5 Tips For Organizing Your Ideas

Do you have an idea? Maybe it’s an invention or a hobby you want to grow into a business. Maybe it’s an idea to make our planet a happier place or an idea to find an alternative job. How will you convert your ideas into a reality? The first step should be to organize your ideas—identify them and prioritize. Use these 5 Tips for Organizing Your Ideas:

1. Buy a Dry Erase Board

One of the first steps of realizing your idea is to extract it from your head. A dry erase board provides you a platform to be creative and colorful. Chicago’s Girl With The Whiteboard made use of one late last year and CIW 2011 sponsor Ink Factory has turned it into a business.

2. Color-code your notes

As you explore your idea you’ll attend lectures, watch documentaries and take notes. Taking notes can be tedious, especially if you’re trying to keep up with a speaker and your handwriting is a mess. Switch colors every time you change a thought or topic. Translating your thoughts later will be easier when you know two sloppily written sentences are separate thoughts.

3. Organize your business cards

Building your ideas will require you to build a network, which results in a collection of business cards. Keep track of them, and if you remember, put a note on each card with a specific detail about the person. Next time your paths cross, reference the fun detail and you’ll immediately grab the person’s attention.

4. Put stuff away

A hybrid of ideas from Gretchen Rubin and a blog post from entrepreneur.com. Removing clutter from outside your head will remove clutter inside it. Don’t put your jacket on the couch, hang it up. Sort your mail immediately, and fold your clean laundry ASAP. Once the clutter is removed, it’ll be easier to focus on your ideas.

5. Spend time alone

Escape the distractions of your life and find a place of solitude. Maybe it’s in your home, very late or very early when the world is asleep. Forest preserves work well or if you’re in Chicago, there are quiet places along the lakefront. While you’re isolated from the world, take deep breaths. Supplying your brain with more oxygen will help you think.

Thank you for reading. Don’t fear the path to happiness.