Blogging: Try An Ideas Jar

Here's an idea to help you with saving ideas for writing posts for your blog or other online content.

I have a dozen ideas a day about a topic for a blog that comes as I am interacting with a client or reading an article or just listening to the radio.  Something will be said, and that will lead me into thinking about other things that are like that and suddenly, there's a topic to expand into a long form piece of writing to publish that could be useful for me to remember or revisit, and may be helpful or other people too.

So I'd scribble that down on a piece of paper.

But pieces of paper get lost, they get used for other notes, lost at the bottom of pile of paperwork and never make it to the publishing - which is where you could really use it.

Ideas Notes 

So I thought about a new system to try.  Here's how it goes.

I have printed some points to apply to each post to remind me what the thought was I want to write about.

In this case:

• Idea (summary of what the blog post would be about)
• Target audience (who it might interest)
• Main Point (The primary take-away idea from the post that distills the whole message)
• Category eg #productivity  #business #personaldevelopment  #marketing

So a template made with the questions, fits 3 per page, can then be printed off a few pages at a time and then cut into single idea notes to fill out on the run when the idea strikes.

I'll then fill out the details, fold them up and put them into a jar and there you have it. Part of the thinking is already done on the idea note. The topic and the context are clear and defining the main point makes it easier to then work out an image that will fit with the post.

Moving ideas out into their own space

I'm expecting that having the idea notes contained in the jar will help in two ways.

1. The thoughts will be captured along with notes to remind me of the context so I understand the context for the idea when I then write the piece
2. They are stored together safely in one space where they are easily accessible but can't get mixed up with unrelated notes, and 
3. They will build up into a bank of quality topics that I intend to write about and kickstart the process when I am about to write a blog but don't have a particular topic burning right there and then that I want to write about. 

Other Ways To Use An Idea Jar

I think this idea can work well for creating a bank of ideas for writing blog posts as it allows the sed to germinate before writing and the ideas to percolate and mature before the writing stage. I'll update this post after I've tested it out a while. I like the idea of having a savings bank of ready-to-go starters to use for blogging. It's a little like cooking dinner - often the hardest part is working out what to have. 

This would also be a good system to use for planning and before you get to the formal stage of writing a plan for business, or a travel itinerary or even just setting goals for the future. Try some ideas in the jar and see if you still like them later when you revisit. The nice things about goals is that we can try them on and change them if we don't really care for them. Winnowing the ideas down to the goals that really matter to us before setting them fully and mapping them to our life plan means that when we do that we have tested them well and know they are a good fit and fully meet the criterion we have for being ecologically sound.   If using this jar idea for goals, maybe check out the cupboards or thrift store and buy a really special jar to use. One you can get your hand into and one that shows off your goal idea within. 

Great For The Not-So-Tidy Deskers

The jar idea is also perfect for those of us who don't have a desk that is completely clean and bare at all times. If your clutter tends to accumulate on the desk, this could be perfect for you to try too.

Related

Cheat sheet to use for setting your goals

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Fast Track Business Review

Too Busy For A Proper Business Plan?

If you are like many business owners, you may be so rushed with filling orders, paying bills and getting through the day-to-day crises, that there is just no time to get organized, and put your thoughts down into a business plan, or even know quite where to start.

A Fast Track Business Review might be the way to begin your process of getting control of your business, fix those things that have been left undone that will bring the business fast benefits, and cut through some of the clutter that can turn up in a business, and prevent better results than you could be
getting now.

Getting Started
To get started on your review, take a few minutes and think about your business and how it operates every day. Think about what issues come up time and again and cause problems, and think about the improvements that you may have considered making in some parts of the business.
Now make a list of the things that you would like in the business to work better, stop irritating you or improve your financial position. Is cash-flow an issue for the business, or is something else holding you back?

Make your Wish List.

1. Things you’d like more of
2. Things you’d like less of

Look At Your Business Objectively


Your business has a need to operate efficiently across a range of areas in order to work as effectively (and profitably) as it may. Very often, business owners start out in a business because they have a skill in one area, and may be very adept at performing that technical skill. Of course there are more responsibilities that need to happen for the business to run smoothly.

A good business needs a Vision for what it is to become, so that everything that happens in the business can reflect that and move the business in the direction of fulfilling that ambition. Employees need to know what the owner has in mind, in order to buy-in and help deliver that end result. It needs sound financial management and effective marketing so as to drive new business, and great customer service to ensure repeat business and referrals to drive that cash-flow which is the engine of any business. A business needs good employees and good employees need good systems to follow, good management to inspire their loyalty, and good standards for delivery of product and services.


In each area of your business

Operations

Marketing

Financial Business Health

Sales

Customer Service

Service Delivery

Product & Service Standards

Information Technology

Employee Management

External Relationship Management

Procedures & Policies

Workplace Health & Safety

*Your business may have additional areas, EG Warehouse, Inventory management, Point of Sale, etc

Review
Write down the top 3 things in each section of the business you’d most like to change.

Be sure to include all areas of the business. Be sure to include any items that are particularly prone to producing stress in the workplace for yourself, or friction with employees.

Commit

Write down the actions for each change that has to happen.
Write down the deadline for this to be finished.
Write down who is responsible for making this change happen.
Commit to this undertaking, no excuses.



Thinking Of Getting A Business Coach?
Lindy Asimus
Design Business Engineering

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