How To Take Action When You Have A Lot Of Ideas.
By: Arron Fornasetti
Tags: Ideas, Startup, Productivity, Thoughts, Work

Are you someone who comes up with a new idea almost every day? Yesterday it was becoming an event planner — Today, it’s starting a YouTube channel. Tomorrow it may be writing that book you’ve always wanted to write. Oh, remember back in high school you wanted to become a filmmaker? Time to dust off that bad boy and get snappin’.

If this sounds like you then don’t worry — you’re not alone. Like you and many others I also have multiple ideas floating around in my head. I’m the kind of person who can see potential in almost anything. If someone is willing to pay, there is a business to be built around it.

Having a lot of ideas is a great problem to have — except when you don’t act on any of them. Sometimes you’ll have so many ideas that you become overwhelmed and end up not doing anything. It’s easy to come up with an idea yet putting them to work is the hard part.

Record And Evaluate.

When you get a wave of new ideas, jot them down and start looking at them from all angles. Ask yourself a few questions to gain clarity on the ideas.

Is this something I can really see myself doing? Is this going to be a side project or a full-time deal? Can I fit this into my schedule? Is this worth my time?

You’re not going to have an answer for each idea — and that’s the point. Some ideas will have an entire page filled and others will be like pulling teeth.

The goal is to see which ideas can go from paper to reality. You shouldn’t spend a lot of time trying to think about it. If the idea draws a blank then let it go. Evaluation helps you decide which ideas sound as good on paper as they do in your head. Something I like to do is write them down in my notes app and come back to them later. This way I am able to look at things in a different state of mind. If I still like the idea, I’ll keep it. If not, I’ll get rid of it.

Do Something You Actually Like (And Can Do).

The last thing you should be doing is starting something because it’s popular. When you get ideas you’re going to have a range of things you think about. You may want to start a game app because you saw how much Candy Crush makes in a day — but can you code? If you can’t will you outsource and dedicate the time needed to scale and maintain the app? If not, pass on the idea.

On the other hand, you may decide to become a fashion stylist. Unlike the gaming app idea, you actually know a thing or two about fashion — it’s practically your middle name! Because you enjoy fashion and have knowledge about styling yourself and others, this will be something that you can do effortlessly.

Filtering through your ideas is essentially trimming the fat — which means to get rid of dead-end ideas. You will have a lot of ideas but after some evaluation, you will end up with the few that’s best for you.

Pick One Thing And Get Focused.

Did you pick some great ideas? Good. It’s the first step of world domination.

Before you decide to take over the world, you have to create a plan of action. What is the end goal? Is this a long or short term idea? Once you’ve made your decisions it’s time to get your hands dirty.

Focus on one thing and make that your main idea. You’re going to think about your other ideas often, but now is the time to double down. Before you can eat our cake you have to master patience and commitment needed to get the ball rolling. Once done, you’ll be able to branch off onto your other ideas.

What is the most important part of building a house? The foundation. You can’t build a house without it. In the beginning, your goal is to build the groundwork that leads to other things. If you try to build three houses at a time you’ll take three times as long as you should. It’s best to take things one step at a time and give that one thing your full attention.

Prioritize Your Ideas

The best thing is to choose the idea that can help you segway into your other ideas. This is the gateway idea. Let’s say you have three ideas: Becoming a YouTuber, an author, and running a startup. The YouTube channel will be your gateway because it can bring awareness to your other ideas. Because of this, YouTube will be the top priority and foundation.

Once you’ve scaled your YouTube channel to a suitable audience size you can now add your other ideas into the mix. Since you have a following, you will have people who will buy your book and potential customers for your startup.

Finish What You Started

We want to focus on a question that was asked earlier. What is the end goal of your ideas? Are you in the YouTube game for the long haul? Is becoming an author a one time deal or do you want multiple books? Whatever your plan is make sure you’re able to finish strong.

In closing, we’ve created a four-step how-to for taking action on your ideas:

List your ideas Evaluate and trim the fat Take action and prioritize your ideas Finish until you reach your goal

It’s going to be a challenge to make these things happen and there will be days where you want to quit. The point in finishing is to not end up like those who start something and don’t finish — you want to go all the way. Once you’re able to finish one thing it will give you the confidence to take on something else in completion. Rinse and complete until all of your ideas are in action.