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Speakers and Writers – How to Generate Content and Put it to Good Use For Yourself & Your Projects

22nd February, 2009 - Posted by Meggin - No Comments

If you are a speaker, writer, consultant, entrepreneur, teacher, professor, or any other profession where generating ideas is valued (and is required), you might have asked a question similar to the one asked recently on my blog:

My response includes a thank you, first of all…and then some answers:

1. I always have a place to write down ideas and I keep an ‘idea’ folder. It’s brimming…but I keep adding. I go through it about once a week or at least 2 – 3 times per month. Partly I look through it just to see if there is anything there that is ready for me to put into action – or to dump the idea because it was not a good one to begin with or at least not for me. The reason I keep things in a folder is because I can make myself crazy if all those ideas are just floating around and bonking me in the head saying, "Why haven’t you done me yet?"
2. I use down time (waiting in doctor’s offices, sitting at the airport, watching TV with my husband…things I’m not really watching but want to be with him) and generate ideas. When my brain is just wandering around and not engaged in something else, it’s a perfect time for me to let it roam around and see what it can come up with.
3. I know that most ideas need to be started but not brought to completion all in one fell swoop. The Top Ten Productivity Tips (see more info below) are a perfect example. I first generated a whole slew of categories on 3 x 5 index cards. Then I created an Excel spread sheet and put down tips for each idea (but not necessarily 10). Then I took the row of ideas and put it into a word document and would keep fleshing it out. I also had a wonderful assistant at that time who I could send things to…. "Sue, help! I have 7 ideas on this and need some more." She LOVED it and was very good at that. So I had to get over the ‘it must be perfect before I send it to Sue’ syndrome. Never easy.
4. Divide bigger projects into smaller ones. For the book idea I’m working on, I’m dividing it into little bits and pieces. And just like I’ve written over 250 articles for EzineArticles in the last 2 ½ months (500 – 1000 words each) I need to break my book into 500 word bits to work on.

One last piece of advice, if you are going to do a Top Ten (which I recommend by the way), get an inventory of content generated BEFORE you advertise it. I did that for Top Ten Productivity Tips and Keeping Chaos at Bay…but didn’t for Just Whelmed and have managed to get myself WAY behind (yes, overwhelmed) with it….

Your brain wants to generate ideas for you. Just let it and it will create more possibilities for content than you can ever use. I know this for sure!

Keep moving forward on your goals for more peaceful productivity. Join others (worldwide) who receive Meggin’s weekly emails (and see what is available for download at no cost at the following websites):

**Top Ten Productivity Tips    http://www.TopTenProductivityTips.com

**Keys to Keeping Chaos at Bay    http://www.KeepingChaosatBay.com

(c) 2009 by Meggin McIntosh, Ph.D., "The Ph.D. of Productivity"(tm). Through her company, Emphasis on Excellence, Inc., Meggin McIntosh changes what people know, feel, dream, and do. Sound interesting? It is!