How to Capture Ideas So You Never Lose Them

If you make a living — or your art — from ideas, you need an effective way to capture & store them

I’m a working writer. A lot of people think this is some kind of dream job, impossible and exciting. That may be true for Stephen King. But the truth, from my point of view, is that I run a small business. I sell ideas. After I sell an idea, I either have a customer who buys more of them or I don’t. Ideas are my product. And they are slippery. Here is how to capture ideas.

I’m still here a couple of decades later. So my ideas sell and turn into customers often enough that I own a home, an investment property, and a car. I earn as much as most people with a day job, though nothing like Stephen King.

I’m not here to give writing advice, not today. But I am here to say that if ideas are your bread and butter, as they are mine, you need to treat them with respect. If ideas are your product – and this is true for most creatives – you need an effective way to capture, store, and inventory them. You need a system for keeping them fresh.

You might think, “I’ll never forget this great idea!” But everyone says that. When I was starting out, I said that. But you will forget. You have already forgotten some good ideas. It’s crucial to have a system that helps you store and remember every idea because one of the inescapable truths about ideas is that they always happen at an inopportune time.

I’ve developed a method to capture ideas effectively and revisit them on a cadence that keeps them fresh. It’s not hard.

Here’s how:

Step 1: Choose Your Tool

First, select a work management tool that suits your needs. There are many options available, such as Trello, Asana, OneNote, or Evernote. Or you could go analog and use a Bullet Journal or plain notebook. The tool you choose depends on your workload, level of comfort with technology, and the volume of ideas you plan to generate. You can change your mind and move up to a more robust tool at any time.

My tool of choice is ClickUp

I use ClickUp. If you are a freelance writer, here because you keep losing track of ideas and landed here looking for how to capture ideas, that’s the one you want. If your work is fast-paced and you want a tool you will always have in your pocket, this is the one to get. All of these tools are good. But many don’t understand how necessary the calendar is to my work.

Whether your work requires you to visualize it in time – because of deadlines – or space — because you schedule things based on where they are on a map, it is the best — the only — tool that does these things well.

It also offers a free version that allows you to do most things and, when you are ready to level up, purchase a single seat.

Most of the other tools – except Evernote, which is too chaotic for me — see themselves as serving software developers. They put lots of emphasis on working with a team. They don’t sell a single seat at a price that’s reasonable for a solo worker. I work alone, sometimes collaborating with clients. After using almost every other tool, I now use Clickup. It is perfect for me because it is simple to use but can get very complex and granular. Not only does it have beautiful internal calendar tools — my work is all tied to deadlines — but it also integrates seamlessly with my Google calendar.

Step 2: Create a Dedicated Space

In whatever tool you have chosen, create a dedicated space for ideas. This could be a specific board in Trello, a project in Asana, a notebook in Evernote, or a section in your bullet journal.

In ClickUp, I created a Space to capture ideas. Or, rather, I have several spaces in ClickUp. Every client or project has an idea space. I also have a general “Ideas” space for ideas that don’t fit into any current projects.

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This might seem a chaotic way to go about it. But here’s why I do it this way: When a client asks me for ideas, I can find those that are specific to their needs in a few clicks.

I can’t tell you how many times this has made me look like a genius. I’m on a call with a client, for example, who tends to always have a plan, rarely asking me for ideas. Usually, they ask me to execute an idea that fits an SEO goal, feature set, or a concept the CEO wants to explain. But today, all of a sudden, they say, “We need ideas!” A few clicks later, I’m spewing fully formed ideas that came to me in a moment of creative energy. I might be tired, tapped out from a day of writing, or under-caffeinated. But I can still generate excellent ideas — because I keep them on ice.

Where you put your idea space should reflect you and your work. If you are a novelist and have ideas that suit a variety of genres, maybe create spaces for Romance, Mystery, and Thriller. If you are a feature writer, maybe your spaces are organized around a beat area or publication. If you are an inventor, perhaps your ideas are organized around use case.

Step 3: Make It a Habit

Make it a habit to record your ideas as soon as soon they come to you. This is where a lot of people fail at this. Ideas come at awkward times. Capture them anyway.

If you are at a bar having drinks with some friends and conversation sparks an idea, pull out your phone and write it down. (This is another reason I use a digital system, with an app, instead of a notebook.)

Maybe you are thinking that sounds rude. But there is a way to do this that isn’t. I do it all the time. Someone says something that sparks an idea, I pull out my phone, open the ClickUp app, look my dinner partner right in the eye, and say, “That gave me the best idea!”

Then I write it down – or voice record it so they know what my idea is – and make my idea capture system part of the party. People will think you are rude if you drop them and start looking at your phone but they are usually thrilled to be an inspiration. If you are thinking they will steal your idea if you do this, I assure you they won’t. They will forget it because they didn’t write it down!

Step 4: Regularly Review Your Ideas

Capturing ideas is a great start. But if they end up gathering dust in an idea warehouse, it won’t do you much good. So before I put my phone down, in the bar or wherever I jot the idea down, I attach a due date to that idea.

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The next time I’m at my desk, my daily plan in ClickUp will show me that idea.

This is the moment when I refine it, file it with the right client or idea space, and – this is very important – put it on a regularly recurring reminder. If the idea is so genius that I want to implement it STAT. I might set it to remind me of its existence every day. More likely, once a month is enough.

In a month (or a day, week, or whatever), when I have completely forgotten that idea, it lands on my daily plan. Some time has passed so I can see it more clearly. Sometimes, I tick it done because I have no time or energy for it. Other times, I refine it, add to it, and see how it might fit into a project or plan I’m working on.

If it is a piece of fiction or a story like this one, I might spend a few minutes building it out by writing a lead or an outline or jotting some ideas. People take coffee breaks, right? I take little breaks like this from whatever I’m working on to add to an idea that feels interesting to me at that moment. Then I tick it done and let it land on my daily plan another day.

I have written articles, novellas, and full works of fiction this way – sandwiched in among my paying work. (I wrote this post using this system.)

When that idea seed shows up in my day, and I tend it, it grows.

Eventually, that seed gets too big for a ClickUp task and I move it to a Word file. But I let those reminders continue, with a note about where the file is now. It is very easy to forget a half-written story. These reminders encourage me to go work on it again, even for a few minutes.

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