3 Easy Ways to Capture That Thought

Capture that thought! See it. Say it. Write it down. These are 3 easy ways to learn how not to forget what you want to remember and write about it.

You can do it now.

Don’t let that thought get away again.

Capture that thought before it flies away then.

See it

Take a picture. Not far from you in this 21st Century of cell phones, you have a camera that is poised and ready to capture that image. That image jogs your memory. It can be time-stamped, saved in the cloud, and retained. Just the sight of it causes you to remember what you wanted to write about that day, that time, that year. You captured it now!

Say it

Record your thoughts by speaking a voice message into your phone or computer. The advancements of technology make the options portable. If you have a thought and you are walking somewhere, grab that phone in your pocket and speak into it. Saved!

Write it down

Snippets of memories on notecards work well. Maybe you prefer sticky notes or a spiral notebook. Design a system that works for you with topics or categories and sources.

1. Start with a word, a person, place or thing — nouns.
2. Add some action — walk, run, jump — verbs.
3. Put in a feeling of how, likely -ly words — adverbs.
4. Locate a place and time — other adverbs.
5. Relate to that — with, over, up — prepositions.
6. Exclaim with excitement! Wow! — interjections.
7. Describe that thing — how many, how much — adjectives.
8. Replace some people with you, me, our — pronouns.
9. Connect the dots with and, but, or — conjunctions.

Now you know the 8 parts of speech to capture those memories or wispy thoughts — keeping pen and some sort of paper (or computer) nearby.

See it. Say it. Write it down.