The Shower Capture System: Waterproof Notepads and Voice Memos for Sudden Genius

You know that moment when your brain turns into a TED Talk the second the water hits your scalp? Suddenly you’re outlining a book, solving your team’s roadmap, and inventing a new breakfast burrito format. Then you step out, towel off, and—poof—your billion-dollar idea evaporates like steam on a mirror. Classic.

This post is your anti-poof plan: a tiny, cheerful system for capturing shower thoughts in 60 seconds, turning them into real actions later, and never trusting your memory to be a hard drive again. I used to accept “I had a great idea in the shower” as a personality trait. Now I capture it, park it, and process it—without turning my bathroom into a stationery store or shorting out my phone.

Why the shower is idea city

Warm water + white noise + zero notifications equals a surprise visit from your default mode network (the brain’s background idea factory). When your hands are busy and your prefrontal cortex is not being chased by Slack, your mind connects dots you didn’t know were in the same room. It’s mental composting. It’s also hilariously fragile—one towel creak away from vanishing.

So we build a tiny capture rig right where those dots connect.

---

The gear: good, better, best (on a ramen budget)

You do not need a scuba diver’s office. One or two of these will do.

• Good: A waterproof notepad stuck on your tile and a pencil that won’t melt into tragedy.
• Better: A notepad plus a hands-free voice memo flow.
• Best: A notepad, a simple voice command that dumps to your notes app, and a post-shower triage habit.

A few tried-and-true picks:

• Waterproof notepad: Aqua Notes sticks right to tile and comes with a pencil that doesn’t turn to mush.
• Hooks: Any adhesive hook that won’t freak out in humidity works.
• Waterproof phone pouch (optional): Keep your phone outside the direct spray but usable for voice memos.

The capture: your two options inside the steam cloud

Option A: Write

• Jot key words, not essays. You’re making breadcrumb bullets, not memoirs.
• Use a two-symbol code to speed up later triage:
  • ⊕ = idea worth exploring
  • ✔ = actionable task
  • ? = question to research
  • ➤ = delegation candidate

Option B: Speak

• Create a voice command that appends a line to a note or a task to your inbox.
• iOS: A Shortcuts action called “Shower Capture” that “Dictates text” and “Appends to note: Shower Inbox” in Apple Notes or your notes app of choice.
• Android: Use Google Assistant Routines to “Take a note” in Google Keep or send to a designated “Shower Inbox” note.

If you want to nerd out, you can connect this to your broader notes system later. I use a simple three-tag setup from my own guide, Second Brain, Zero Jargon: A Simple Notes System You’ll Actually Use. Shower gems often become “do”, “know”, or “grow” notes.

---

The parking lot: one home for all shower thoughts

Now we make Post-Shower You a hero. The second you dry off (before doomscrolling), move your scribbles or voice transcript into one home:

• If you wrote: Take a quick photo of the page, rip it off, and toss it. Then transcribe the essentials into your “Shower Inbox” note. Alternatively, write directly into the mounted pad and transfer weekly.
• If you spoke: Your routine already appended to the “Shower Inbox” note. Nice.

Pro tip: This inbox is separate from your general task list. It’s a staging area, not a stress buffet.

The processing: tiny ritual, big payoff

During your daily planning or shutdown ritual, sweep the Shower Inbox:

• Tasks (✔): Push to today’s plan or your task manager inbox.
• Ideas (⊕): Promote the best to a dedicated note or backlog list; archive the rest.
• Questions (?): Add to a research list or park into your The One-Tab Challenge: Tame Your Browser Zoo in 7 Days system so they don’t become 47 tabs.
• Delegations (➤): Drop into a quick email or Slack draft; bonus: use a canned template from your playbook.

If you already use a quick morning ritual like The 5-Minute Forecast: A Quick Morning Planning Ritual or wind down with The Shutdown Routine: How 10 Minutes at 5 PM Saves My 9 AM Tomorrow, just add “Shower Inbox sweep” to your checklist. Thirty seconds, tops.

---

Set it up in 10 minutes (truly)

1. Stick the notepad within reach but out of direct spray.
2. Hang a pencil on a hook next to it.
3. Create your “Shower Inbox” note in your notes app.
4. Make the iOS Shortcut or Android Routine (optional but delightful).
5. Do a test run: write or dictate one idea.
6. Add “Sweep Shower Inbox” to your morning or evening ritual.

---

The tiny workflow that makes this stick

• Before shower: Nothing fancy. You are not preheating your brain oven.
• During shower: When a thought hits, write a 3-7 word bullet or say one short sentence. No tangents.
• After shower: Transfer or verify idea landed in “Shower Inbox”.
• Later: Sweep and convert into tasks, notes, or compost.

Time: 15 seconds in-shower and 30 seconds out. Almost suspiciously easy.

Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.

Abraham Lincoln (also: you, sharpening your capture system)

What to do with different kinds of shower ideas

• Lightning-bolt solutions: If it’s a task, schedule it today while you’re excited. If it’s a strategy, convert it into a one-paragraph note with a title that future-you will recognize.
• Naked ambition (new goals): Park them until your weekly planning ritual, then reality-check.
• Tiny annoyances: Great candidates for the The 2 PM Reset: A Five-Minute Ritual to Re-energize Your Afternoon.
• Creative snippets (hooks, subject lines, shower poetry): Make a catch-all “lines” note so they don’t clog your task list.
• “We should do this as a team”: Draft the nudge now and schedule-send for tomorrow morning. If you body-double, drop it into your next session agenda and leverage Body Doubling 101: What it is and why it works.

---

Bonus nerd section: voice-to-text that doesn’t mangle nouns

You can improve accuracy by:

• Enunciating like you’re leaving a voicemail for Past You. Slow down by 10%.
• Using punctuation words: “Comma”, “Period”, “New line”.
• Creating a custom keyword at the start like “Shower idea:” so it’s easy to filter later.
• Keeping the command short (under 10 seconds) so assistants don’t time out.

If your assistant insists on interpreting “kanban” as “can ban,” you might want a dedicated app for single-tap voice capture to a note. A few to explore:

Craft — Docs and Notes Editor craft.do

A premium writing experience that follows you across all your devices.

Todoist | A To-Do List to Organize Your Work & Life todoist.com

Trusted by 30 million people and teams. Todoist is the world's favorite task manager and to-do list app. Finally become focused, organized and calm.

Sign in - Google Accounts keep.google.com

I route everything to one searchable note, then promote to tasks when processing. Fewer inboxes, fewer “Where did you go, little thought?” moments.

Troubleshooting the slippery stuff

• I forget to write: Put the pad at eye level, not knee level. Bigger target, better habit.
• I write paragraphs: Limit yourself to one line per idea. If it’s still long, you owe it a voice memo instead.
• My handwriting looks like I wrote with a bar of soap: Try voice capture, or block print only keywords. Close enough is good enough.
• My pad falls off: Clean the tile with rubbing alcohol, then re-stick. Hot tip: Mount on glass if your tile is textured.
• My phone distracts me: Use Focus Modes while capturing, then leave it alone. Pair with Focus Sound Showdown: Testing Brown Noise, Lo-Fi Beats, and Nature Sounds for Productivity when you actually work the idea later.

---

The 7-day “Never Lose a Shower Thought” challenge

• Day 1: Install the notepad and make the voice command. Do one capture.
• Day 2: Add the 30-second “Shower Inbox sweep” to your evening Shutdown Routine.
• Day 3: Use the symbol code (⊕ ✔ ? ➤) and notice which shows up most.
• Day 4: Turn one idea into a scheduled task for tomorrow.
• Day 5: Turn one idea into a 20-minute Power Hour-style sprint.
• Day 6: Archive two ideas you don’t need anymore. Trust the compost.
• Day 7: Share your win (or your funniest transcription fail) with us on Instagram and tag @mysimple.life.official. We will applaud wildly.

Make it part of your bigger productivity puzzle

This tiny workflow plugs right into your broader routines:

• Idea becomes an MIT for the day via The Rule of 3: Put Your Daily To-Do List on a Diet.
• Idea becomes a note in your second brain with Second Brain, Zero Jargon: A Simple Notes System You’ll Actually Use.
• Idea becomes a sprint during your Mastering the Power Hour for Ultimate Productivity window.
• Idea becomes a message you schedule after your Shutdown Routine.

It’s funny: the magic isn’t the waterproof paper or the shortcut. It’s the moment you decide your brain is allowed to be a brain and your system will catch it. The shower becomes a low-key incubator, not a creativity graveyard.

---

A tiny shopping list you can screenshot

• Waterproof notepad + pencil
• Adhesive hook for pencil
• Optional waterproof phone pouch

If you snag anything from the above, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. It funds our coffee-fueled experiments—like convincing me to test brown noise while shower scribbling. For science.

Your move

Try the system for one week. Capture one idea per shower, park it, and sweep once a day. Then tell me: Did you ship something cool? Did you finally name your newsletter? Did your transcription convert “kanban” to “can of beans”? Either way, it’s a win.

And if your shower thoughts are now a torrent, remember you can set boundaries on when to process them. You don’t need more water—you need a cup to catch it. This is that cup.

If you want more tiny systems that save big energy, peek at:

• The 30-Minute Sunday Reset: A Quick, No-Drama Weekly Planning Ritual
• Contextual To-Do Lists: Plan by Energy, Location, and People

And if you try this, tag us on Instagram so we can cheer you on:

Now go forth and waterproof your brainpower.