As a social media manager/ parent/ person with lots of interests and activities, the distractions are endless. I frequently have ideas when reviewing feeds or working on projects, but in order to stay on task during dedicated project or task time, I have a “parking lot” where I write down or screenshot any ideas I want to revisit. I block time weekly to review this list. During that time, they’re either deleted, filed away, or lead to inspiration or new projects. This helps me reduce the number of “SQUIRREL!!” moments during focused periods of work. Would love to hear what works for others!
Giveaway Day 1: Productivity Tip: Start a "Parking Lot"
+3I just posted something similar, but I don’t make weekly time to visit… that’s a great idea to block off time! Your ‘parking lot’ mention even inspired me to rename my folder. I just had ‘ideas’ and have updated it to ‘idea pantry’. I threw ChatGPT a bone to see what it could come up with… others are more than welcome to create folders and use these names 😆 :
- dream dock
- brain sparks
- lightbulb lounge
- thought garden
- spark files
- imagination station
- future fuel
Lisa @eskeymo
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I had a flashback to an old job where we used the Scrum methodology… It had a “parking lot” type feature for all the projects/ideas.
I might need to give that a go again. Thanks for sharing!
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I need details! I tend to let these squirrel thoughts die on the vine so, tell me: How do you keep these thoughts organized so you can actually take action on them?
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+2lisa.rodrigo wrote:
I just posted something similar, but I don’t make weekly time to visit… that’s a great idea to block off time! Your ‘parking lot’ mention even inspired me to rename my folder. I just had ‘ideas’ and have updated it to ‘idea pantry’. I threw ChatGPT a bone to see what it could come up with… others are more than welcome to create folders and use these names 😆 :
- dream dock
- brain sparks
- lightbulb lounge
- thought garden
- spark files
- imagination station
- future fuel
LOVE some of these! What fun!
+2Brittany Taylor wrote:
I need details! I tend to let these squirrel thoughts die on the vine so, tell me: How do you keep these thoughts organized so you can actually take action on them?
Because I work across iphone and PC, I throw everything in Google Drive so its accessible from any of my devices. I keep a Google doc with a running list of thoughts and/or URLs that if I pick them back up, get input into my project/ task management list. Screenshots or saved images go in the folder as well. Some emails wind up there as well. Weekly review helps to keep it from getting unwieldy.
This is also how I run meetings - anything not related to the agenda goes in the parking lot. If we have time once we make it through the agenda, we’ll revisit. If not, we’ll add to the following meeting’s agenda or follow up separately. I’ve found it helps to reduce rabbit holes.
Hope this helps!
+2I always did a similar thing. I would just keep a document that was an giant list of all the possible content I have to create posts from. That way I didn’t have to leave photo submissions and anything items in my email or on post-it notes :)
katie.deaton wrote:
Brittany Taylor wrote:
I need details! I tend to let these squirrel thoughts die on the vine so, tell me: How do you keep these thoughts organized so you can actually take action on them?
Because I work across iphone and PC, I throw everything in Google Drive so its accessible from any of my devices. I keep a Google doc with a running list of thoughts and/or URLs that if I pick them back up, get input into my project/ task management list. Screenshots or saved images go in the folder as well. Some emails wind up there as well. Weekly review helps to keep it from getting unwieldy.
This is also how I run meetings - anything not related to the agenda goes in the parking lot. If we have time once we make it through the agenda, we’ll revisit. If not, we’ll add to the following meeting’s agenda or follow up separately. I’ve found it helps to reduce rabbit holes.
Hope this helps!
It absolutely does, thank you!
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