![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/images\/paintedwalk.jpg\" "\\"Pedestrian")
I get many of my ideas while reading, or when thinking about something I’ve read.<\/p>\nI get many of my ideas while reading, or when thinking about something I’ve read.<\/p>\n
I get ideas while driving — when I do most of my thinking (and when I talk to myself).<\/p>\n
I also get ideas when I’m doing work I’d rather not be doing and thinking about how I’d much rather be writing.<\/p>\n
When it comes to blog entries for The Juggling Writer<\/em>, most of my ideas come while walking.<\/p>\n I walk 45 minutes to an hour more days than not.<\/p>\n When I walk, I listen to podcasts.<\/p>\n If it’s an interview, I find myself thinking about how I’d answer a question asked to guests. Other times, I think about how what is being discussed applies to me.<\/p>\n When I realized a flood of ideas came everytime I walked and listened to podcasts, I began focusing on what I listened to.<\/p>\n If I’m thinking about productivity, I listen to podcasts about productivity for ideas.<\/p>\n I listen to interviews with writers and other creative people to force myself to think about the creative process.<\/p>\n Even if a podcast I’m listening to seemingly has nothing to do with work, writing, or life, I always find myself flooded with ideas — many of which end up as blog entries. (For example, this recent entry<\/a> about how I get things done came to me while listening to people on a podcast talking about how much they love OmniFocus<\/a>. I don’t use OmniFocus, but the discussion got me thinking about my<\/em> process for doing things, which resulted in a blog entry.)<\/p>\n When a thought comes to me while walking, I quickly jot it down using the notes feature of Evernote or the iPhone Notes program. (I still haven’t decided which method I prefer, but I lean toward e-mailing myself the ideas from iPhone Notes, since I then quickly transfer them to WordPress as rough entries and don’t need to tag them. (And since Notes can be synced with Gmail<\/a>.)<\/p>\n I’m sure some people see me walking and think, “Poor guy can’t even enjoy a walk without texting or checking e-mail,” because when an idea hits, I jot down a note on my iPhone and probably look like a workaholic to people who probably live a more hectic life than mine.<\/p>\n My walks are meetings with myself that I look forward to each day. Sometimes I just listen to music and enjoy thinking about nothing at all, but since I started working at home, time walking has become time to think about blog entries.<\/p>\n While I plan to go back to 3 entries a week in January, so far this month I’m 18 for 18 — posting an entry each day in December. I owe that productivity to being able to podcasts that make me think and capturing my thoughts while walking.<\/p>\n If you’re having a tough time coming up with ideas for articles, your blog, or anything else — think about what you want to write about, find some podcasts that will make you think about the topic, and go for a walk!<\/p>\n Capture your thoughts as they come, and get the rough ideas into WordPress or whatever blogging platform you use as soon as possible.<\/p>\n It’s a great way to stay productive…and healthy!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I get many of my ideas while reading, or when thinking about something I’ve read. I get ideas while driving — when I do most of my thinking (and when I talk to myself). I also get ideas when I’m doing work I’d rather not be doing and thinking about how I’d much rather be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2420"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2420\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Listening for Ideas<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Taking Notes<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Give it a Try<\/strong><\/h2>\n