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Recording Ideas Immediately

jacktuttle says:
I’ve been making lists for as long as I can remember but, since discovering RTM a few years ago, I have used it virtually every day and my productivity has increased a great deal as a result. I use RTM in lots of different ways and have found the forums helpful in coming up with different Smart Lists. The beauty with it, I find, is that it has become more and more useful the more I use it. However, the greatest use I get from it is by following a relatively simple technique.

I’ve read numerous times that the greatest thinkers in history often carried notebooks around with them so they could record ideas whenever anything entered their mind. This is a theme repeated by many of the top productivity bloggers who I follow. However, carrying a notebook with me when I am out and about often isn't practical, but carrying my iPhone is normal and tapping an idea, however brief, into the RTM iPhone app and creating a new task is easy. It doesn't necessarily have to be particularly coherent; all that matters is I record the idea, whether that is for a new business, a book, an article, an exercise, or whatever.

The new task then automatically appears in my Inbox. Later, when I get to my computer (or using the app if I am, for example, commuting by train), I can go through my Inbox and deal with these idea tasks accordingly. This can involve completing them, tagging and adding them to another list, or adding new next-step tasks. Sometimes I don't get around to dealing with the task for a while, but the important thing is I recorded something which I almost certainly would have forgotten otherwise.
Posted at 10:35am on May 13, 2014
emily (Remember The Milk) says:
Hi jacktuttle,

Bob really needs this tip -- he has his greatest ideas at the most inconvenient times!

You're this week's Tips & Tricks Tuesday winner, and we've added a free year of Pro to your Remember The Milk account. :)
Posted 9 years ago
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