Remembering Great Ideas

Last week while at the multi-chamber mixer I saw a gentleman I had met a few times, Reed Chambers of Peerless Electric Company. As we were talking we got on the subject of coming up with great ideas and trying to remember them. This happens to me. I’ll be driving somewhere and hear something which triggers a thought, maybe next week’s marketing tip or a way to market someone’s product or a new product for myself. I repeat it to myself a few times and tell myself that I’ll remember it. Guess what. I don’t remember it and it’s lost.

Reed told me a saying as he remembers it: “Out of mind, on paper.” When he gets an idea or thought, Reed writes it down so he has it for later use.  I also try to do the same, but sometimes I don’t have paper with me. In fact, for this tip I wrote Reed’s quote on a cocktail napkin.

In the past I have recorded thoughts in my phone’s recorder, typed up notes on the phone’s notepad and pulled over into a parking lot or side street, got out a pad and wrote it down.

What are some of your ways to keep your great ideas from becoming just another faded memory?

Until next week,

Philip Freedman