Capturing ideas in the shower

[hnortonil]

I'm hoping someone else has this dilemma, and can share with me how they've solved it.

For some reason, I get a ton of ideas/thoughts/to-dos while I'm in the shower. Unfortunately, the abundance of water makes most capturing methods unuseable (paper and electronics tend to not fare very well in this environment).

However, if I don't capture the items right THEN, I'll have forgotten what they are by the time I'm out of the shower, resulting in a nagging feeling for the rest of the day, until the thought(s) pop back into my head.

Any suggestions on water-friendly capturing tools?

[Scott_L_Lewis]

Somewhere - possibly on this board - I read a suggestion to go to a dive shop and buy a diver's slate. Just put it in the shower, and when ideas strike, write them on the slate.

They come in various sizes and they don't cost that much. I just checked scuba.com, and they have an 8-1/2 X 11 slate for $9.95.

http://www.scuba.com/shop/product.asp_category_249

[AdamK]

Gotta love this board - too many of us think alike.

I too, think of a lot of good ideas in the shower. One idea I thought would be fantastic would be to create a waterproof voice recorder. And then that led me to the idea to have a voice recorder that saved the files as .wav's and wirelessly emailed them to you where you could process them accordingly. Now that's an idea.

But something else popped into my head, back at our old office we had large glass windows that you could use dry erase markers on. If you had glass doors on your shower, just use a dry erase marker in the area that doesn't get wet.

[moises]

DA created the Outlook Add-In. Now we need a waterproof PDA with voice recorder. It will have to have extra-large buttons and be shock-proof so that when we drop it, all covered with soap and shampoo, it will keep on ticking.

And what about the all-important hypnagogic and hypnopompic ideas we get just before or after sleep? Why not a sound-activated voice recorder in the bedroom?

PS: DA in the GTD Fast series deals with a similar issue: getting an idea while jogging. He suggests using mnemonics. Once you think of your idea, envision yourself writing that idea down as you return to your home. I guess if it could work for jogging, it might work for the shower or bath.

I wonder if DA has broken down and now jogs with his Palm with voice recorder?

[phoulihan]

What a wonderful discussion board this is - always something interesting to read.

Warning - implementing this suggestion will confirm to your loved ones that you're a few bricks short of a load.

Here's what I do - set the idea to whatever song is rattling around in my head and sing it out loud. I guess its the same as the mnemonic idea. You can even try fitting in the next actions to the song as you go along. Sing it loud...it helps clear the head and lighten the heart.

My youngest kid has taken to getting up early with me and we have a chat whilst I'm showering - so we work together to fit words to tunes from Bananas in Pyjamas, Playschool, Astro Boy,...

It does seem to work as I can remember those songs most of the day.

See ya,
Peter

[ScottL]

Someone on one of the other GTD boards posted their set-up to deal with this. I think it was the GTD yahoo board and I think it was Eric Mack (DAs technology guru) who posted a pic of his set-up. It was a while back and their search engine is a pain, but it maybe worth looking, or if you can't find it, just post a note on that board asking about it.

Scott

[ceehjay]

Possibly a waterproof case for a small recorder?

http://www.waterproofcases.net/index.html

[Anonymous]

My kids play with tub crayons. They come in all kinds of different colors. You could mind map on the shower wall and record it when you are dry. It's alot cheaper than developing a waterproof recorder for a couple of GTDers!

Jason

[w_i_t_n_a]

I'm having a zen moment so heres a GTD haiku for you

Enjoy the shower

Let go the nagging feeling

Thoughts come back later

[vguilbault]

See Eric Mack's shower setup on his blog :
'A Shower of Ideas' Thursday, November 6th, 2003
http://ericmackonline.com/emo/emonline.nsf/dx/Shower
I have not tried the idea myself

Regards

Vincent

[Ashok Atluri]

The voice recorder is the ultimate capturing (or pre-capturing tool). Always have it handy. If you get an idea while in shower, take a moment, close the shower, dry your hand, switch on the voice recorder, let it go, and then continue with the shower. Never let any idea escape you, because that may be the idea that may be a very important idea. And the nagging feeling which you get while trying to recollect after not recording the idea is too much to bear. So please record it. The Zen moment will come to those who record such thoughts.

But it is a nice idea to have a water proof voice recorder. Guys at Olympus, Samsung - are you listening?

[Anonymous]

My Dictaphone has a “voice activation” option. You could get one of these, place it just outside your shower, then poke your head out and announce your inspirations to it without having to touch it.

