My System to Come Up With Tons of Writing Ideas
How do I gather ideas?
I have been getting asked this question over and over lately: What should I write about?
I have seen a lot of newbies on social media, especially LinkedIn, posting way better content than some of industry leaders.
But how do we know what to post?
How to overcome that blank feeling when sitting in front of the screen to write a post?
“My brain is probably not as sharp as others.”
Yes, it is. You have content but you lack confidence in your knowledge.
The problem here is that you don’t have a system — a routine to simplify things for you so that you don’t get overwhelmed. You need a system that generates ideas effortlessly.
A system creates content FOR you. It gives you control. You won’t have to THINK before you write.
You’ll forget your own name before you forget what to write.
Why system?
- Saves time
- Boosts efficiency
- Makes money
Today’s post is to present my writing system for generating more ideas and guide you on creating your own.
My System
Note: Don’t blindly follow anyone’s system. Not even mine. Create your own, tailored to your routine and your personality. I understand the initial excitement when you’re consuming someone’s content until you actually try to implement that shit.
What’s the Right Time to gather ideas?
Any time is the right time.
You can gather ideas whenever you want. All you need is a proper system to save those ideas. It’s that simple.
So let’s dive into my system and explore how I manage to generate AND preserve efficiently.
Things you’ll need:
- A small, but not too small, notebook that can fit in your bag
- A separate folder in your phone ‘notes’ app named ‘ideas’ (you can further catogarize it like ‘social media idea’ or ‘book ideas’ or ‘medium ideas’)
- Key codes to differentiate between small ideas, an extension to a previous ideas, and long posts (yes, thoughts can flow like that)
The Think Hour
Here, we are setting aside some time to THINK.
The Think Hour is my secret weapon for generating more ideas in less time. I just sit down with a notebook, or open my phone notes, and start writing ideas down without questioning them. Remember, overthinking only leads to confusion — I speak from experince.
You can also set a time to come up with, suppose, forty ideas in twenty minutes — crazy, right? So, be crazy. I cannot stress enough how helpful this method is.
Inspiration?
Now a question arises: How can I even come up with so many ideas?
Well, here is your solution.
Read a book.
This step actually comes before the one where you set aside an hour to think. Read a book of your interest or related to the niche you want to write about, and jot down all the thoughts that emerges in your brain while reading. How?
- Choose a chapter of your interest (You don’t have to read 30 pages; even a paragraph can work wonders.)
- Open your notebook and phone ‘notes’
- Start reading
- Highligh, star, or put brackets around the text you can use later but don’t write it down just yet
- Once you finish reading, look at the highlighted/starred text and start writing down your personal thoughts. Don’t read the whole thing, just skim and jot down your own insights
- Ask yourself this question: If I were to use this concept, how would I do it? The answer becomes your personal take that others can learn from.
Forget about them
Yes. You don’t need to write full-length essays on those ideas yet. Just save them for when you actually si down to write. At that point, you’ll use an idea to make an outline and expand upon it. But that’s a topic for another post.
Try it out.
After just a few days, you’ll find your idea buckets overflowing.
No more stress about coming up with unique ideas.
No more staring at the wall looking like a madman.
No more backaches.
Hehe..
Bye for now!!
