Today’s all about a frequent question I get asked, and I am sure other creators do too:

‘Where do you find all these ideas to write about?’

The truth is: it was hard at first.

Finding ideas to discuss and form your own opinions about is tough. But simply finding ideas to talk about doesn’t have to be.

I use two simple ways to make sure I have plenty of content to think, talk and write about:

1. Consume a lot of content myself

I talk about it briefly here, but I try to listen to 1 or 2 podcasts a week and get through a book about every 2 weeks. I then distil these into ‘somewhat’ concise notes with my final thoughts and opinions. I don’t particularly watch YouTube or other forms of video content. I also appreciate that my range of podcasts is quite narrow:

• DOAC

• Deep Dive

• On Purpose

• Modern Wisdom 

• Acquired.FM (the latest addition)

There are also a handful of others, but these are the main ones. These are all mainstream and popular but also discuss some of the hottest topics going on at the moment, which is why they are a great place to start for idea generation.

Regarding books, I have a reading list I am working through slowly, plus recommendations from friends. If you are looking for a reading list to get you started, check out Chris’ list here; it’s great and hits all the starter books. I am checking out the Goodreads app - so connect with me there!

The risk is that it can sometimes become overwhelming and/or feel like an ‘echo chamber’. That’s why I prefer the second method of idea generation even more.

2. Swipe File

Grab my free swipe file Notion template here. It’s a modified version of Ali Abdaal’s resonance calendar.

(If you want to get into content creation/business etc., check out my Creator Platform Breakdown template.)

The original resonance calendar was a great way to save things that resonated with me, and I had been doing this for the last 18 months (when I first came across the template). However, it is slightly flawed in that it didn’t have room for my ideas and didn’t incorporate the function of being an idea generator. So I added the appropriate columns etc., and modified it to my own needs once I realised I wanted to go down this whole creator route.

The swipe file is best used now because whenever I am ‘doom-scrolling’ social media and something resonates with me - I can save it and quickly jot down my thoughts right next to it.

If it’s a text-based post, I tend to also save my response to the post as a screenshot and elaborate further in my notes. If I get a response from the author with further information, I try to do my due diligence and save that, but in some cases, I don’t.

Finally, I added a used column to help me identify topics I have written about in my newsletters to know that these have been revisited and used.

Overall, this allows me to consume ‘raw’ content that hasn’t undergone all the production that books and podcasts do. These also often contain snippets of conversation with the author providing further organic content for me to consider.

That’s it. These two idea-generation streams have proven extremely effective and reliable so far. I am keen to hear if anyone else uses other methods successfully - just hit REPLY!