Last night, I received a WhatsApp message from my daughter. Short. Direct. Sounding urgent.

“teach me GTD tomorrow morning i think i might need it im forgetting things”

She’s deeply into art—paintings, sketches, mixed media (and the last I heard, she was experimenting with linoleum). She makes calendars, decorates hoodies by assembling multiple canvas pieces with paintings on them, and regularly shares her work on her Instagram art account. Ideas come to her all the time. One artwork leads to another, one concept sparks three more.

When we spoke the next morning, I asked her what was really going on. It turned out she wasn’t asking for a full productivity system. She was simply worried about forgetting ideas, at least for now. And no wonder—managing ideas is something most creative and knowledge workers struggle with quietly.
If you do any kind of creative or knowledge work—writing, teaching, design, art, research—you already know this truth:
Great ideas rarely arrive when you’re sitting at your desk, ready to work.

They show up while, walking or commuting, taking a shower, scrolling aimlessly, doing something completely unrelated, or just before falling asleep. The real challenge isn’t getting ideas, it’s remembering them when it’s finally time to create. That’s where a simple but deliberate idea-management system makes all the difference.

Step 1: Have a “Catch-Anywhere” Tool
Your first job is not organizing ideas. Your first job is not losing them. For that, you need a tool that is instant, frictionless and always available. My go-to recommendation is Google Keep. It’s a simple listing app that works on, Android, iOS and also on your computer.
Just one rule:

The moment an idea shows up, capture it. A sentence. A phrase. A half-baked thought. Dump it into a single list and move on. At this stage, speed matters far more than elegance.

Step 2: One Master List That Follows You Everywhere
Capturing ideas is necessary—but not sufficient. At some point, when you’re back at your desk, ideas need a single, trusted home. That’s where one master spreadsheet works beautifully – Not many spreadsheets, not versions, just one.
A spreadsheet allows you to keep ideas in rows, add light structure if you want (theme, notes, status). That spreadsheet must live in the cloud as you know that it is omnipresent. You can access the same list at home, at work, or when you’re in the mood to create, sitting at a corner café table with a sketchbook, that list is still right there.

No copying files. No “latest version” confusion. Just one single source of truth, always reachable.

Not every idea in your list is meant to become a single, finished artifact. Some ideas are incomplete, too small on their own, waiting for a counterpoint. Very often, two ordinary ideas—when combined—create something extraordinary. A half-formed observation from last month may suddenly connect with a fresh thought you captured yesterday. Together, they become a strong article, a compelling argument, or a striking piece of art.

This is where your master list stops being just a backlog. It becomes your commonplace book – A personal reservoir of thoughts, fragments, questions, and sparks—quietly waiting to collide in interesting ways. When you revisit the list, you’re not just picking an idea. You’re connecting dots, spotting patterns and letting ideas talk to each other. That’s where real creative leverage appears.

One Pro Tip!

When it comes to writing an idea in the master spreadsheet, write more than you think you need to. Ideas feel obvious when they’re fresh. They are almost never later. If you just write: “Interesting point about creativity” You may come back weeks later and wonder what on earth you were thinking.
So add context – mention names, links, purpose. Future-you will thank present-you. This elaborating could continue as you keep revisiting the list so don’t miss any opportunity to refine the description when you find it necessary.

Creative work isn’t about forcing brilliance on demand. It’s about respecting ideas when they show up—and giving them a safe place to wait.
That’s the simple system I shared with my daughter. And it’s the same system I’ve been quietly using for years.

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(Originally published in Times of India on January , 2025)