I’m going to show you a tool that will save you from ever losing another great idea. But more importantly, at the end of this article, I’m going to tell you why it’s so genius to be able to use it.
How many times have you heard or read something and thought, “That’s good; I’ll have to remember that.”
Unfortunately, when most people encounter those ideas, they don’t stick, and they disappear like smoke in the wind.
This matters a lot because we come across so many great ideas that could help get higher grades, succeed in a job interview or get promoted faster.
We’re going to fix that today.
Full credit where it’s due. My version of this is derived from a commonplace book which I learned about from authors Ryan Holiday (The Obstacle Is The Way, among others) and Robert Greene (Mastery, among many other great books).
They use it to capture ideas for the books they write.
Since I’m not writing a book I needed something more lightweight and easier to implement.
But I’m getting ahead of myself…
Today, I’m going to share with you how the electronic offspring of an old-school swipe file from marketing and a commonplace book (which I’d never heard of before) can help you never lose great ideas again. For simplicity’s sake, we’re going to call it a swipe file, but it’s so much more.
So, let’s get to it!
I’m going to break down
• What people do now
• What is this swipe file I’m describing
• How to make one and
• Why it’s useful/how to use it
Wow, That Was A Great Idea
We’ve all done it. We’ve listened to an audiobook or read something somewhere and said, “Wow, that was really interesting. I’ve got to make sure to remember that.”
I think you know what usually happens next. We keep reading or move on to the next thing, and <poof> the idea is gone.
If you’re listening to an audiobook in the car or while out for a jog, it’s easy to see how you might not be able to capture the ideas you come across.
Those are tougher circumstances.
We should be able to solve it, however, if we’re reading a book or e-book, and that’s what I’m going to focus on.
Small Mind Shift – Mark It Up
It does require a bit of a mind shift.
Let’s start with what you’re most likely doing today when you read books, Twitter, blogs or even textbooks. Do you have a pen or digital analog ready to annotate the text and capture great ideas?
Most people don’t.
In fact, I bet the overwhelming majority of people don’t, and they miss out on the benefits of retaining and having access to those great ideas.
I’ll get into it shortly, but you’ll want to get comfortable with marking up the books you’re reading, but not quite in the same way you did in high school.
What Is This Electronic Offspring That I’m Describing?
We’re calling it a swipe file, for simplicity’s sake, but it’s so much more.
First, a commonplace book was originally a scrapbook of sorts with quotes, notes and ideas that authors kept – it can be traced back hundreds of years.
Robert Greene and Ryan Holiday use index cards (see video) to capture ideas they read and organize them in a way that is accessible while they write their books.
A traditional swipe file is a physical folder where Madison Avenue creative types who write advertising copy keep a scrapbook of great ad content or copy that they’ve encountered.
They would literally tear pages out of magazines when they came across something with great copy, imagery, or color palette.
Then, they’d put that in a physical folder, their swipe file.
When the Mad Men were working on a new project they’d pull out their swipe file and look to it for inspiration. This might be colour palettes, the cadence of the ad copy, or even taking an idea used in one industry and applying that framework in another.
For our purposes, I’m describing something similar, but instead of physical ad copy ripped from a magazine, I’m talking about an electronic file that has insights, ideas and quotes from what you read in books, social media and elsewhere.
As you know, I am a huge fan of the app Notion and this is where I keep my swipe file.
How To Make A Swipe File
This has two parts: the annotation/identification of the information and the capture/organization of it.
Annotation/identification
The simplest way to do this is, when you’re reading a book, annotate it in whatever way signals to you that you need to add the idea to your swipe file.
I typically read the book and mark it up for my swipe file (and other annotations). Once I finish the book, I put it aside, come back to it in a few weeks, and capture what I’d like to add to my swipe file.
So what to add to the swipe file?
I like to add
• Interesting ideas that help me understand something better
• Quotes that I could see myself using in written work, in a presentation or in an interview
• Anecdotes that I find interesting – in this instance, it was how Steve Case recognized the importance of network effect and used free samples to get many more people online and build a critical mass of users in the early days of AOL.
Capture/Organization
As I mentioned, I’ll put the book aside for a couple of weeks, let it simmer in my subconscious and then come back to it and capture the content for my swipe file.
Let me start by saying I’m not perfect at doing this.
It’s a journey to keep being more diligent. I have a demanding job, a family and a busy life. I don’t say this as an excuse but rather to highlight that while perfection is the goal, it’s not required.
This works really well if you only do it periodically, but the more you remember to do it, the more useful it will be.
The bottom line is, don’t beat yourself up if you’re not perfect. Just get back on the horse. Okay, the public service announcement is done now. Let’s carry on.
The way I organize it in Notion is pretty simple. I created a table with 5 columns.
