Jan 2, 2013 / Beginner

Quick Tip: Keep a Notebook By the Bed

Okay, you are perhaps thinking to yourself, “This is the sage advice The Daily Post is giving me? Keep a notebook by the bed?” Yes, we are, and for two reasons:

  1. Partly, it’s January 2 and we’re a little worse for the wear today. Cut us some slack.
  2. Mainly, because we know that only a tiny fraction of you actually do this, which means most of you are missing out on capturing some prime ideas.

Those moments just before you fall asleep (or just before you wake up) are rife with ideas — your brain is all loosey-goosey, and you make connections you’d never make during the bustle of the day. How many times has this happened to you?

  • You get into bed.
  • You have a Great Idea for a post that will go viral, transform the national discourse, get you a book deal, and possibly also solve the hunger crisis.
  • You think, “I could get up and jot this down. But I’m tired, and surely an idea this momentous will not disintegrate into the ether of sleep.”
  • You sleep. The idea disintegrates.
  • You wake up, think “Dang,” and write a post about why the Homeland finale was so awesome.
  • The national discourse remains unchanged.

Now, I’m not saying that the world doesn’t want to know your opinons on Homeland. Maybe your Great Idea is Homeland-related. But if you’d had that notebook by the bed, you could be planning your book tour right now; at the very least, we could all be having a good chuckle.

What are you waiting for? You don’t even need a fancy little notebook — any scrap of paper will do. Don’t let the next Great Idea float away in the sea of dreams!

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  1. You are SO SO right!!!!
    I have received my notebook and it is already in place…Now, the only thing I have to do is to wait for the wonderful ideas…Will they come back now I can write them…Or will they run away?
    Happy New Year!

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  3. This is so true. I have notebooks everywhere. It seems that I get the best inspiration when I am NOT trying. I know tht God speaks to us in dreams and visions too. Here are few examples:
    Numbers 12:6
    he said, “Listen to my words: “When there is a prophet among you, I, the LORD, reveal myself to them in visions, I speak to them in dreams.

    And again in Job 33:14-18, and
    New Living Translation (NLT)
    14 For God speaks again and again,
    though people do not recognize it.
    15 He speaks in dreams, in visions of the night,
    when deep sleep falls on people
    as they lie in their beds.
    16 He whispers in their ears
    and terrifies them with warnings.
    17 He makes them turn from doing wrong;
    he keeps them from pride.
    18 He protects them from the grave,
    from crossing over the river of death.

    Maybe this is the only time that I am quiet enough to listen…to just be…

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  4. Most of my ideas come to me in the shower. I wanted to invent a waterproof notepad. Then I finally looked and it’s already been invented! It’s a waterproof notepad that sticks to your shower wall and has funky waterproof pages. Has helped me a ton!

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  7. Great idea! Personally i downloaded a little windows application that looks like a small notebook. It’s always on my desktop so i can write everything there.

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  9. I’ve had ideas in my notebook for decades. Although I do break out occasionally it is thinking what to do with them that gives me ulcers. 🙂

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  11. TY Michelle! I do have a notebook bedside and sometimes I blog what the muse created in my head and sometimes I sit on it… It does work. I concur. TY! 🙂
    •.★♥★Happy New Year to You & Yours!★♥★.•
    Eliz

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  12. I like the notebook-by-the-bed, but instead I use my smartphone by the bed, and keep notes, or sketches in Evernote which I am lovin’.

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  14. thanks! I’ll keep it closer to my bed to utilize it. My notebook is pretty far from me(3 steps away).

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  16. I have done this for years on the advice of one of my bosses, so I could do a “brain dump” before going to sleep and avoid having stressful nights with lots of stuff whirling in my head…it’s really good to record those elusive dreams you can never quite remember once the sleep fog has lifted too!

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  19. I’ve kept a notebook by my bed for years. I have to. My plans for the day, my fresh ideas, my oops, I almost forgot to do….whatever, they all come to me when I’m on the verge of waking up. If I don’t write them down, I’ll forget some of them. In fact, I have notebooks and notepapers everywhere for when any idea hits me! But the one by the bed is the most productive.

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  20. I keep all of my notebooks next to my bed, along with my laptop. For the past two nights, I actually stayed up until about midnight because as soon as I laid down and tried to sleep, something came to me and I just had to write. This is great advice 🙂

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  22. And if I have no paper in the past I have been known to write all the way up my arm in the dark and then try to decipher it in the morning LOL =) I always have paper, phone, something somewhere to keep my notes as I am a writer and FB page owner =)
    I love Evernote and have it on all my devices and its FREE =)
    God bless

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    1. Hi, I shared the same thoughts too 😀 I love Evernote.
      I used it to keep my ideas, possible blogging topics and even as a training log for my marathon training.

      in the past, I tried to always have a notebook and pen around me so when an idea of the writing inch triggers, I could write down in point forms. But I always lose my pen 😦 in the end thoughts and ideas just went away.

      Now with smartphone, I always have it with me. Now even on the bed if any idea arise, I just write it down in Evernote. The best thing is that it syncs to many places. The next morning I just need to turn on desktop. opens up the evernote app and it’s there 😀

      And like you said. It’s free 😀

      Cheers

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      1. Yes I didnt realise how much I would use it but its at work, at home, on phone and ipad and its brilliant for a free app too.

        I have had note books, mini cassette recorders, use voice message, any kind of taking notes =)

        I resort to the pen and paper or arm when in the middle of the night some inspiration hits me or my husband will kill me but at times I do get up and come and jot it down or write straight into Evernote as you say =) You never remember what it was in the morning!

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  23. Though I realize that everyone seems to be grabbing their smart phones or tablets to jot down ideas, there’s something I like about pulling my notebook from my bedside table and scrawling an idea down without turning on technology. It keeps me in my about-to-sleep mode.
    Great idea for a post, by the way. The number of times I’ve had an idea for something right before I’ve fallen asleep, but been too far away from anything to write it down with… Countless.

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  25. When I was 11, my wise old grandmother, while helping me set up my first company, taught me to keep a notebook, pen, and flashlight by my bed to write down things as they occur to me in the night. The flashlight was so I wouldn’t wake anyone else up. Been that way now for 46 years.

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  27. I’ve kept a notebook on my bookcase headboard for years, and I’ve learned that when my brain is all looseygoosey, I tend to forget I have a notebook on my bookcase headboard. Heehee.

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  28. The importance of the notebook by the bed: Frederick Banting (discoverer of insulin, humanitarian, kind heart) wrote his first ideas about treatment for diabetes in the middle of the night … on his little notebook by his bed. True story.

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