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