Inspiration has Expiration

Capturing your ideas in an idea backlog, aka idea playground, is the best insurance against ideas lost to inaction. Ideas can come at inconvenient times. We may be driving or in the shower or in a meeting or otherwise occupied. At the first opportunity write your idea(s) down. If your idea is about going to an event and you don’t capture that somewhere then you’ll likely find that time marches on and you’ve missed the event. It’s happened to me and it’s probably happened to you. Hopefully, your lost idea wasn’t related to an anniversary or birthday!

Idea Backlog Borrowed from SCRUM

An idea backlog is a term loosely borrowed from the scrum agile software development framework. In scrum they use a product backlog. For those unfamiliar, the product backlog captures ideas, e.g. features, that could be built into a software product. The backlog is ever growing and gets reviewed periodically with certain ideas being further fleshed out and advanced for implementation.

Lifehack Create an Idea Backlog

I’ve used napkins, voice memos, applications, paper, whiteboards, envelopes, sticky notes and probably just about everything you can imagine to capture ideas at some point in time. You have probably used some of these methods too. My third business literally started from notes scrawled on the back of a napkin while conversing with a colleague at a restaurant. These days I have a few choice applications and practices to create my idea backlog.

My Practices and Applications to Create Idea Backlogs

Some ideas are more suited to being captured in a certain way. I’ve surveyed my recent experiences to share some of my current idea backlog practices along with an example. Please adopt these for yourself or for your clients. Disclaimer: these are always evolving.

Low Tech Idea Backlog

• Notebook to fit in a shirt pocket. I use a notebook to capture ideas quickly when I’m out and about. I have found a notebook to be absolutely essential for travel or when talking to people at events or listening to the radio in a car. It is much safer to scrawl a note in a notebook than to open your phone.

Tech Assisted Idea Backlog

• Folders on the computer. I use the folder system on my computer to organize writing projects. I currently have a writing folder with 102 subfolders. Among these folders are 2 published books, 1 unpublished book and stubs that may or may not become books or chapters. Each represents an area of interest that started with a single idea. I have a similar folder titled Campaign Ideas with numerous subfolders.
• Pictures and Photos App. There are times where it isn’t practical to capture an idea in words but a picture will suffice. I always have my phone with me. We all do in 2023. I’ll take pictures, back them up to the online photos app and peruse them for inspiration. Some of these photos end up spawning blog posts, client conversations, etc.

Collaborative Idea Backlog

• Google Sheets. This is among my favorites for the fact that it is free and has built-in collaboration features. At JUG Team we have multiple idea playgrounds for our own work. We also create idea playgrounds that we share with clients to capture ideas. When I get an idea, I put it in the playground.
• Google Keep. I use this application to capture ideas personally and professionally. I love to travel. I will note ideas to make future trips better than the last trip. I have a bucket travel list of ideas on Keep. On the professional side I use Keep for ideas and inspiration and oftentimes invite colleagues to share and add to the lists.