Had too many ideas, now none

🦋 💜 🌿 How is your week going?

This month my husband returned to work after paternity leave so we’ve been making a lot of adjustments.

Some days are harder than others.

Being a mom, I’m holding a lot of balls in the air, and while I certainly have my brains at work daily, I just don’t feel like I have a lot of writing ideas top of mind day to day the way I used to.

It’s strange because for the past 25-ish years that I’ve been publishing my writing online, I’ve rarely been low on ideas.

In fact my bigger problem was which idea to start with, or how to not overwhelm other people with the sheer force and complexity of all I had to say.

Thankfully coming up with an idea, and iterating off an old idea are totally different things.

And I did something very, very smart in the past that prepares me with more ideas than I could use in a decade.

I did not do this

Now let me just say what I didn’t do as I prepared to take a long break from my business

–I thought about doing this but I didn’t–

When I knew I would be going on maternity leave as a business owner, I didn’t write six weeks of emails or three months of emails to send you and get that all ready ahead of time. I’ve seen a lot of people do that for a maternity leave.

I didn’t do that.

Why not? I was busy. I was low energy.

I had other things to do to get ready for a baby.

Also my other business’s website exploded just before I gave birth and solving that problem basically sapped any professional energy I had remaining.

Mostly I just didn’t feel like it.

I don’t really believe in subjecting other people to content that I’m not excited about sharing. I feel like if I am not excited about writing something and am just clocking it in, how can I expect other people to get their interest up to read it when I can’t get interested in writing it?

Sidenote–That’s why I’m not super crazy about people using ai writing generation just to fill their content calendars with stuff.

You can use technology to help you but you still need good ideas to start with.

When I see a lot of stuff in my inbox, I just think, “Please just let me know when you have something interesting, original or exciting to say. Don’t just waste my time with ai slop just to say you checked the box of shooting out an email.” Ya know?

What I did instead

The thing that has set me up with years of ideas as a new mom isn’t something I hear people talking about.

I started this before I even got pregnant. And I didn’t do it with pregnancy or childbirth or childrearing in mind at all.

I started to organize my ideas.

I started to keep track of them for the long term.

I made a system and I filled it with ideas gradually, and that system remains one of the best resources that I have.

It was an investment of time and energy that has duplicated itself many times over.

Freezing Your Ideas to Eat Later

It’s like how recently I have gotten really into Souper Cubes, which is a way to freeze food in individual portions.

I’m all about creating a freezer stockpile right now. Home cooked food is basically essential to my survival because I have a lot of food allergies, so imagine the struggle of fitting in 2x daily cooking with a newborn baby. HARD.

What is easier? Making a huge batch every time I cook and then freezing what we can’t immediately eat. So then later, when there is no time, I can just defrost it really quick for a nearly instant meal.

Goodbye Churn and Burn Content

Organizing your ideas is sort of like that as well. It’s freezing an idea for later,

but here is one big difference:

Unlike eating the frozen soup you made a month ago, when you use an idea for content or writing you don’t really diminish your stockpile. You only ADD to it.

You may think–no way, Sofia, if I use an idea it is gone and then I need to come up with more…

We live in a churn and burn society where everyone feels like they have to write new material for their marketing or social media every day. Use it, share it, and then it’s gone and you need to think of something new. You start over daily.

I did this for ten years on social media. And I’m over it.

I said goodbye to that mentality over a year ago.

Now I would rather spend the time writing (just like my cooking) on something substantial.

I want to cook up a BIG meal with a lot of servings: a meaty article, or a juicy idea, that I can reshare, repost, edit with a twist and use again and again for years.

Good ideas are ones you can reuse repeatedly.

And since I reduced my emphasis on social media content, and began organizing and connecting my ideas, and spinning them into more meaningful writing…

I have been much more fulfilled with the things I have written and it’s possible to dine out on them (so to speak) many times over again.

When you repeat your content or ideas or writing, you may thing people are sick of it but most of the time they never saw it the first time or don’t remember, or appreciate a reminder. So it’s fine.

AND when you share something again, you can edit it with new insight, fix it up a little.

Then it becomes better and better.

The thing about art is that it is iterative, and doesn’t have to be done except when you say it is done.

You can probably keep improving it each time you revisit it in the future.

In SUM

My baby is playing with my babysitter right now. He hasn’t been napping super well today. I could be called away at any moment.

I don’t have time to waste anymore.

So I’m thankful that I spent the time I had before the baby ENJOYING the process of walking through the garden of my ideas,

organizing my journal entries,

categorizing old ideas and filing them away,

creating a digital organization system

so I could use the writing and ideas I already have for years on end.

It saves me so much time now, it makes me so much more genius even on my worst day.

And I don’t have to worry about “mombrain” making me forget all of my ideas.

They are written down and I know how to find them.

Cool, huh?

I recommend it to everyone. Freeze your ideas for later. Put them into a digital organization system (or an analog system if you prefer that).

And if you are scratching your head unsure HOW to do that exactly, well, then I have something for you.

Ready to freeze your ideas?

Do you want to learn how to organize your ideas?

I have a digital organization system I created to hold all my ideas for writing and business.

Previously I have taught my method and recorded all the materials, which you can access for a very low price.

Click here if you want to get off the daily creation hamsterwheel and fill your freezer with years of ideas that will stand the test of time.

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I have been asked if I am coaching clients right now.

Yes – and if you are interested in getting coached to write, see this page about my 2 month coaching program.

I help with nonfiction books, blogs, sales pages, marketing emails, writing for your soul, and more.

There’s also a lot of information on my page about coaching for 6 months, and how I can help with both personal and business writing goals–but I often recommend starting with a smaller commitment like 2 months.

If you are interested in getting coached on your writing or marketing copy, contact me about your goals, and we can talk more!

I have limited spots available and a few people have been asking, so don’t wait tooooo long if it is speaking to you.

Thanks for reading