Expert in the Rough, Brian Monahan

Besides my addiction to notebooks and notepads, I have an addiction for Google Tools.  One of my favorite Google Tools is Google Docs.  Google Docs is a free web based word processor.  It has most of the features of Microsoft Word and has a few other benefits Word cannot offer.  Those benefits include online collaboration, sharing and search capabilities to name a few.

If you are addicted to ideas like me but have a hard time taking your ideas from inspiration to blog post then Google Docs might be the tool for you.

First you are going to need to sign up for a Google Account.  If you don’t have one you are missing out.  I currently use over 19 Google Products regularly and Google Docs is one of my favorites.

Google products are all about saving time, collaboration and most importantly search capabalities.

One of the first things you will notice is the ease of use.  I don’t even give my documents titles.  I simply type my idea on the first line and that will be its title.  Of course you can choose a title if you like but I like the speed of this technique.

I use Google Docs 4 ways.

1. Compiler of my journals.  I will type in my hand written ideas periodically for easy access when searching for new post ideas.
2. Primer tool.  Often times I will simply type one sentence as a primer idea for a later date.
3. Working area for blog posts.  I take the primers and flesh them out before posting.
4. Search tool.  You can search your Google Docs just like searching the web.  It’s a great way to see trends in your ideas or writing.

In a kind of Pavlovian way Google Docs actually spurs my creativity since I have established it as the home of my inspirations.

Give it a try, it’s free.

I admit I am a bit of an “Idea Junky” in fact some have dubbed me the “IdeaManiac.”  My bad habit is buying notebooks.  I am addicted to capturing my ideas.

Recently I came up with an idea.  Imagine that!

Tag or categorize my ideas.  I now have different notebooks for different inspirations.  My biggest idea generator is running, however, I am inspired by just about anything.  I have this huge fear I am going to miss an idea.  Since I have so many ideas and interests I thought it would be cool to track my ideas by the inspiration factor.  I could see if the ideas generated when I was running or just before going to bed or after reading a book, whatever, the category generated different results.  I want to know which inspiration factor leads to the best results.

Here are 3 ideas for categorizing your ideas:

1. Buy 5 Notebooks and Label them with a Sharpie by category.
2. Use Google Docs and add category names to your idea lists.  You can now search by keyword.
3. Create 5 Word Documents on your computer by category.

After a few months or years of documenting your ideas by category or keyword tags you will now have some data to prioritize your ideas.

Note: If you have more than 25 notebooks for tracking your ideas, you might be an IdeaManiac.