[Anonymous]

P.S. if there is a strap on the Dictaphone you could hang it from a hook on the wall.

[moises]

P.S. if there is a strap on the Dictaphone you could hang it from a hook on the wall.

And wrap it in a plastic bag. My bathroom gets pretty steamy when I shower.

I personally like the tub crayons idea better. But I know my wife would not appreciate them. Now my 7-year-old son would love them.

[Cikub]

Wouldn't it just be easier to hire an executive assistant to sit in the bathroom while you're in the shower? "Marge, take this down..."

Seriously, for me, I usually have my Palm sitting on or near my towel, so I just reach out, blot off my hands, and take the note.

C

[Jez Jacko]

This is quite an interesting idea for me as I run a home automation business here in the UK.

For people not in the know - we install home servers that allow each room in the house to talk to each other in so much that all the said rooms are cat5e cabled down to a central server that can be accessed anywhere in the home

A nice idea has arrisen from this discussion (although it will only work on site and not maybe say a hotel room)

a waterproof wireless microphone placed strategically in the shower (or wherever in the home) that when activated can record straight to the home PC as a wav file - this then can be converted into text with something like dragon naturally speaking. A great way to get ideas down to the main PC when and where PDA's and paper are a bit out of reach as it were...

A nice thought be maybe a bit pricey :o

Jez

Amber studios

[JWE]

I would think that a Ziploc freezer bag would work over a voice recorder. I used to take a small camera in one fishing and quite often would dunk it and it never had any condensation or moisture problems. Personally I am still trying to convince my wife of hanging around ready to take dictation for any random thoughts or Ahas.
Jeff

[daijoubu]

I would think that a Ziploc freezer bag would work over a voice recorder. I used to take a small camera in one fishing and quite often would dunk it and it never had any condensation or moisture problems. Personally I am still trying to convince my wife of hanging around ready to take dictation for any random thoughts or Ahas.
Jeff

Wouldn't the ziploc bag have an affect on the sound quality?

[JWE]

I would think that the ambient sounds like water running or bathroom fan might interfere more with the sound quality. I think that high end frequency would be lost a little. I dont know if the mics in them are omni directonal for picking up all over or uni-directional for aiming at a source. I will be flying home for the weekend and now am curious to try this out and repost my results unless someone else has tried this.
Or maybe everyone else has a life.
I guess the important thing is that it is battery operated while standing in water. :D
Jeff

[Anonymous]

I haven't tried this in the shower, but there is a company that makes notebooks with waterproof paper. You can write on it with pencil or pen. Maybe you can find a place to leave this in the shower.

http://www.riteintherain.com/

Good luck.

[pd_workman]

I've heard of others putting pda in a ziploc bag, you can still write on it through the plastic. I think this was on the Llamagraphics board ages ago.

Pam

[jmarkey]

FYI: When I was Christmas shopping, I saw that Sears is selling a noteboard for the shower.

[Qeran]

I wonder if the Sears Item is similar to the one I noticed in a Get Organized catalog. The picture shows a white writing surface surrounded by a thin grey frame with a small horizontal ledge at the bottom to hold the crayons. :arrow:
http://www.shopgetorganized.com/
Item #22898

----
Note: I am not associated with the organization.

[Gameboy70]

On GTD Fast, David mentions a technique of "getting ideas out of your head in your head" -- that is, without a capture tool handy. When he's out jogging and gets an idea that he can't stop to write down, he very clearly imagines himself where he can write down the idea, suddenly remembering the idea; then he can forget about it. This kind of imagery creates an associational trigger: the next time you see the desk where you can write the idea down, the idea comes back.

It sounded weird (David acknowledges practices like this as "the California stuff"), but it's worked the few times I've tried it, much to my surprise.

[Anonymous]

Using imagery really works. I use it to remember whether I locked the front door, turned off the oven, turned off the iron, the place I parked my car etc. It's saved me quite a bit of time.

On another note, why is it that the great ideas don't nag us continuously like "pay bills" or "change the oil".

[Jason Womack]

On another note, why is it that the great ideas don't nag us continuously like "pay bills" or "change the oil".

Personally, I've found that I can spend time "worrying" about the things that I know how to do / have done in the past.

It's the "big" things that I think about and there's a piece of me inside that thinks, "hmmm...should I really start even thinking on that, if I don't know if I can do it?"

Then, I've realized the the limitation I've faced, time and time again, is not so much the external perameters of what I can/can't do. Too often, I'm limited by what I have been able to, in the past, imagine completing.

