Don’t just create ideas, capture them.

Some ideas don’t like to be found, which is why they hide in places like the shower.

Or your commute.

Or the middle of the grocery store.

And in moments like that, when you stumble upon one unexpectedly your job isn’t to create them, it’s to capture them.

You have to sneak up on some great ideas and throw a net around them before they vanish down the bathtub drain back to wherever it is that great ideas go when they’re not taunting you. The challenge is making sure your capture method is ridiculously easy. The harder it is for you to use or find or log on to, the less great ideas you’ll actually wrangle back down to earth.

When I was single I installed a massive whiteboard on my bedroom wall. Some years moleskine notebooks spent many a day on the bathroom sink waiting for a shower idea. Audio recorders have caught some commute ideas for me as well.

I don’t know what system you’ll use but I do know this, you need one.

And until you get one, don’t be surprised when you constantly lose at the game of hide and seek with your great ideas.

p.s. I’m doing a special section on the three keys to great ideas at the Quitter Conference. You should come.