It’s no secret that I like lists, I make tons of them, everywhere – all the time. Lists make me happy and organized – I even wrote a post about it last year! I categorize my lists, and the prioritize within each category. It helps me to get a better grip on what to tackle first.

Lately I’ve been creating a new kind of list, a list of items that don’t necessarily have a solution/task associated with them. I’m calling it my “Note Every Thought” list. I’ll often have a passing thought like “wouldn’t it be awesome if there were a solution to problem xyz?”, so I write it down, or even a passing thought about an issue that came up in my business, not even necessarily a problem, but a thought that drifted in, but held enough of my attention that it was worth writing down. I may never come up with a solution, one may not exist, but the thought is at least out of my head, and written down to be pondered later. I find that I’m best at coming up with solutions when they’re written down, as if writing it down somehow releases my brain from the task of remembering it to be open to the task of solving it.

I’ve only just started this list in the past couple of weeks, but it’s already helped me to come up with some new ideas for how to better serve my clients and streamline my business practices (more on this in February!). One passing thought that was almost completely separate from a sudden new idea, but somehow by writing it down, I managed to form a connection between the two, and it opened up a new world of possibilities. Despite the name, not every silly little thought will be written down, but when confronted with one that holds some promise of using it as a stepping stone for something bigger/better – I’ll be writing it down and letting my brain work on it while I’m doing other things!