If you have a thought but don’t write it down, by the next morning it may be gone forever. I always carry a small notebook and make daily lists, scribble ideas and jot down thoughts.

I’m used to pulling my notebook out and jotting down thoughts and observations everywhere I go.

The reason we write things down is to keep the memory. Ink and paper never forgets, our brains does.

I always make sure that when I sleep I have something to write on handy lying around so that when I get a thought or an idea, I’m able to write it immediately when I wake up.

Ideas don’t keep office hours, they visit when you least expect.

Ideas are not the respecter of time or place, they come anytime, anywhere, anyhow.

They don’t knock and wait for you to open the door, they barge in. If you don’t write them down immediately, they leave and move on to someone who will entertain them.

There was a time when I had to pull off the road, take out my notebook and write down an idea.

Have you ever experienced a moment where you see someone, a total stranger implement an idea you always had and then you say “but that’s my idea, I have always wanted to do something like that.” Yep, you flirted with the idea and did nothing more, then it left to visit someone else who entertained and implemented it.

Ideas are always floating around waiting for people to grab and use them. Writing them down is the first step.

If it’s not written, it won’t be done. 

When you write down your ideas, you automatically focus your full attention on them.

When I read a book or magazine or anything interesting, I copy my favorite passages, i document interesting conversations, even when on the Gautrain, bus or plan.

Go to whatever lengths necessary to ensure you always have paper on you. Artist David Hockney had all the inside pockets of his suit jackets tailored to fit a sketchbook. The musician Arthur Russell liked to wear shirts with two front pockets so he could fill them with scraps of score sheets.

See something worth recording, put it in your scrapbook. Need a little inspiration? Open your scrapbook.

 

Most entrepreneurs keep small notebooks and write down their ideas all the time.