Capturing ideas in the shower

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hnortonil

Guest
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?
 
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CosmoGTD

Guest
why not use a waterproof marker, and write on the shower tiles?

Coz
 
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AdamK

Guest
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

Registered
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?
 
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phoulihan

Guest
Singing in the rain (dum de dum dumde)

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

Registered
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
 
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Anonymous

Guest
Shower capture

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

Registered
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
 
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Ashok Atluri

Guest
Voice recorder

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?
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
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.
 
A

Anonymous

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

moises

Registered
Anonymous said:
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.
 
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Cikub

Guest
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
 
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Jez Jacko

Guest
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 :eek:

Jez

Amber studios
 
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JWE

Guest
Shower

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
 
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daijoubu

Guest
Re: Shower

JWE said:
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?
 
J

JWE

Guest
Ziploc

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
 
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