If I knew when all the good ideas were going to spring into my mind I would have been a millionaire many years ago. The fact is, they come and go all the time, but only for a flash. If you don’t remember them and write them down right away, they will be gone as fast as they come.
That is why I carry a pocket sized note book everywhere I go. This habit has been the number one reason for my success over the past few years. It doesn’t matter where I am, if have an idea for a project, blog post, marketing tactic, or the next big idea or invention I write it down right away along with all the other thoughts that stem from it.
Having these ideas written out on paper means I will never forget them and I will be able to take action on them as soon as I get the chance. So many days in my past, I came up with some great ideas, but never followed through with them because I couldn’t remember the full thought, or even forgot it completely.
Andrew Carnegie says this same habit was as much responsible for his success growing the world’s greatest company The Carnegie Steel Company. Carnegie took the step a little further and wrote down every morning the 6 things he had to get accomplished for that day. He let no interruptions disturb him until he had completed the tasks. He found this exercise so effective that he had everyone in his company do the same and he saw his growth and productivity go through the roof.
In today’s society it s more important than ever to have some kind of system to capture your thoughts and keep your days organized and productive. If it’s not the constant emails, it’s the cell phone or in this work from home time, the kids want to come in and visit and break your flow. Believe me, I struggled with this for years and couldn’t figure out why I wasn’t successful. The reason was, I was getting about 2 hours of actual work done in an eight hour work day trying to do it all from home with the constant distraction a home brings.
This is an all too familiar problem for a large percentage of the home based work force. Another 79 million people plan to start a new home based business in the next few years. They had better have a plan to get organized and use a method like the notebook to keep their ideas organized and their minds clear.
Email companies and cell phone companies now have organizers on the phone, but how many people actually use that feature? I tried that for a while, but it didn’t work. It was more of a distraction because I kept on getting interupted with calls and wanting to check my messages.
Mark Joyner, the godfather of internet marketing has had much success with his Simpleology software, which is a free service and one which I have been using for years too, but most of my ideas come when I am away from the computer, so the old fashioned note book comes with me everywhere I go.
Try this exercise of carrying a notebook and write out the 6 things you need to get accomplished before anything else each day. (Checking emails is not one of them) When the innovative thoughts that come into your head each day arrive, write them down quickly before they leave again and carry on with your tasks knowing that your god ideas have been logged. Develop this as a habit by doing it for 3 weeks and see what a difference it make for your business. I would be shocked if you were not getting 2 to 3 times as much work done in a normal day. Some people have even said they have done the work in a day what would usually take them a week. A very simple idea, but if it was thought worthy enough of the richest man in the world, Andrew Carnegie, then it is worthy enough for us too.
