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For you who prefer listening to reading, this post is also available as an episode of the ""Done!"" podcast:

Good ideas about anything

The good idea could be a new, inno­v­a­tive way to mar­ket your ser­vices in a par­tic­u­lar sit­u­a­tion. Or, about fol­low­ing up on a spe­cif­ic num­ber at every quar­ter­ly meet­ing. Or, about stay­ing updat­ed on future devel­op­ments in a par­tic­u­lar area, because you have dis­cov­ered that it is very use­ful for you.

Think­ing over and over again becomes heavy

When the idea is fresh, it’s no prob­lem to remem­ber to do some­thing with it because you think about it whether you want to or not. But, when you have con­clud­ed that it is so good that you want to make it a habit and part of your dai­ly rou­tine, it’s not rea­son­able for you to have it in the back of your mind to make it hap­pen. If you want space to han­dle all the new things your work­day brings, you must make the idea a nat­ur­al part of your dai­ly work.

I can’t keep think­ing about videos all the time

Let me give you an exam­ple. A while ago, I had the idea that it could be good to make short videos with struc­ture tips, among oth­er things, so that those con­sid­er­ing hir­ing me as a speak­er can see ​“how I am” (I can assure you that I am the same in the videos as I am when I speak) — in addi­tion to the fact that I enjoy shar­ing tips, of course.

I made a few videos, but after that, there would­n’t be many made if I had to con­stant­ly keep in mind that ​”Oh right, I need to make a video too.” Instead, I decid­ed how often I would make videos, divid­ed the work into short tasks and added them to my dai­ly to-do list. As you know, I end­ed up mak­ing quite a few videos.

Those small, recur­ring tasks are cru­cial. Let’s call them ​“main­te­nance tasks” because they ensure that what comes out of your work is con­sis­tent­ly at the high lev­el you want.

Do this

If you cur­rent­ly have a new idea that you would like to con­tin­ue with, but it is becom­ing dif­fi­cult to get it done, cre­ate some main­te­nance tasks for it:

1. Divide what needs to be done into steps that each can be com­plet­ed in one work­day. This makes them fit nice­ly on your to-do list.
2. Decide when and how often it would be best for you to do each. It could be every day, week, month, or less frequently.
3. Add these tasks as recur­ring tasks to your to-do list (prefer­ably in a dig­i­tal tool).
4. Done! Now, you no longer have to keep these tasks in your mind. Do them when they appear on your list, and the new things will get done!

Less bur­den for the back of your mind

If you turn your good ideas about ongo­ing tasks into main­te­nance tasks, it will be eas­i­er to get them done. You don’t have to remem­ber to do it the new way; you can just trust that if you do what is on your list, it will turn out the way you want. For me, this is a sim­ple automation.

How do you do it?

What tricks do you have for turn­ing new ideas into nat­ur­al parts of your dai­ly work? Do you do it dif­fer­ent­ly than what I have sug­gest­ed here? Please write to me and tell me. I am curi­ous about what you have come up with.

If you know some­one who often comes up with good ideas, tries them a cou­ple of times, and then for­gets about them, tell them about these main­te­nance tasks. Because if more peo­ple around us work in a struc­tured way, we all ben­e­fit from it.

(Want to make sure you cre­ate space for your ideas? Try com­pos­ing your ide­al week!)