Why Write Down Your Ideas?



Learn Management Articles on management-info.biz. Why Write Down Your Ideas? article will help answer your questions on Management Articles.We at management-info.biz specialize in Management Articles. Management Articles at management-info.biz provides the most up to date news and articles. If you have questions please do not hesitate to contact us.

Whether you're a manager, professional, or entrepreneur you need to think ahead. When you do it in a formal sense, it's called it planning, when you do it informally it's something like speculating.

Whether you're planning or speculating, the exercise represents just the tip of the iceberg. For the plans or scenarios to amount to something, they have to be implemented. In turn, that usually involves other people.

Which takes us to the subject of communication: How do you convert those ideas in your head into instructions or position papers or even real plans?

I recommend writing, as in the sense of spending at least a few minutes to put the ideas to paper. Several benefits come out of the writing process:

First, you'll force yourself to clarify what you're doing and what you want others to do. As long as an idea remains in our heads, it's not made accountable, so to speak. We don't subject our ideas to rigorous scrutiny when they're just thoughts.

But, when we write out an idea, the strengths and weaknesses show up rather quickly; we force ourselves to look at the idea more critically. When I wrote the publishing plan for Abbott's Communication Letter, for example, the writing process uncovered many key issues.

But, writing it down assumes even greater importance when we need to communicate with others. Since most thoughts for the future are inherently complex or uncertain, a written version of your plan enables you to explain much more.

As you've probably noticed, you can't really deal with much complexity verbally, unless you're making a speech or presentation. In face-to-face communication, for example, a train of thought often gets derailed by questions or interjections by the other person.

A written plan also communicates to others a broader scope than a verbal plan. After all, when you're writing, you can bring in the past, cover the present, and look into the future. Or, you can illustrate your points with more detail than you can in a verbal report.

So, let's subject this article to the writing test, to see if hangs together.

First, the article opened with the idea of looking or thinking ahead, and I assumed -- note, I assumed -- that this thinking implied future action.

Second, you'll see the idea that to take action, or to get others to take action on our behalf, we need to be clear about the 'what' and the 'why' before we start. Of course, not every action needs this kind of launch; perhaps I should have said 'For important projects....'

Third, I suggested the way to get this clarity is to write it out, but in retrospect, perhaps that simply reflects my bias toward writing. Perhaps you manage well simply by thinking, and don't need to write.

Fourth, I next listed a couple of benefits that flow from writing, and looking back I see a that I had bigger projects in mind when I wrote it.

So, all in all, subjecting this article (at least the first part of it) to the writing process did have the desired effect, and I discovered a couple of assumptions that I wasn't conscious of while writing. And, if I was writing a plan, especially a plan for a big project, those would be worthwhile discoveries.

In summary, the act and process of writing down an idea will help you implement the idea, because it will help uncover some of the assumptions and expectations underlying your idea.


Stand-Up Comedy Secrets! - Next Generation System For Quickly Developing Funny Stand-up Comedy Material. Eliminate Writers Block & Get The Big Laughs!
Practical Report Writing. - Write greats reports with this report writing kit.


Article Index: | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | 57 | 58 | 59 | 60 | 61 | 62 | 63 | 64 | 65 | 66 | 67 | 68 | 69 | 70 | 71 | 72 | 73 | 74 | 75 | 76 | 77 | 78 | 79 | 80 | 81


More Articles:


1. Presentation Paranoia
“The human brain starts working the moment you are born and never stops until you stand up to speak in public.” (Sir George Jessel)Have you had this feeling before? Rest assured you are not alone. You might be one of the many who would rate your fear of public speaking alongside or ahead of death! Your fear may translate itself to “FEAR” – Forget Everything And Run!!Having the ability to present yourself and your message to an audience, whether internal or external, is a necessary skill for a go…

2. The Paradox of Job Enrichment By Azriel Winnett
Ellen was a clerk working for a large insurance company. One day, she spotted a glaring discrepancy in a form she was typing. Through a simple error, two figures had been transposed in a store owner's policy. In consequence, his store was insured for $165,000 against vandalism but only for $5 000 against fire. Her first instinct was to reach for the phone to inform her supervisor of the error, for the sake of the unfortunate store owner. "But wait a minute," she then thought to herself.…

3. The Changing Boss-Secretary Relationship By Andrew E. Schwartz
THE CHANGING BOSS-SECRETARY RELATIONSHIP: Imagine a partnership at work. One member is outlining the agenda for the annual stockholders’ meeting, the other is managing the logistics. The last decade has brought many changes to the traditional boss/secretary relationship. We now see powers and responsibilities delegated to “executive assistants” that only ten years ago would have been the sole province of the boss. And there has been a corresponding rise in the prestige and influence of those s…

4. Towards Intercultural Understanding By Brenda Townsend Hall
An individual’s ability to forge effective relationships across cultures is influenced by a very personal and highly complex mixture of emotional and cognitive processes. Anyone contemplating an overseas posting feels apprehensive about stepping into the unknown. The mere knowledge that we are leaving our own cultural comfort zone can trigger all sorts of subconscious defensive tactics that can make it difficult to operate effectively the new environment.The widely known work of Milton Bennett…