Get everything out of your head and down on paper. Here is a tip that I had to learn by trial and error. If you have an idea, or something comes to you that is important, YOU MUST WRITE IT DOWN when you receive it. Don’t trust your memory. There have been many great ideas that were lost because people depended on remembering the epiphany that they had and it just didn’t happen. Also, many people write on their computers, pads and now on their phones for convenience. I’ve heard that there is scientific evidence of a special connection between actually recording your thoughts with a pen/pencil on paper (a yellow legal pad in my case) and the process of embedding the information in your mind for your memories processing.
If you are a person on the go most of the time and jotting it down with pen and paper is inconvenient for you, you may want to carry a small digital recorder with you. They can easily be slipped into a pocket, purse or backpack and are always ready to record a brilliant yet fleeting piece of genius before it gets away. I have a small Sony digital recorder that I use, similar to what you may see when reporters are interviewing an athlete after a game on the news. I like it because it has a great pause button which you can pause a recording for what seems like 30 minutes or more. It is clear, loud enough and great on playbacks.
The point is to capture that thought as close to the original presentation as possible. You can always correct the grammar, spelling and phrasing later, but if you don’t get that wisdom when the idea first strikes, there may not be anything to correct. It’s amazing how many answers to problems come to you when you’re thinking about other things. When we are able to quiet ourselves down and pull ourselves away from all kinds of things that demand our attention in so many different areas (some areas that are small and meaningless in our life but we give them big time attention anyway), we often find ideas flowing through like water through a garden hose. We want to capture all of that inspiration, wisdom and knowledge for related time and we can dissected piece by piece. Then we can decide what will fit into our lives like the pieces of the puzzle and what won’t.