If you’re a creative person, then I’m sure you’ve experienced the burden of Too Many Ideas. It’s a good problem to have, really. It’s at least a lot better than having not enough ideas. But if you can’t act on all of those ideas at once or you can’t decide which ones to take on, it can be a little overwhelming.

But fear not! I’ve been there more than once. And while you can’t necessarily take on all those ideas right away (and some of them might not turn out to be all that great, if we’re being honest), you can figure out a way to manage. Here are some ways you can organize your thoughts and figure out what to take on when you have too many ideas.

What to do when you have too many ideas

Write them down

This is the most basic of all the basic tips. But it still needs to be said, because it is also the most important. I don’t know about you, but when I have so many things floating around in my head, it gets overwhelming. But if I write them down, I can look at them in front of me and see everything a little more clearly. It relieves that fear that I’ll forget about something, and allows me to add notes/thoughts when I think of them. I personally like plain paper+pen, but if you have some more techy-2016 system for taking notes, that’s cool too.

Prioritize what’s important

Once you’ve written your ideas down, ask yourself which of them are the most important to you. This might take some tough thought. But I recommend prioritizing them by number, or even just putting a star next to the ones that you’re most drawn to or the ones that you think could have the biggest positive impact on your business/project.

Prioritize what’s urgent

But you also need to ask yourself if there are time restrictions on any of your ideas. You could have one idea that’s really important to you personally, but that you can take on pretty much whenever, and another idea that’s maybe a little less important but is something that you can only do right now. If you take on the smaller item first, you can hone that other idea over time and make it something really awesome. Plus, you won’t miss out on your chance to act on that other idea!

Consider the viability

Let’s face it – some ideas just sound better in our heads. Then when we get down to actually making them happen, it’s like “how?” So when you’re prioritizing your ideas, you also need to consider whether or not you have an idea for how you can actually make each idea happen. If you have no idea how you could make an idea work, it’s probably not something you should prioritize over the other, more viable ideas. You can still keep it around, but just give yourself some time to really think on it and make it into something that can actually happen.

Go back to your goals

If you’re having a hard time prioritizing, it can also be a good idea to go back to the original goals you set for your business/project at the beginning. Sometimes, we can get way too distracted by shiny new ideas that sound cool that we don’t realize how those ideas are taking us further away from the original goals we set. So getting back to basics can help us figure out what’s actually important.

Make an inspiration board

I’m just a big fan of inspiration boards all around. When you are having a hard time focusing on something, I think it can be a big help to look at it from sort of an abstract angle. So you can create a collage or even make some artwork that you think reflects what you’d like to accomplish with your ideas. Then take a step back and see if that brings you any clarity on the subject. It might not be some magical solution right away, but it might help you look at things in a different way.

Journal

And if you’re more of a words person than a visuals person, I think that a journal can sort of accomplish that same thing. Do some journaling just about your thoughts and your goals, not even specifically related to choosing between ideas. Pros and cons lists can be great. But you can also just write about your feelings regarding your ideas and the trajectory of your business/project.

Table your other ideas

I’m a big fan of just going after one big idea at a time. But that doesn’t mean that you can never go for all those other ideas that you have. If they aren’t time sensitive, you can still keep those ideas in mind or in your plan for down the road. Just keep a running list and employ all of your ideas when they tend to make the most sense!

P.S. if you need help organizing your goals, you can get a free goal planning worksheet by signing up here! Do you have any other tips you’d like to add to the list?