I have been learning about organizing for most of my life. My often cluttered room and notebooks full of random ideas growing up can attest to that!

Along the way, I have done all sorts of things to try to get better:

• Read The Bullet Journal Method

• Listened to the Learn Do Become podcast

• Tried every "novel writing" book I could get my hands on

• Etc.

And all of these things helped me a ton.

But if I had to start all over again (as a beginner), this is the simple framework I wish I had for learning how to organize my ideas and my mind:

Step 1: Start with a mind sweep

Having so many ideas rattling around in your head all at once can be overwhelming, especially when you're scared to lose them. Set aside 30-45 minutes with a notebook or computer and write down everything. Don't try to organize it, just get it all out of your head and onto the page.

Step 2: Group ideas by project

A mind sweep can bring up all kinds of things from a variety of different projects. Start sorting through the list by grouping similar ideas or topics together. If something applies to multiple projects, just write it down with any of them it belongs to.

Step 3: Spend some time with each project

Go through each project in your list of ideas one by one and begin expanding on each idea. If needed, set up a wiki or world bible to keep everything in one place and give yourself time and space to process until you can see if it works with the big picture of your project.

When you're first starting out, this is all that matters. There's more to organizing ideas, but this is a great first step.