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3 Ways To Capture Your Ideas

3 Ways To Capture Your Ideas

Michele Duwe from Miss Task | 3 Ways To Capture Your Ideas For Online Business Owners

Stop letting your best ideas slip through the cracks! Stop it. I mean it. Stop scribbling down all your ideas on little pieces of random paper, sticky notes, in your planner, or in your notebook. If it was important enough to write down, it is important enough to ensure it doesn’t get misplaced. One simple way to do this is with a dedicated space that storages all those ideas. Here are 3 ways to capture your ideas for safekeeping.

Why You Need A Trusted Process to Capture Your Ideas 

Your mind has enough to do without having to deal with trying to remember where you wrote down your last big idea for your online business. I'm not sure about you, but I’m not a fan of waking up at 2 A.M. to the idea resurfacing in my brain again. Worst yet, if it never surfaced again. I think you’ll agree when I say it feels so frustrating.

All you really remember is it was genius, and it struck you when you had a clear mind. You have that inner knowing that you put it someplace, but where exactly?

Your mind begins to race, wondering what you were doing when the idea struck. That could help you figure out where you captured your idea. Were you out for a walk? Were you sleeping? Was it after your meditation?

Rethinking Your Idea Capture Strategy: From Sticky Notes to Digital Organization 

Are you often surrounded by a pile of sticky notes, random pieces of paper, or notebooks filled with ideas, tasks, and reminders? If this sounds familiar, you're not alone. Many of us start with these quick-fix methods for capturing thoughts. I, for one, have a deep love for sticky notes. They're my go-to when I'm in a hurry. But let's face it, these methods have their downsides.

While sticky notes and scribbles in notebooks might feel convenient at the moment, they often lead to a bigger issue: the endless search for that one brilliant idea you know you jotted down somewhere. This scattered approach can be more of a hindrance than a help, causing you to spend more time hunting for ideas than actually bringing them to life.

To tackle this, I've developed a simple yet effective process. My sticky notes and any other paper-based ideas go in one spot – piled neatly by my inbox. But they don't stay there. Regularly, I transfer these ideas into my digital idea bank. For my ideas, I use Notion. This system ensures that no idea gets lost in the shuffle and everything is easily located when I need it

Transform Your Idea Capturing: 3 Ways To Capture Your Ideas 

Imagine, friend, never losing track of your brilliant ideas again. I’m here to walk you through 3 ways to capture your ideas in a digital method that will keep you organized. No more spending your precious time looking for your ideas!

Say goodbye to the days of frantic searching and hello to a process where your ideas are always at your fingertips – because, let’s face it, as busy entrepreneurs, our phones are practically extensions of ourselves.

All 3 of these digital solutions are not just convenient; they’re game-changers in the way you manage and capture your ideas.

Michele Duwe from Miss Task | 3 Ways To Capture Your Ideas For Online Business Owners

One: Notion 

Starting with Notion, this tool might seem a bit advanced at first, but it's incredibly useful. I use Notion as a central hub for almost all my ideas for business and personal use. It's versatile, allowing for project management, task tracking, and more. The best part? You can customize it to your liking, adding a personal touch to your idea organization and making it pretty. If you’ve been around here for any amount of time, you’ll already know I like pretty.

For inspiration on how to organize your life and ideas with Notion, Muchelle B's YouTube video is a great resource. You can check it out here: https://youtu.be/4WDspvXDKSg 

Download Notion for free to try it out. Here is the link: https://www.notion.so/product

 

Two: Project Management Application 

You guessed it, the second recommendation is in your project management software.

I can almost hear you thinking, that's great. Which one? If you’ve tried to implement a project management software in the past but failed, maybe it wasn’t the right one for you. Book a Content Creation Simplified Session; we can figure it out together. Here is the link: https://misstask.com/mini-session

As an Online Business Manager, I’ve used a wide variety of Project Management apps. The three most common have been Asana, Trello, and Teamwork.

In my experience, if you’ve not used a project management application, Asana, Trello, and Teamwork are fantastic options.

If you already have project management, a great place to add a space for ideas is under your company dashboard.

And now, in case you’re wondering what is a company dashboard, this is one central location for all your company resources, such as brand guide, mission, core values, offers, workflows, link bank, story bank, the list goes on and on. It is the information hub of your business.

 

Three: Note-Taking Apps – GoodNotes, Apple Notes App, and Google Keep 

The last on our list of idea-capturing tools are note-taking apps, each offering a unique way to store your thoughts digitally.

