How I Achieved Infinite Idea Generation On Minutes Out of My Day

Once upon a time, there was a social media platform called “Twitter”.

Known as the “public town square” of the internet, it was where you could get news updates in real time as world events unfolded.

People could engage and interact and “re-tweet” any posts that were worthy of amplification.

Not only that, this was a place where businesses could advertise and people could promote their products, digital or physical, as well.

“Money Twitter” as it came to be known.

Many a fortune and business was built with the help of this platform.

One of the things that you could do was to:

• slap together some variation of “writer of [insert niche here] helping you to build your business in [insert time period here]”

• cobble together a lead magnet of rather dubious value

• rack up a large number of followers

Lather, rinse, repeat.

In 2023, I was caught up in one of the last cycles of this process before the poor bird app was repurposed by its new owner.

One of the most popular lead magnets was the swipe file.

In the feeding frenzy, you could pick up a multitude of these babies in the form of Notion documents within a few weeks.

I did.

How’s that working out for me?

Like so many things that are easily cobbled together and acquired, they’re still there.

If you take a closer look, they’re all variants of the same material repackaged repeatedly by different people.

I haven’t used them after all this time.

Instead, I’ve created my own purely by accident, and it’s where I draw my ideas and inspirations from.

Here’s how I do it and maintain it.

The key to endless content ideas

I started with a Notion document, but it doesn’t matter what it is provided that it’s an app that you feel comfortable using and can easily access on any device.

Pick one, any one.

There’s no right or wrong, it’s just your preference.

Got it? Good.

Here’s what I did:

1. Create a project.

2. Create a new page.

3. Put the date at the top of the page.

4. Capture any thought, idea, or link that seems interesting or useful.

5. Review anything that you collected so you can pick one and write about it.

That’s it.

No. Really. That’s it.

Here’s the crazy part:

Do it every single day.

If you can’t be bothered to force yourself to reach the last two steps, just do the first three.

It’s easy to do and only takes a minute of your time every day.

Some days, there will be nothing.

Other days, the page will be overflowing with digital goodies.

Just do it.

Every.

Single.

Day.

Here’s the cool part that happens if you do:

1. You force your awareness into the present.

2. You start to accumulate ideas and inspirations.

3. You have something to talk about no matter where you are.

The coolest thing about doing this like a calendar?

At the end of every year, just duplicate it.

Now, the first three steps aren’t needed anymore.

Better yet, there’s something there from the year before when you open up the date for that year.

Since it will have been a whole year since you opened it, you will be a different person.

You will have grown, changed, and experienced new things.

You will see your notes with new eyes.

I started doing this in January of 2023.

Now, I have two year’s worth of material to see every day.

I’m not stopping.

Endless content.

The head fake of it all

Do you realize what I’m getting at yet?

Those of you who are fans of Tiago Forte realize what this is.

It’s the first part of a second brain (and yes, I’ll share what I learned from his book soon).

I didn’t realize I was doing it until I read it.

Yes, this approach is simple.

Yes, it will take time, but it beats just collecting swipe files in exchange for an email from a stranger who is promising you the world.

The vast majority of the people who did this stopped writing after a few months.

Just committing to do this activity was the foundation of my digital heirloom project.

If you’re interested in starting yours, then this is step one.

The trick here is that there’s no end-goal.

You build the habit by doing the smallest action.

What do you think? Let me know in the comments!