As creative entrepreneurs, we are constantly observing, soaking up very ounce of info, advice, life, tips, anything we can get our hands and eyeballs on to make our businesses better. Sometimes, we have ideas on the spot, and we write them down. Other times, our brains do magically scientific things I don’t understand, and hours or days later, we get an idea while we’re grocery shopping or trying to sleep.
How to implement ideas…
Tip No. 1 – Write everything down. It’s so important to write things down as they pop in your head. Even if you’re comfy cozy in bed and rolling over to make a note in your phone/notebook seems like a gigantic chore. It’s a much more laborious chore to keep yourself awake, replaying the words in your head, in hopes you’ll remember them in the morning.
As we write down every random idea or possibility of an idea, it’s not long before we’re swimming in uncharted plans, excitement and probably some fear. We are drenched, sopping wet and feeling heavy with all we’ve come up with, making it hard to make the next move. Feeling stuck sucks.
Tip No. 2 – Schedule idea-execution days. We add these work days to our calendar to…
1. Recap books we’ve read. All that underlining and note-taking will be a big, fat waste of time unless we do something with all of those ideas derived from that advice.
2. Go through our notebooks. If you’re anything like me, you have a fabulous collection of pretty notebooks filled with all sorts of random inspiration, notes from seminars, conferences, tweets and ah-ha moments you’ve experienced on the road, from possibly an embarrassingly long time ago. Clear a day on your calendar. It’s time to flip through these pages, find what’s relevant, turn those things action items and GASP! scratch that pretty, dusty notebook or store it away.
3. Make action items post-brainstorming sessions. Before every single one of our meetings, we designate a recorder. As words and ideas fly, the note-taker writes down the goods. At the end of the meeting, we create verbs/actions from our ideas and add them to our individual to-do lists. A few sample items currently on my list: Submit Molly + Kevin, Update website photos, Revisit video marketing scripts.
Okay, now you have one hell of to-do list. Don’t panic! So do we. It’s a never-ending cycle and that’s okay! To make yourself feel farther along than you think you are, take a peek at some old to-do lists. This should remind you that you’re constantly evolving, growing and succeeding, one little action item at a time.
Tip No. 3 – Prioritize your list.
Tip No. 4 – “‘Begin at the beginning,’ the king said gravely, ‘and go till you come to the end; then stop.'” – Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Do one thing at a time! Some days you’ll conquer one big item. Other days, you’ll crank out six. Start with the small items to create some momentum. Create space and time for yourself and limit distractions (close email and Safari) to set yourself up to succeed when tackling the big items.
Keep on getting out in the world, going to workshops, brainstorming, collaborating and reading. There’s always room for more ideas! Just implement this little system to not only keep your head above the water but to also, more importantly, to make some big waves.
