Great idea!!!
By Sean Silverthorne
I have an unhealthy interest in learning how great people organized their daily lives. Did Einstein carry a To-Do list? Is the Dalai Lama an iCal guy?
So it was interesting to learn that Ted Levitt, one of the stellar pioneers of marketing at Harvard Business School, carried around a pack of blank 3×5 cards to write down what came to him during the day.
According to Alan Webber, who worked with Levitt at Harvard Business Review, Levitt would write down the kernels of conversations and observations that ultimately could lead to new story ideas. Webber decided to go 3×5, too. This practice made him not just a better observer, but a better listener, Webber writes on Harvard Business Publishing.
“When you keep 3 x 5 cards close at hand, you don’t just listen to what people are saying; you listen into their ideas. You pay close attention to the way the words work — or don’t work — to capture an idea or an argument. As an involved listener you help others frame or reframe an idea so it clicks into place: you become an idea chiropractor. You find yourself using your conversations strategically, listening to learn, and learning to make sense of the world. And each day, as you assemble that day’s collection of 3 x 5 cards, you discover new lessons that help you develop your own understanding of how the world really works, your own rules of thumb that comprise your guide to work and life in a time of unrelenting turbulence.”
Sounds like a pretty powerful payoff for such a low-rent solution. How do you keep track of thoughts and ideas during the day? Moleskine? Digital notepad? Paper scraps?
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