Quick Tip: Text Yourself

Ever get a great idea and then forget it because you didn’t have a pad and paper to hand? Ever wake up in the middle of the night with the solution to your biggest problem and then in the morning have nothing left other than that nagging feeling that you’ve forgotten something?

This used to happen to me all the time. First, I tried carrying a hipster PDA, but remembering to take it EVERYWHERE was difficult. Then I realised that I already had something that I always carried with me — my mobile phone!

Now, I have a very simple process: any time I get a good idea, whether it be for a blog post, a solution for a wicked problem or an idea for a great new site, I send myself a text. Try it — it works great!

6 Replies to “Quick Tip: Text Yourself”

  1. You can also save the text as a draft if you don’t want to spend however many pence it is to actually send it.

    I still reckon the Hipster PDA is where it’s at, though. You’ll be sure to take it everywhere if you upgrade it to the Hipster Shuffle

  2. Fair point, Paul. I have a plan that gives me 500 free texts a month that I never use all of, so I had forgotten about the cost impact…

  3. I save notes in the notepad section of my phone. Most basic phone models have a notes section or ‘to do’ section or a calendar where you can enter text in each day. That way you won’t confuse notes/’to do’s’ with text messages received/drafted.

  4. I’m sure my Treo and my computers have all kinds of better options for this, but when I need to remember something I send myself an email. (Actually it’s an SMS from the phone, but shows up in my email.)

    That way it shows up in my inbox with everything else when I get home and I can deal with it appropriately…

  5. I also tend to use voice memos as reminders: I’ll record them as a voice message and then save that in my drafts store. Sometimes results in some very cryptic middle-of-the-night brain dumps, though.

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