🧠 A Simple System For Capturing Ideas

Hey, how’s it going?

My friend Chris Williamson says: “If your body is made up of things you put into your mouth, your mind is made of things you put into your eyes and ears. Your content diet should be spirulina for the soul, not fast food for your amygdala.”

I know I put “eat better” as one of my resolutions for 2024 but what if we were more intentional about what we consume online too?

Some say that you’re the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with. So if you were the average of the 5 podcasts/YouTubers/authors you consume the most, who would you be?

With this in mind, I made The Ultimate List of Resources for Creators and Entrepreneurs:

One question I get asked a lot is how to filter out the noise online to find high-quality sources of inspiration for content.

So today I’m going to share with you the 4-step process that helps me brainstorm 10+ content ideas in under 5 minutes. I have a Notion template for this system which I’ll include as a free download too.

Let’s get into it.

💭 Thought of the week

I always say one of the reasons I love being a creator is because it gives me the perfect excuse to consume content like there’s no tomorrow.

Back in the day, I would email myself interesting pieces of content that would inevitably get lost in my inbox or I would type a few words on a Notes app that would be impossible to decipher later on.

It’s good to save these sources of inspiration as and when you find them, but if you don’t have a home base for your content ideas, you’ll easily lose 50% of them.

So I came up with a simple system for capturing ideas that are:

a) High-quality

b) Pre-validated

(So you know they’ll resonate with your target audience)

The best part is that there’s no extra work to be done here - you’re already consuming interesting things and this system just helps you resurface them.

Step 1: Create a database for your ideas 🧠 

Not gonna lie - there’s some charm to that messy, 10-page Google Doc where you paste everything you find interesting online.

But going through it regularly can be extremely inefficient and time-consuming.

We want 90% of our energy going towards content creation, so it’s important to have a bank of content ideas that are easy to access with everything we need in one place.

I couldn’t find such a database, so I made it myself in Notion. Grab my free Idea Capture Template here.

Step 2: Compile a list of creators in similar niches 📃

Go to LinkedIn, X, YouTube, or any platform you use regularly, and find creators who consistently make high-performing content with an audience that’s similar to what you want to build.

Productivity? Maybe check Ali Abdaal on YouTube.

Content writing? Go for Jasmin Alić on LinkedIn.

Motivational stuff on X? Sahil Bloom is your guy.

If you’ve spent enough time in your feed, you might have a good idea of who might be worth checking out.

Step 3: Capture only the BEST ideas 💡 

Once you have a list of creators, the fun can finally start 🔥 

• For LinkedIn I use Kleo, a Chrome extension that shows you the best-performing posts of all time for any creator on the platform.

• For X I use a similar tool called Tweet Hunter X, it has the same functionality but takes things one step further: you can type any relevant keywords on the search bar and it’ll show you all of the tweets from a creator that include that particular keyword.

• For YouTube, a nice trick is to go to a viral video in your niche and hover over the red progress bar at the bottom of the video to find the most replayed section. If people are returning back to this section, that’s a great sign that it would make for valuable content.

• Copy all links into your database. I personally use the free Chrome extension Notion Web Clipper to save anything directly into Notion with one click. It feels magical.

Step 4: Give topics your own spin ✨ 

Remember: this is not about copying other creators.

It’s about having a clearer picture of what’s resonating online to make sure you’re making content with higher chances of performing.

No one can beat you at being you, so there’s something unique you can bring to the table — even if you think the original creator has more experience than you.

So take a high-performing post and brainstorm your own ideas, like this:

• How to use ChatGPT → How to turn ChatGPT into your virtual assistant

• 7 lies the world tells you about success → 7 content creation myths we need to destroy

• 7 Stoic principles to work on your discipline → 7 Japanese concepts to work on your mental health as a creator

You can come up with ideas like these in less than 30 seconds. Now imagine allocating 30 min/week to idea generation with this system? You’d literally never run out of high-quality content ideas again…

Enjoy amigos 😎 

❤️ Content I LOVED

🎙 Podcast - Mike Posner: The Journey Back Home on The Danny Miranda Podcast

- This is a great podcast, thank you Alice Lemée for the rec! Here’s a snippet: “Pain is a great teacher. Life will give you pain to nudge you to go on the right track to make a change. If you don’t listen, it will give you more pain until you finally do.”

📸 Instagram - How To Stay Calm by Greg Isenberg

- I saved this amazing list of reminders to my desktop:

⚒️ App - One Sec

- I’ve used a few different apps to reduce screen time and love One Sec. It creates a buffer so you can pause and think if you actually want to use social media or if it was just by habit.