We’ve all been there. You’re consuming some type of media (blog, book, video, podcast, lecture, etc.) and you’re thinking about how you can apply this new knowledge to your life. In your mind, you can conquer problems, move mountains, improve processes, help others, etc. But then you finish your meal of information and thought all that knowledge is often forgotten and lost. Why does this happen? Do we decide that we’ll never be able to make those improvements? Do we think the ideas are nice to think about but not yet ready for prime time life? It’s nice to think about using a new method for time management, business improvement, or relationship building. But when you finish the material and life happens, then the idea is lost. You move on to the next think crying out for your attention.
The biggest contributor to forgetting the information is that we don’t have a system or process for documenting and following-up with the learnings. This information must be captured just like other actionable items. Record the thought in a place that you can access later, or better yet, record the thought in a place that you will access later.
It’s not difficult. It takes a little discipline and forethought. Here are some ways you can turn your thoughts into action:
One
Record your thoughts in your ‘to-do’ or task list. You have one of these right? It could be the task tracker in your email program such as Outlook, Thunderbird, Lotus Notes, or Google Mail. Your list should include some type of designator so that you can record your thought as an idea or specific task with a priority. This way, you’ll be reminded of the thought periodically. If the item becomes aged without any progress, as with tasks, you should ask yourself if its really worth doing.
Two
Write a review on sites such as Plaxo, Amazon, BookReview.com, or even Facebook. This idea is slightly different because you are recording your thoughts for others to consume. If you use this type of process make sure to list out what you consider to be key learnings or the main ideas for what you are reviewing. Make sure that your reviews are searchable so that when you want to recall a key learning sometime later that you can easily find it.
Three
Record your thoughts into a journal, blog entry, electronic notebook, or other organizer such as Microsoft One Note. Think of these tools as a filing system. Tag the content with adequate keywords so that you can retrieve the information later. You may even choose to keep a to-do list in this format.
What about you?
How do you organize your learnings for follow-up and implementation? Do you have a different system than mentioned above?