Monday, December 18, 2006

Tracking ideas

My wife and I watched the IFC crossword enthusiast documentary Wordplay a few weeks back. If you haven't seen it, rent it, it's brilliant. While perusing lifehacker I came upon a deleted scene in which puzzle guru Merl Regal talks about writing down ideas on index cards and notebooks. He makes the point that ideas can come from anywhere and he always has to be ready to capture them.



Ideas are what pay the bills in the ad business. Every great piece of work starts with an idea. But, like Merl said, you never know which ones will make it. That's why it's important to keep them all.

With Merl in mind, I ask this question: Other than the Hipster PDA, which I've decided to download, does anyone have advice on ways of keeping track of ideas? Is there a certain type of notebook or paper you prefer for archiving ideas?

I've got into the unhealthy habit of writing ideas in random places, such as on a used post-it or on whatever piece of paper is near the top of the pile on my desk, making them hard to find and easy to lose. After listening to Merl, I want to be sure that doesn't happen anymore. What if one of us has an idea for a stamp puzzle?

3 comments:

Andy Woolard said...

Moleskine notebooks, Andrew. God's gift to pocket creativity. I also overuse the "memo" function on my mobile.

KFad said...

I second the Molskine. I also use index cards because you can move them around to organize your ideas.

andrewtheplanner said...

Thanks for the tips. Moleskine notebooks seem like the perfect tool for breaking my "write anywhere" habit.