Ever forget what you planned to blog about?

Here I sit, first thing in the morning, ready to start writing my daily blog. Yesterday, I had two great ideas for topics, but this morning, they completely escape me. Does this happen to you?

This isn’t the first time that I’ve drawn a blank on what I was thinking about the day prior.

Without having anything else to write about this morning…well, nothing top of mind…I thought I would examine my problem and discuss a solution.

This helps me think through the problem–I’ll call it Blog Brainstorming.

For some people, ideas come to them when they are in bed or in the shower. Not so true for me. I have about a 30-minute commute to and from work every day. It’s mostly one straight highway–IH 10 between San Antonio and Fair Oaks Ranch. That’s when the ideas tend to come to me; mostly when I’m driving home from work, because on the way in I tend to be thinking about the day ahead.

So yesterday, as I was driving home, I was thinking about “things” and one of them struck me as a potential blog topic. Every time I have these ideas, I tell myself not to forget the idea. Nine times out of ten! I do.

So, how to fix this?

As I was about three paragraphs into this blog, I remembered the topic that I was thinking about on the way home. I was thinking about writing about why you blog…exploring the reasons why people might write blogs. This idea came based off a discussion yesterday with a good friend of mine at work that is planning to start up her blog.

So, how do I capture that idea? Do I tell myself not to forget the idea, which I will probably do anyway? No, that doesn’t work.

I had considered going into my WordPress app and posting it as the title for a draft blog and then saving the draft. I have done that before, but that can have issues. One of those issues is that I just remembered the topic while I’m writing this blog and that would mean saving this draft blog, opening a new one, and then saving that draft. Those steps on the app are not that easy. Additionally, two things happen when you do that in WordPress. First, the blog takes on the date that you saved the draft. So, I have to remember to change the posting date or what will happen is it will look like I posted it earlier than I really did when I publish the blog. Second, the app doesn’t allow you to simply publish once you’ve saved it to draft. To actually publish blogs on the app, I have to do some things to get it to post.

All that said, I think my screen would be pretty cluttered with bunches of draft blog ideas mucking up the system. So, I am discarding that idea.

I could carry around a pen and paper everywhere I go. That way I could write down the blog ideas when they hit me. That sounds like a good idea, but then I would have to always have that notepad with me…in bed, near the shower, in the car, at work, out to dinner. You get the picture. No pad with me, no blog ideas written down.

So, that idea, however potential, probably wouldn’t work for me.

But then I think about what do I have with me pretty much all the time…the electronic leash. That’s right, I almost always have my cell phone with me. I don’t take it in the shower, but it’s in the bathroom when I’m taking a shower. I literally take the cell with me always. Also, Monday through Friday I blog on my iPad, not my iPhone, so it’s free to use and I don’t have to hop out of The WordPress app to save an idea. With any mobile phone, you have some Notes app and there are a ton of them I’m sure that you can download that might have better features. I use the notes apps for a few purposes already…mainly to put together my weekend to do list so I can check off things as I get them done.

As I’ve been writing this blog, I’ve not only added the first idea from yesterday that came back to me, but I have listed two other blog ideas. They are right there on my Notes app ready for use tomorrow and future days. So, I think I will try this idea capture tool for a bit and see how it works.

The phone is with me all the time. It has a simple way to capture ideas and save them. It is separate from my iPad, so I don’t have to switch apps and it won’t clutter my app screen. Sounds like a good idea.

What type of ideas do you use to capture those fleeting ideas for blogging?