• Swipe content – the content I was trying to keep
• Category – what type of content is this? Inspirational, a quote, learning-related, a writing prompt, etc. I have somewhere near 20 of these, but that’s a bit much, so I’d recommend starting with 5-10
• Source – author or place where I came across the info
• Source URL
• Date added – after using it, I haven’t found this column that useful, but I’ve only been doing this for a couple of years, so it may become more valuable later on
You can add more columns if you’d like. I’ve experimented with additional columns but never found it worth the extra friction.
💡Why It’s Genius and How to Use It
There are a few top-tier ways to use a swipe file, but the only limit is your imagination.
Writing
Your swipe file, especially when you sort by category, can be really helpful for finding interesting ideas you’ve read that you can incorporate into your essays. I came up with the examples below, just by scanning my swipe file.
The reason this is valuable is that 1) you come across as well-read and knowledgeable, and this builds your credibility, and 2) it provides a secondary story that provides a sort of social proof for your argument – you’re drawing on their credibility.
Example 1.
You could incorporate a quote from Churchill’s “We will fight on the beaches” speech in a paper about an inspiring business leader who turned their company around.
Example 2.
Abraham Lincoln once asked an audience how many legs a dog has if you call the tail a leg. When they answered “five,” Lincoln told them that the answer was four. The fact that you called the tail a leg did not make it a leg. You could take this story and incorporate it into a paper about how “fake news” can drive clicks in the modern online media environment.
Public Speaking
In public speaking your credibility is enhanced by being able to pull quotes out of your hat that are salient to the topic you’re discussing. It will appear that you have a quote or reference for everything.
But notice that the Lincoln example could be used for many different speeches. This is an important tactic. Have a couple of general-purpose quotes ready to deploy as necessary, but when you can prep, try and grab something from your swipe file.
Example 3.
US President John Kennedy said, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.”
This single quote can be applied to all sorts of places and ways.
You could use this quote in an impromptu going-away speech for a colleague who has been especially dedicated to their team.
It could also be part of a speech on unselfish business leaders, the importance of servant leadership, or many other topics.
Example 4.
There’s an apocryphal story about a young boy who asks his Mom why they cut the end off of roasts before putting them in the oven. She says it’s because her mom used to do that. So they go talk to her mom, who says that’s how Grandma used to do it. Finally, they connect with Grandma, who explains that her oven was too small to fit the roast, so she had to cut the ends off. This family tradition was simply because “that’s the way it’s always been done.”
I’m sure you can see the breadth of ways you could use this type of story in a speech.
Marketing classes
Sometimes you need some inspiration, some idea for a speech or paper or whatever.
A swipe file can get your brain moving in that direction and get the creative juices flowing. This applies in lots of places, but especially in marketing and sales.
Example 5.
Nora Ephron (When Harry Met Sally) had this story from high school journalism (video). The teacher asked the students to write the lead to the story with the following information.
Next Thursday the entire high school faculty will attend a seminar on the future of education with blah, blah presenting covering the following topics…blah blah. Students pounded away at their typewriters, getting in all the relevant info.
The teacher then said they were all wrong. The lead was “No school next Thursday.” Don’t just regurgitate facts; get to the essence of the story.
Maybe you don’t use this story in your marketing campaign, but it’s certainly a good reminder that Steven Covey (7 Habits of Highly Effective People) was right when he said that “the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.“
Stories are critical to highlighting lessons to your audience without using a heavy hand. They lend credibility and help you get your message across. Most people don’t do this in class so you’ll have a huge advantage.
Interviews
You can pull quotes or ideas to use in interviews. If you do it right, this will make you distinctive and interesting.
Example 6.
Hospital janitors who viewed their jobs as a calling and that their work would help keep patients safer and healthier were much more fulfilled and were generally happier compared to others who simply viewed it as a job.
You can incorporate this into an interview for an entry-level job as a way of saying you don’t mind starting at the bottom or for a demanding job as a way of saying it’s easier to do the hard work when you see it as your calling.
Example 7.
This one is finance-specific, but Howard Marks (Founder of Oaktree) said, “Capitalism without bankruptcy is a little like Catholicism without hell.” There are plenty of ways you could use this in an interview, and it’s useful because it’s both true and a little funny.
Example 8.
Again finance specific, you can help people understand your investment style by using Buffett’s phrase “I’d rather pay a fair price for a great business than a cheap price for a lousy business.” This is an effective way to describe your investment style (if that’s your investment style) or it being the opposite of your investment style.
All of these examples serve the dual benefit of illustrating a point but also making you look smart and well-read.
Let me add one last thing. The value of a swipe file compounds over time. There’s no question that my swipe file has become more and more useful for me as time passes and as I continue to add to it.
I’d really encourage you to build one and try it yourself.
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