GoodNotes is an amazing app that you can use across multiple platforms. Create an Ideas Notebook that syncs across devices. It’s a great way to keep all your ideas in one place; plus, if you have an iPad and Pencil, you can use this app as a digital notebook. Create an ideas notebook and start to capture your ideas electronically.

Apple Notes App for simplicity and convenience. The Notes app is the go-to app for all Apple users. Try creating an ‘Ideas' folder within the app for easy retrieval of your thoughts from any of your Apple devices. A quick tip: on your Mac, moving your cursor to the lower right corner instantly opens a new note – a feature I find incredibly handy. I love simple things.

Google Keep is another simple application to capture your ideas.

One way Google Keep is a huge time saver for the Duwe household is that it is the central location for your shopping lists. The feature I love is that it stores all the items from previous checklists. Once you begin typing, it pops up for easy addition. For this reason, I prefer Google Keep over Notes for our shopping list.

Whoever goes to the store knows exactly what we need to buy. For us, this works awesome. It's much easier than the paper list hanging on the side of the fridge.

Remember, the key is to find what works best for you. These tools are all about working smarter, not harder, and keeping all your valuable ideas in one easily accessible place.

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Time To Wrap This Up 

So, there you have it – three digital tools to streamline your idea-capturing process: Notion, a Project Management Application, or a note-taking application such as GoodNotes, Notes on your Apple devices, and Google Keep.

Each offers a unique way to ensure your brilliant ideas are organized and easily available, transforming the way you manage and execute your ideas. Remember, the goal is to work smarter, not harder. With these tools, you're set to capture every spark of inspiration efficiently, allowing you more time to focus on what truly matters in your business and life.

Thank you so much for reading I appreciate you and I hope you have a wonderful week.

Is Trello the right project management software for you?

Is Trello the right project management software for you?

Michele Duwe from Miss Task | Is Trello the right project management software for you?

When it comes to organic content creation, are you all over the place? Is your content strategy laughable and not a true asset to your small business? Are tasks slipping through the cracks and getting missed? Have you attempted to solve this with project management software in the past and failed? Was it the right one? Is Trello the right project management software for you? Here are 3 questions to ask yourself.

Are you all over the place with content consistency?

There are a number of podcasts I follow that haven't released an episode for months, and I find that surprising. It piques my curiosity if they had a good checklist in a project a management tool, would that keep them from feeling overwhelmed with creating consistent content?

If I’ve learned anything in all my experience with working with online coaches and course creation, every one of them is triggered by overwhelm differently. 

I’m sure this will come as a shocker, each one of us has our own threshold for overwhelm. We all think in different ways; some project management software can overwhelm one business owner while it clicks for another.

Is Trello the right PM software for you? Here are 3 questions to ask yourself to find out.

Simplicity and Ease

Trello is the right project management software for you; let’s find out with our first question.

Do I value simplicity and ease in a project management tool, or do I prefer more complex solutions?

One thing you know for sure is that you are busy. You are juggling a lot of schedules and people; you need a simple solution.

Even the thought of implementing project management software makes your palms sweaty.

Maybe you’re happy with a piece of paper or a Google doc.

I’m guessing if you’re listening to this, it is for a good reason.

When you sit down at your desk, do you find yourself wasting your time and energy? I certainly did when I started my business. See, I found that transitioning from employee to business owner was quite challenging.

The problem is managing a business can be overwhelming, especially when you wear many hats. A user-friendly project management software is essential.

Designed for simplicity, Trello makes it easy to use.

We can easily manage our content creation with its clean and clutter-free interface.

This leads up to question two as we explore: is Trello the right project management software for you?

Visual Layout

Is visual organization and layout crucial for helping me stay organized and focused on my tasks?

If the answer is yes, you’re a girl after my own heart! If flexibility in making your space beautiful and visually appealing is important to you.

Trello is for the business owner who needs to see the big picture in front of you.

If you define yourself as not naturally organized, Trello is the one you should consider.

Trello drag-and-drop feature to rearrange the content cards to go from idea to posting to repurposing.

Michele Duwe from Miss Task | Is Trello the right project management software for you?

Basic Planning and Tracking

Do I require basic planning and tracking capabilities to manage my content creation and business tasks effectively? This is the third and final question: is Trello the right project management software for you?

Have you ever described yourself as not being very good with technology? This is a key reason why you’ve been unsuccessful in the past with project management software.

