Why You Must Write Down Your Ideas

 

If you do not write down your ideas then you've been doing a whole lot wrong for a long time.

I really do not want to go into the things you've been missing out on but just bear in mind that they are huge. Writing down ideas is one of the simplest but most powerful tools you'll ever come across. I'm talking about a mental tool that will advance you to a whole new level.

But why is it so important, and what will it do for you?

What you gain when you write down your ideas

Here's one quote from Michael LeBoeuf:

“When you write down your ideas you automatically focus your full attention on them. Few if any of us can write one thought and think another at the same time. Thus a pencil and paper make excellent concentration tools.”

I've seen stuff I wrote down like eight years ago and I soon as I read through, the ideas came surging up like a storm. It literally feels like time travel, but it's just something written on paper.

A tool that can make your ideas attack you that powerfully from eight years ago will keep you fully concentrated on them if you've just written them down in the present as to-dos. You'll focus your full attention on them as LeBoeuf has said and be able to get them done at lightning speed.

But writing down your ideas doesn't just give you razor-sharp concentration, it equally keeps you chock-full of content. By that, I mean - in simple terms -  that you can finally wave your final goodbye to writer's block.

Francis Bacon, Sr. suggests that you should...

“Write down the thoughts of the moment. Those that come unsought for are commonly the most valuable.”

That's coming from the great man himself.

When ideas pop into your head and you write them down, you're essentially arming yourself, or put differently, loading up on guns for your armoury. When you need to get creative at any point, all you gotta do is take one out and fire.

The thoughts "that come unsought for are commonly the most valuable" - you can't argue with that. And if you don't write them down they'll vanish, disappear the same way they came.

If your memory is like mine, or like half the people in this world's, it's pretty much a leaking bucket. One moment it's full to the brim, the next moment it's brimming with emptiness. Your pen and paper are that useful bowl you can put the bucket in, so if the ideas are ready to take their leave from your mind, they can just seep nicely into that bowl and stay there for when you need them.

Bottom line is, if you constantly write ideas down you will never find yourself in a position where your mind is blank and you're looking for something to write on.