You are folding laundry, not thinking about anything in particular beyond matching socks when a Brilliant Idea pops into your head. Maybe it is a new way to teach a concept that your students never seem to understand. Maybe it is a way to load the top rack of the dishwasher so all of the glasses will fit. Maybe it is a remarkably simple and inexpensive way to fix our health care system.

Perhaps you will remember this Brilliant Idea, but there is a good chance that you won’t, especially if the phone rings, or you notice that you are missing the match to your favorite pair of socks.

How many Brilliant Ideas are lost because the Thinker of the Thought did not take a few seconds to write it down?

So, the clear message of this post is: Write it down! You can use a pad of paper, a computer, a napkin, the back of your hand – it doesn’t really matter as long as you get it down where it won’t get lost. I know several people who carry little notebooks with them where ever they go for just this purpose. I personally am partial to 3×5 index cards. I keep them everywhere and my office is littered with index cards scrawled with cryptic notes that eventually find their way into a more readable and useful Word document.

This may seem like a one of those useless posts that tells you something you already know – and you probably did already know that it is a good idea to write down your good ideas. The question is, do you actually do it?

Related posts:

Recreating Yourself The Gianormous Resolution Best Time of Day for Creativity Give it a Rest: A Creative Thinking Strategy Get Your Students to Talk about School