Recently added projects to my want to-do list

Have you ever had a great idea and thought it was so wonderful that there was no way you’d forget it? Do you have projects you know you want to do but somehow never actually get to them?

Write those ideas down and put them in a place you will look at later. I know it’s often given advice. I recently had a moment of being inordinately pleased with myself for having taken this very advice.

I have an organizational system that involves writing long-term projects and to-do’s on slips of paper and folding them up and putting them into a gelato jar. Everyday I select one or two from my jar as projects to try to spend a bit of time with that day. I don’t get to select a new one until I finish what I’ve already pulled out.

The system is great and works for me to make progress on a variety of different projects. I have over 50 things currently in process. I don’t need to remember them because I know they’re all written down and kept in one place.

I realized a month ago that I hadn’t gotten around to some of the things that I’ve wanted to do. I decided the only way I was going to get them done was to be reminded of them. I wrote the ideas down along with several others as new projects and added them to my jar.

Today I pulled out a couple of those items I added last month and was reminded how glad I am I finally wrote them down as projects. I’m so pleased to see them and be reminded about these things I wanted to do but had never found the time for.

Whatever your system is for keeping track of the things you want to do, write them down and put them in a place that you look at regularly. Our lives are often so busy and full of distractions that it’s easy to forget those great ideas when something else new and shiny appears.

How do you keep track of your ideas and thoughts? Leave your strategy in the comments.