Do you find yourself forgetting to do something? Content tasks somehow seem to slip through the cracks.

Trello is a great choice if you want a streamlined content creation process to make the most of your limited time.

You’re able to set up the cards with your to-do list. One way to set up your content Trello board is by the milestone steps in your workflow. If you are going to set up your board like this, your column heads could be

  • Idea Bank
  • Outline
  • Record
  • Write
  • Edit
  • Scheduled
  • Published
  • Promote
  • Metrics
  • Done

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Another option to set up your content Trello board would be by batch days. Instead of milestones, the columns on your board can be set up with your batch creation days.

What that could look like is:

  • Monday | Outline
  • Tuesday | Record
  • Wednesday | Keyword Research
  • Thursday | Write
  • Friday | Schedule

All you need to do is move your card from one column to the next in your batching days.

Still not sure if Trello is the right solution for you? Book a 1-hour content creation simplified virtual session, and we can figure out a project management software that will work for you. https://misstask.com/mini-session 

Here are the three questions to ask yourself to find out if Trello is the right project management software for you.

1. Do I value simplicity and ease in my project management tool, or do I prefer a more complex solution?
        a. Remember, Trello is designed with simplicity in mind. It's clean and clutter-free.

 

2. Is visual organization and layout critical for helping me stay organized and focused on my tasks?
        a. If you need to see the big picture in front of you, or you're not naturally organized, Trello may be the project management software for you.

 

3. Do I require basic planning and tracking capabilities to manage my content creation and business tasks effectively?
        a. So, if you've ever described yourself as a person who is not very good with technology.
        b. Or you find that you're forgetting to do things frequently with your busy schedule. Trello may be the task management or project management software for you.

 

Time To Wrap This Up

Whatever project management software you select, it must make your life easier, your business smoother, and your dreams of growing your business achievable in between your kids' drop off, pick up, and that busy carpooling schedule.

I'm very grateful that you've chosen to spend time with me today. Thank you so much for reading. I appreciate you, and I hope you have a wonderful week.

Maximize Your Profits: Efficiently Organize Your Content Workflow!

Maximize Your Profits: Efficiently Organize Your Content Workflow!

Efficient Content Workflow: Your Path to Higher Profits

Are you looking for a content workflow that will assist you in creating consistent content for your online business? If so, it's time to organize your content workflow to maximize your time. Give these five steps to efficiently organize your content workflow to maximize your profits. 

A workflow helps you create and promote content that draws your ideal leads and clients into your sales funnel. From brainstorming ideas to analyzing results, discover how a well-organized content workflow can lead to greater success and less stress.

Step One: Brainstorming Content Ideas

It's time for a little brainstorming for your content. First things first, let's chat about your ideal client.

When brainstorming content ideas for your business, it is important to understand your ideal client truly. I know, I know, you’ve more than likely heard this before. Think about the real struggles and challenges they're facing. What are they looking to solve? This is your key to either connecting with them or repealing them and sending them on their way. When you try and talk to everyone, what ends up happening is you talk to no one. 

Do you have a good understanding of the pain points and struggles they are actively looking to solve in their business? Put yourself in her shoes – what's troubling her these days? What are those little problems that keep showing up time and time again in her business? What is stressing her out? What is she hoping to solve in her business? What keeps her up at night? 

Are you stuck? No worries; one way to go about coming up with content ideas is to determine your content pillars or content buckets. Content pillars are the broader subjects that your content falls under. 

If you’re visual, think of the structure of an organizational chart in a business with the departments and people under each department. 

The core content topics sit at the top, and under those are very specific topics. Aim for about 4-6 of these pillars to keep things fresh and focused. 

Once you have your pillars or buckets, begin to brainstorm how, what, and why for each content pillar.

Content Pillar Example

Here’s an example of possible content pillars for a life coach specializing in weight loss for women who are focusing on shedding those last few pounds. 

You can brainstorm ideas more easily when you have well-defined core content pillars. It is important that these pillars address key areas of interest and concern for your ideal audience that are in line with your offer. 

