Your best just got better: How often do you withdrawal from your own thought investment bank?

Where do you get your ideas?

And, what do you do with them when you get them?

And, how do you get something done about one of those ideas you have?

A lot of the people I work with face a similar challenge: Occasionally they come up with an idea in one place that they can’t do anything about until later. The problem is that while they are thinking of something to do there, they need to be 100% focused on what they are doing here.

Every day, you generate dozens of potentials. All too often, these ideas (things to do, people to talk to, E-mails to send, errands to run, etc) disappear from our thoughts as fast as they entered. It just makes sense not to continue thinking about something you can not do where you are.

So, I encourage people to build behaviors and systems that make it easier to generate ideas even though they need to think about them in more detail later. Some of the things I do are:

Sometime each day, I take out a blank piece of paper and write for 5-10 minutes. Now, my writing teacher would have me doing more of this, but I don’t always make the time. I figure if I am consistent with 5-10 minutes, I am better off than if I only do it once or twice a week. There is not structure to this writing, I simply write sentences, lists, mind-maps, anything to get the ideas from my mind onto that piece of paper. After I am through, I read it over and add any actions to my to-do list.

After a meeting, or even a phone call with someone where we talk about ideas, I call Jott.com. I use this service several times each week, as it allows me to note-take hands free, and use the free form of talking to get the ideas from my mind to my E-mail inbox. Again, when I get back to the inbox, I separate the ideas I need to organize as reference from the items I will act on in the nearer future.

One more way I practice generating ideas beyond what I’m doing and focused on right now is adding new input. Reading, listening and watching informative programs just on the fringe of my interests is a great way for me to come up with newer ideas.

I will admit that it is easy for me to go through an entire day reading my E-mails, visiting the same websites or weblogs, and talking to the same people about the same things. By investing in my own thought bank, I can make periodic withdrawals that are exciting, worthwhile and significant.

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