How is your mind? Mine used to be super sharp. I had over 45 stores I supervised in New England and in my 30s and early 40s I could remember all of their telephone numbers and addresses. I could remember every address and phone number I'd had over the years and at the time I had moved over 20 times. I could remember an amazing number of insignificant facts - could just pull them out of the air.

I remembered things that happened to me when I was little. My folks call it the "Debbie memory." Oh, no, here she goes again with the Debbie memory. Something tells me they don't mean that in a good way.

But as the years go by the brain is beginning to fade. I'm starting to find myself entering a room and not remembering why. Looking at someone and not remembering their name, i.e. my kids. (I get my daughter and my cat mixed up)

I have to assume that it means my brain has reached its capacity for memory. The memory stick is full. It was only 2mb to begin and the little pie chart is completely full.

So how am I going to remember the great I ideas I get while walking or in the shower or in my dreams? Well, if you could see my house, and frankly, I'm glad you can't, you would see that I've taken to jotting down my thoughts and ideas and random quotes and phrases that interest me. Trouble is they are all over the place.

Over at Slacker Manager they recently posted tips on how to get your ideas out of your mind and saved for later use.

Couple interesting tips he had:

A whiteboard in the shower with waterproof markers

As strange as that sounds (and it looks like from the comments that the board is still available from Amazon) I have had some of my best ideas and most profound moments in the shower. What is it about hot, steamy water and fogged up shower doors that inspire our creative minds?

And keeping in the same room, he takes a pad of paper and pen to the john. I thought it was interesting that he took a legal pad as if the thoughts would be so extensive a regular note pad wouldn't suffice.

But whatever it takes, the important thing is to capture the thoughts.

And it's not just ideas, but it's also solutions to problems.

Another place for great ideas is while you are driving long distances. Have you tried Jott? I have to admit that although I've visited the site and read about it and even posted a comment about it several months ago, I still use the old fashioned "call myself and leave a voice mail" method.

So how are you capturing those random thoughts that could potentially save your company thousands, or be the answer to getting past a challenging gatekeeper or your next book idea?

Bigger question: how many ideas have you lost because you didn't write them down?

Deborah Chaddock Brown
Writer, Thinker of Great Thoughts, master of none