Here are six content pillars for our life coach: 

  1. Healthy Eating Habits: Focus on nutrition and balanced eating. Discuss tips for making healthier food choices, understanding portion control, and debunking diet myths. Include simple, nutritious recipes and meal-planning ideas.
  2. Exercise and Fitness: Cover effective, manageable exercise routines suitable for busy schedules. Emphasize the importance of regular physical activity, different types of workouts (like HIIT, yoga, strength training), and how to stay motivated.
  3. Mindset and Motivation: Address the psychological aspects of weight loss. Topics could include setting realistic goals, overcoming mental barriers to weight loss, maintaining motivation, and cultivating a positive body image.
  4. Lifestyle Management: Explore how daily habits and routines impact weight loss. This could include sleep hygiene, stress management techniques, balancing work-life commitments, and creating a supportive environment for healthy living.
  5. Weight Loss Plateaus and Challenges: Provide advice and strategies for dealing with common weight loss challenges, including plateaus. Offer insights into why weight loss might slow down and how to overcome these hurdles effectively.
  6. Success Stories and Testimonials: Share inspiring stories and testimonials from clients who have successfully lost weight. This provides motivation and builds trust and credibility in your coaching methods.

Each of these pillars can be expanded into a variety of topics. These content buckets address the key areas of interest and concern for women looking to lose those last few pounds, providing a holistic approach to weight loss and healthy living.

Is that helpful? 

Step Two: SEO Researching Your Content Ideas

Researching our content ideas is step 2 in content workflow. You may have heard me say that in the first few years of my business, okay, maybe like the first five years of my business, SEO wasn’t a step in my content workflow. 

However, it is essential for a small business that wants to grow through organic content creation. Since my goal is to keep content creation easy, here are my two go-to tools that I use for keyword research.

Google Trends and Ubersuggest. Google Trends helps you find the keywords that are trending in your industry, and Ubersuggest helps you rank on page one of Google for those keywords.

With Google Trends, you can see the peak of when that keyword is searched. This is helpful when planning your content calendar.

Create a list of potential topics that appeal to your audience and rank well on search engines using these tools.

 

Ubersuggest provides search volume and SEO difficulty for questions, comparison, and related keyword research. 

One thing that I do is pay attention to common questions related to your topic – they're great for your next blog posts or to use as headlines in your current core content piece.

These magic words will help your content shine on search engine result pages (SERPs).

Let it be simple: SEO Research can be fun when you embrace it. Trust me, I know from experience.

053 | Efficiently Organize Your Content Workflow for Online Business Owners

Step Three: Creating the Content

Creating content for your online business can be daunting. Knowing how to structure and write effective content is key to success. I speak from the perspective of an overthinker when it comes to creating content.
The following steps are helpful to avoid spending 8 hours writing a single blog post. Yes, that is how long it would take me in the beginning. I anguished over each blog post.

Outline Your Content Structure:

To ensure all of the points you wish to make are included in the piece, it's important to outline what you want to cover before you begin writing.

Start by writing out an exhaustive list of all the points you want to make sure to cover. This can be done either on paper or my new favorite way: to use Mind Meister and move points around in the outline.

All of your main points will become the subheading or talking points within the content.

You need an outline to stay on track while creating content, whether it's for a blog post or a podcast. Otherwise, you’ll find yourself chasing squirrels. Or maybe that’s just me. 🤷‍♀️

In other words, it will help your reader decide if they want to read your blog post or move on with their day. If you've ever scrolled to the bottom or scanned the headlines on a page looking for the one that captured your attention, you know what I mean.

Once you have a clear outline, begin filling each section with all the knowledge you’d like to share.  Now, this is important: Write in an active voice and use natural language processing (NLP) to aid in your SEO and Readability score. Yoast has a real-time content analysis tool; check it out here: https://yoast.com/research/real-time-content-analysis/

You might be wondering what the heck NLP is, but it helps you improve search engine optimization (SEO), which increases organic traffic to your website or blog post.

After writing all of your content pieces, it is time to edit and proofread them before publishing. You can do this easily by using a screen reader to have it read to you. I do this, and my husband does this with everything he writes.

Check for typos or grammar mistakes that may have been overlooked during the initial creation stages. That’s why Grammarly has been one of my favorite tools I use in my business since it was founded in 2016.

Additionally, take some time looking over each sentence, making sure there isn't any unnecessary fluff added anywhere. I’m guessing you’ve noticed that while I try for simple, clear, concise, yet informative sentences, I tend to over-explain. One other point about sentences: the length should be under 20 words to help with your readability score.

 

Optimizing for search engines can help increase visibility to potential clients, which is essential for maximizing profits. By strategically incorporating keywords, utilizing internal and external links, and optimizing images with alt text and videos for SEO purposes, you will be able to maximize the effectiveness of your content workflow.

