The Idea-File-Phile

What do you do with all the good ideas you come across, whether business or personal? Do you see a great website and bookmark it? Spot a creative email and shove it in a folder? Tear out a magazine page and stick it in a binder?

Do you ever look at them again?

I propose that you take an hour a week to reign in all your best ideas and make a file. The cloud works better for some; for others, it can be a shoebox. The point is to get all the creative thoughts into a place that you can both remember it and access it when you need it.

This past Christmas I wanted a particular gift for someone and knew I had kept it in a “good idea file” but had to ask: was it a file in a drawer or on a drive? I later found I had it on both. Overkill? Maybe, but as a good idea-file-phile, I believe that more is more.

To generate more of your own good ideas, read this post from the Freakonomics guys. It makes the case that great ideas don’t come from lone geniuses, but from connected networks. Be sure to bookmark and stick in your ideas file!