Money Saving Mom®

Missed the first posts in this series? Check them out here.

#5 Listen Intently

One the best ways to challenge your brain and have an never-ending stream of ideas and inspiration is to become a student of life. All of life can be a classroom — if we’re a willing learner.

Everyone — no matter who they are — can teach you something. And most people can teach you amazing things, if you’ll only but listen.

I’m not one who is usually short on words (I’m pretty sure my family would readily attest to that, too!), but when I am intentional about listening and asking good questions, I’m always amazed at how much I learn.

Focus on the Other Person

Most people really like to talk about themselves and their interests. The trick is to fully focus on whomever you are talking to, be genuinely interested, and to find out what gets them fired up and excited.

If I meet someone for the first time and I don’t have any background or context for that person, I’ll often say, “Tell me about yourself.” This is one of my favorite ways to open up a conversation with someone I don’t know — and you never know where it will lead!

I’ve learned about tragedies, triumphs, health issues, a person’s dreams and hopes, and so many other fascinating things as a result of this simple question. It’s extremely open-ended but it rarely fails to produce an interesting discussion with just about everyone.

Put Away Your Phone

If you want to have a meaningful conversation, you’ve got to stop multi-tasking. Don’t be texting another friend, checking Facebook or Twitter, or searching for something on the internet.

I love the efficiency that smartphones have brought into my life. But, on the flipside, I despise how we’re unable to disconnect from the noise so we can really listen to what someone else is saying.

If you need to be on your phone when in the middle of a conversation, explain why and take care of whatever it is you need to do. Then, turn it off and turn your attention fully to the person in front of you.

Ask Followup Questions

As another person is talking, listen carefully for interesting tidbits that you want to probe deeper into. I’m always amazed at how many things I learn just by asking questions that springboard from a statement someone makes.

Don’t be shy — even if you don’t really know much at all about what a person is interested in, you can still learn so much. In fact, sometimes it’s more fun to talk to someone who has little knowledge of a subject but immense interest.

Reiterate Their Statements

I’m constantly asking why and forever prodding to get to the root of why a person responds a certain way, feels a certain way, or believes a certain way. One of the things I find is really helpful is to reiterate what I just heard someone say to me to make sure I understood and then to ask a followup question. “So you’re saying such and such, do you think that’s because of so and so?”

You might be completely off-base or maybe you misunderstood, so reiterating someone’s statements and then asking a followup question is a great way to make sure you’re both on the same page, to engage in a good conversation, and to never run out of interesting things to talk about!

By putting forth effort to listen and discuss things in-depth with others, not only is my brain expanded, but I also often come away with new ideas for blog posts or series as a result of these conversations!

What are your best suggestions for becoming a better listener? I’d love to hear!

Missed the first posts in this series? Check them out here.

#4 Capture Thoughts Immediately

If you’re anything like me, if you don’t write down your great ideas right away, you won’t remember them a few hours later. Because of this, I believe one of the biggest keys to never running out of blog post ideas is to capture those ideas immediately.

In order to do this, you need to have some systems in place to make this happen. Here are a few ideas that work well for me:

Keep a Pen & Paper Handy

Where do you typically get the most inspiration? For me, it’s often when I’m washing dishes, cleaning, or getting ready in the morning. Because of this, I try to always have a pen and paper handy to log those ideas as soon as they come.

Often, I’ll use the time blocks when my hands are busy but my brain is free to purposefully think about whatever writing project I’m currently working on or the next post I hope to write. I’ll mull it over and then write down whatever thoughts come, as they.

It’s not uncommon at all for me to stop washing dishes or cleaning (or whatever it is that my hands are busy with!) three or four times in order to “brain dump” whatever came to my mind. I find this to be a really efficient method for blogging, too — even if it’s a little tedious to have to keep drying my hands to write down ideas!

Why? Because when I outline my blog post on paper ahead of time, it saves me so much time when I actually sit down to write. Instead of having to stare at a blank screen, I already have a bunch of ideas scribbled down to springboard from.

Email Yourself

If I’m out and about and don’t have a pen & paper handy, I’ll often email myself a few sentences that are swirling around in my head for a potential post. This way, I have captured the essence of the post idea and the next time I’m on the computer, I can either copy and paste the sentences into a post draft to prompt me whenever I’m ready to write the post or I can add the post idea to my blogging Google calendar and put those sentences in the details box.

Use Google Calendar

I use Google calendar to schedule out what posts I plan to write/run (along with just basically organizing and planning my entire life — see this video where I talk about about how I organize my days in more detail). What I love about Google calendar is that it’s so easy to drag and drop things to later dates — something I do very regularly.

When a post idea strikes, I’ll usually add the idea to my calendar on whatever day I think it works best and then I jot down whatever ideas come to my mind right then and there for the post. That way I’ve captured the idea and put it on my calendar — and when the week that it’s scheduled for arrives, I can start working on the post (usually by jotting down additional ideas on a pen and paper as I talked about above).

Many weeks, I end up with more post ideas scheduled than time, so I’ll just move some of the posts planned for that week to another day or week. It’s so simple and it pretty much guarantees that I rarely am at a lack for post ideas or inspiration.

Have an Ongoing Blog Ideas Notebook

One last idea: always keep a list of running ideas. This list can either be on your computer or in an actual notebook.

I keep a list of series ideas, post ideas, challenge ideas, and just anything else that comes to mind that I think I might want to blog about someday. Every once in awhile, I will “brain dump” onto this list. While I often don’t end up using all of these ideas, it serves as an inspiration for upcoming series and challenges — and I consult it every few months as I’m planning my upcoming blog themes.

What are your favorite ways to capture ideas for blog posts? I’d love to hear!