An Easy Way to Organize Ideas in 2022

Each year, the average person spends 2.5 days’ worth of time looking for lost items.

One of the most commonly lost items includes paperwork and notes. And if you’re used to relying on papers to record and organize ideas, you know how stressful it can be to lose them.

Avoid misplacing your important memos with these essential tips to stay organized!

Collect Your Ideas

If you use papers and notes when brainstorming ideas, it’s best to have a central location to collect them.

It could be one primary notebook where you quickly jot down thoughts before sorting them later. Or you might write on sticky notes that are then collected in a basket on your desk.

Find one place to store all these ideas when you don’t have time to properly organize them.

Choose Your System

To stay organized, choose one organizational system and stick to it.

Some common systems include chronological, alphabetical, numerical, or category-based organization.

If your ideas relate to the week or month that they’re written, try a chronological system. Or if your ideas should be divided by the client or project they’re related to, create a system with different categories or sections for each one.

Sort and Label

Now it’s time to really get to organizing!

Sort through your papers and group them depending on the system you chose. Then, grab some divider tabs or binder organizers. You can find some great options at https://legalsupply.com/legal-tabs/blank-tabs/.

Label each tab, put them in a folder or binder, and place the papers in their correct sections. This will make locating your bright ideas a breeze later.

Digitize Your Ideas

Though it can take additional time, digitizing your physical paper copies can strengthen your organizational system. And if you use your ideas on the computer often (such as to send to a client or to refer to when typing), digitizing them is worth the extra step.

Digitizing requires a scanner or smartphone camera. From there, the process is simple: scan or take a photo of the paper, save it with an easy-to-remember name, and store it in a digital file similar to the physical divider tabs you’re using in your folder or binder.

Now, you can locate digital versions of your ideas and notes from your computer or phone!

Regularly Declutter

When an idea is outdated or no longer useful, be sure to declutter and throw it away or delete it from your files. That way, you can continue organizing fresh thoughts, without too much bulk.

If any papers contain private or sensitive information, shred them before throwing them away.

Organize Ideas and Never Lose Valuable Notes Again

If you have a lot of ideas to jot down, it can be hard to keep track of them without losing scraps of paper and sticky notes.

With these tips, you can organize ideas in an easy-to-use system, making sure your inspiring thoughts are never lost!

For more on how to organize writing, be sure to read our latest writing-related articles and advice!