[chinarut]

this is a funny thread - admittedly, i think of things in the shower too and in the buddhist tradition, also found that it's a great time (and place!) to let go and meditate! :lol:

[moises]

this is a funny thread - admittedly, i think of things in the shower too and in the buddhist tradition, also found that it's a great time (and place!) to let go and meditate! :lol:

Chinarut,

So that's why DA calls it "mind like water." :lol:

"Meditation" is too heavy a word for me. But there's is nothing more relaxing for me than to make the water very hot and just stand under the showerhead. I go into a trance instantly.

[stargazer_rick]

Somewhere - possibly on this board - I read a suggestion to go to a dive shop and buy a diver's slate. Just put it in the shower, and when ideas strike, write them on the slate.

I've had "Buy a Divers Slate" on my Someday/Maybe list for a long time. This week it made it to my @errands list. During lunch yesterday I stopped by a dive shop about 4-miles from my work and bought one for $10.

This morning I captured 3 ideas that I would have otherwise probably lost. This little tool will pay for itself quickly! If folks don't want to pay for shipping and handling associated with ordering online, I would guess that most medium sized towns will have a dive shop close by.

[jmarkey]

I wonder if the Sears Item is similar to the one I noticed in a Get Organized catalog. The picture shows a white writing surface surrounded by a thin grey frame with a small horizontal ledge at the bottom to hold the crayons. :arrow:
http://www.shopgetorganized.com/
Item #22898

----
Note: I am not associated with the organization.

I think that is the same one I saw in Sears. The product was made by Perfect Solutions. I found it on the web at the following site: http://www.howardluggage.com/IBS/SimpleCat/Product/asp/hierarchy/0309/product-id/526176.html

I think Sears was selling it for less than $10 (it was on sale).

[JonathanAquino]

Another idea would be the Magna-Doodle toy (or clones, which are smaller and cheaper). The tip of the "pen" has a magnet that creates the lines. To erase the image, simply slide the slider. See pictures below.
http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/magna-doodle.jpg
http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/magna-doodle-erased.jpg

[JonathanAquino]

For those who don't want to spend money on a magna-doodle, and have some crayons lying around, just write on your shower wall with crayons. But it takes a bit of effort to rub it out.

Pictures:

http://photos1.flickr.com/3127062_1ba9e7ab18_m.jpg

In-shower idea-capture equipment:

http://photos1.flickr.com/3127087_58b061c915.jpg

[Eric Mack]

I think I've posted this here before, but in case not...

http://www.ericmackonline.com/ica/blogs/emonline.nsf/dx/Shower

[JonathanAquino]

Eric - Great pic -- I love the idea of having a whiteboard *by* the shower. It's so simple, and it sidesteps the water-on-whiteboard issue nicely.

[Eric Mack]

While I use the whiteboard often, I've found that I actually use the yellow pad more. Why? Because I can take the paper and toss it in my in-box without double capturing.

Just the other day, I had an idea - while in the shower in fact -- that I could take an old polyvision whiteboard and mount it in place of my dry erase board near the shower. This way, notes that I take in the shower would automatically appear in my inbox as PDF, ready to process.

The ultimate in overkill.

Cheers,

Eric

[CaleMilton]

This item was invented by Shepard Humphries in Wyoming. One of the posters was right-on with the wireless LAN uploading capability.

Shepard is also working onsoftware development to sync the .wav file into audio-to-text and specify via voice command where the file should go, eg. while in the shower push the Record Button and say, "Outlook Calendar.... 10-12-2002 10 am call Ruth regarding her advice. End. " Then you would press the Sync button and the .wav file would be sent to the computer where Humphrie's software would convert it to text and send it to the correct program, in this case MS Outlook.

I think this product has not yet completed R&D and manufaturing and distribution...

He is also working on a "Dream Catcher" alarm clock that does similar... and many other tasks...

[SGuenette]

CaleMilton,

Do you have a link or more info on this recording gadget by Shepard Humphries?

Thx

[luann@stardiving.com]

I haven't tried this in the shower, but there is a company that makes notebooks with waterproof paper. You can write on it with pencil or pen. Maybe you can find a place to leave this in the shower.

http://www.riteintherain.com/

Good luck.

Ditto - I was about to post this. You can get either individual sheets of paper or various kinds of notebooks. I use wire-bound notebooks underwater, bound journals for field notebooks, and currently have a small stapled notebook for the shower - I always think of my best lesson plans there. Use a pencil.