Step Four: Publishing and Promoting Your Content

If you want your organic content to be seen, you'll need a workflow in place to enable you to share it consistently.

Do you know the go-to platforms for your ideal client? Do they sit and binge-watch YouTube videos? Or do they always have a podcast playing while they are running the kiddos around from activity to activity?

You’ll want your go-to platform to be the place where your ideal client goes to consume information or content.

To prevent content creation burnout, consider one main platform, such as a podcast or YouTube, that can be repurposed into an SEO-optimized blog post for discoverability. 

Send an email to your list the day your content goes live to encourage them to visit your corresponding blog post, which contains links to either the podcast or YouTube. Experience with different forms of content to your list to see what receives the best open and click-through rates.

Pick one social media platform to promote your content. What will be your social platform of choice?

Again, this must be the one that your ideal client hangs out on. I’m sure you already know, but these are social media sites like Pinterest, Facebook, X, Threads, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

Utilize social media platforms to advertise your content by leveraging their influence and reach. Take advantage of what the social media algorithm is promoting at the moment, which is probably some sort of short-form video.

Each platform has different organic promotion techniques; ensure you’re using the right one.

Post engaging articles with links back directly to new content so readers can easily access it without having to search online too much. Adding a QR Code to your image that users can scan is a simple way to do this.

For all my fellow Pinterest users out there, make sure you use keywords in your headline and pin description to help optimize your visibility and reach more people with your message.

By leveraging your primary platform and repurposing this content to social media, you can effectively organize your content workflow to maximize profits.

Step Five: Analyzing Results and Refining Workflow Processes

An essential aspect of improving workflow processes is analyzing the performance metrics of published content. All too often, this is a piece that is overlooked.

By keeping track of metrics such as views, clicks, and user interaction, we can identify improvement areas. By studying these analytics, small online business owners can adjust their strategies accordingly to optimize their workflow for maximum efficiency.

When tracking performance metrics, it’s important to consider all aspects of a successful content marketing campaign—from creating high-quality content that resonates with ideal clients to managing social media posts and email marketing efficiently.

Tracking your metrics will give you a road map on what content to expand upon when creating your next content calendar.

Efficiently organize your content workflow to maximize profits by scheduling time to look at your results. Once you have this valuable information, invest time into updating your workflow processes for easy content creation—from idea generation to post-production.

Ask yourself: “What can I do to improve the efficiency of my workflow?”

What is working? What is not working? Is anything in the workflow causing a bottleneck?

After you’ve gone through the workflow, look at all the tasks you have to finish. After that, figure out which can be automated to make your workflow more efficient. Automating certain processes can save time and effort in the long run. 

Additionally, break down large projects into small tasks and prioritize them according to importance. This will help you focus on completing the most important tasks first while delegating or outsourcing less essential tasks as needed. 

Finally, take advantage of tools such as project management software to streamline communication between team members and ensure due dates are met efficiently.

What is the key purpose of organizing workflow?

The key purpose of organizing workflow is to ensure that tasks are completed efficiently and effectively. An organized process can lead to better utilization of resources, greater teamwork among remote team members, and smoother communication through the implementation of a system of steps. 

Organizing workflow can help reduce mistakes by making clear the tasks that need to be accomplished and how they should be done. Record yourself as the task is done and save it in our workflow template.

Ultimately, an organized workflow can lead to increased productivity and success for any small business owner.

What is content workflow management?

Content workflow management is the process of planning, organizing, and optimizing content creation. Identifying the necessary content, its creator, and how it should be distributed are all part of content workflow management. 

Content workflow management also includes tracking progress against goals and measuring performance over time to ensure that objectives are being met efficiently. By managing workflows for content creation, businesses can streamline their processes and improve overall productivity.

It’s Time To Wrap This Up

By efficiently organizing your content workflow, you can maximize profits and ensure that all of your time and energy are put to good use. Creating a system for brainstorming ideas, creating content, optimizing it for search engines, publishing and promoting the work, and analyzing results will help streamline the process while ensuring quality output. 

Friend, having an organized approach helps in staying focused on what matters most – producing valuable information that resonates with readers and drives conversions.

Take control of your content workflow and maximize profits by creating simple, efficient workflows. Implement the right strategies to ensure success in managing your content creation process.

Thank you for reading, I appreciate you and I hope you have a wonderful week!

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