather those ideas as they come to you without disrupting the writing you are doing now

Scheduling vs. gathering ideas along the day

There are many suggestions for ideation, or the creative process involving the generation, development, and communication of ideas, that writers have used to help them hone their craft. Everything from brainstorming them on a paper, whiteboard, or mind mapping software, to daily journaling and allowing the free-flow of ideas to pour out, to meditating on a concept that we find engaging, regardless of whether it is nonfiction or fiction.

While all these have been, and continue to be, successfully used processes in the quest to generate and develop new ideas, they all involve an intentional act of attending to them. None of these happen by chance or as if by magic. They all require time . . . scheduled time . . . that must in turn be prioritized in the day to get done.

This involves a certain prioritization of the day, and as such gets scheduled like anything else if it has any chance of getting done at all. This is a valuable activity, to be sure, but this does not really help with what to do when ideas come upon us through the course of an ordinary day.

Let’s face it, we never know when new or related ideas may come to us, and we know we cannot let them escape without somehow capturing them as they may never return.

Capture ideas without disrupting the flow

Let me share a real, and timely, example of what I mean.

While I was revising the words at the beginning of this article itself, I had an idea pop into my mind that is directly related to what I am writing here, yet while related, it immediately somehow felt different enough that I should not work it in at this moment.

However, I did not want to lose it.

What do I do with those sorts of ideas that come along during the course of an ordinary day, when those ideas appear, seemingly out of nowhere, so they do not get lost AND so I do not get sidetracked from my current writing or other processes at hand?

Both of these are really important, and may seemingly be at odds:

✓ I cannot disrupt my writing flow as I will lose my now

✓ I must capture that new idea right away so I do not lose my future

This is the issue I am focusing on . . . how can I effectively capture those new ideas without disrupting my flow?

4 strategies to capture ideas

I have found four different strategies to help me capture these ideas, simply, without disrupting the flow. For all of these to work, it is important to not dwell on the idea or begin to develop it, as that will surely disrupt the current writing flow and is not what I am striving to focus upon here. These are all quick and smooth enough to not distract.

1. Keep a notebook within reach

The paper writing or idea journal, or an online journal or blog is a common strategy for developing ideas, but that is not what this means. I mean a real place (not a scrap of paper) for grabbing ideas that is handy. The paper or electronic does not matter as long as it can be opened and recorded immediately.

I used to have a different notebook for my writing ideas, work notes, consulting projects, coaching feedback, and the like, but then my first action involved finding the correct notebook for whatever task I was focusing upon. This extra step was enough to disrupt my current flow, so instead I combined all these into a single notebook, so I only have to bring one with me when I travel or move around, and always, always keep it right next to my keyboard, usually open to a new page (each new topic begins on a new page where I record the date).

Even today I have already recorded a few ideas on a new, dated page with the title interstitial journaling. I can sort or find it later, but the key is that it is open and ready without any notice.

I have done something similar with the to-do project app Trello, where I create a new todo in my Daily ToDo board, as that is always open on my computer.

What we don’t want to do is have to get up and find the journal, log on to the app, or anything beyond turning and jotting the idea down without disruption.

2. Post-Its on a monitor

While not a permanent spot, few things beat the simplicity of having a pad of pop-up Post-Its next to the computer or on my desk. They can immediately be used to track new ideas and can be added into the notebook (#1 above) or onto the monitor or stuck easily anywhere that is needed.

To be fair, I have finally gotten rid of piles of paper and slips here and there, all of which become immediately disorganized and such. However, this then makes Post-Its on the monitor or my desk even more valuable, as there is otherwise no other paper around so I can then do something concrete with it later.

If you have slips of paper all over your desk or monitor or the like, this may not be the best option to try, as it can readily get lost with all the other clutter. However, for those of us who have gone nearly paper-free, this really helps the idea to pop out.

To be fair, I have a Post-It pop-up dispenser, so it helps my workspace stay neat and ready for me to grab one of these immediately, without having to look for one (as that would surely disrupt the flow).

3. Bookmark idea prompts in your browser

Do you use the same computer every day, so you can find things as needed on it and do not have to hope others do not distract your placement of things?

Great, use the bookmarking feature on your browser to save the pages or other ideas you come across that you want to explore. These are not necessarily the ideas that pop into your mind completely unbidden, but rather those that come when you are doing something else.

For example, I was working on an article and suddenly had an idea as developing something I read earlier in the morning a bit further. I went to that tab (I tend to keep lots of browser tabs open) and bookmarked it.

Not just bookmarked that tab’s page anyplace . . . I bookmarked it in my Writing folder, a folder I created on my bookmark bar for writing ideas!

Endless bookmarked tabs do not help anybody find anything, so if you bookmark ideas, it will help to bookmark them together in a common place you can find easily. Writing Ideas, Research Ideas, or Writing Tips are all ideas for helping here.

4. If writing on Medium, create new ideas as article headlines

I have been increasingly writing on Medium, and often an idea for an article, or an idea to develop that may become an article, pops up while I am writing.

So, I have started to click on my name on the upper right of Medium (I am always logged on!), and then when the menu appears, I right-click on New story, so it opens it in a new tab. There, I write the idea I had as the title, and voila!

Medium saves automatically, so writing the title as a new story is all that is needed for that story idea to be saved.

Close the tab, and I am right back where I started 5–10 seconds later.

When I discovered this and created it as a simple process, like any habit after doing it enough times, it happens without being conscious of it as it is so smooth and simple. In this way, my Medium writing idea tracking and recording happens almost seamlessly, and ideas in this way, now my favorite way of tracking ideas while writing others here on Medium.

Ideas can come from anywhere and at any time, and I find I look forward to their magical spark like the excitement I still have scratching off instant lottery tickets. In a similar way, we just need those dreams, for we all start someplace.

I am eager to hear how these make sense to you, and what other processes you find helpful in recording those creative writing ideas you have without breaking your writing zone!