Capturing Lightning in a Bottle with AI

When Brilliant Ideas Strike at 3 AM

Author

Janet Fitzpatrick-Wilks
January 05, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes

Capturing Lightning with AI (MidJourney)

It's 3:27 AM, and I'm wide awake. Again. In that ‘small, wee hour’ somewhere between "why am I still awake" and "oh no, is that birds chirping?"

This has been the story of my life. My ADHD brain, apparently deciding 3:27 AM was the perfect time for genius, would hit me with The Most Amazing Idea Ever™. You know the one I mean - that breakthrough solution that would revolutionize everything about my current project. Or wait... was it the perfect plot twist for that novel I've been meaning to write? Or maybe I’d finally cracked that strapline I’d been noodling with for days?

In the past, I’d do what many of us neuro-spicy thinkers do - squint at my bedside table through blurry night vision, fumble for my glasses (where ARE my glasses?), while promising myself "I'll definitely remember this in the morning." Right. Because that's worked so well all the other times.

Let me introduce my bedside table collection of good intentions:

  • Three different notebooks (each with just a few used pages, naturally)

  • My phone (screen brightness set to "retina searing")

  • Those glasses (found them under the notebook I wasn't using)

  • A pen that definitely worked yesterday

  • Bits of paper, receipts, and even kitchen paper complete with annotations

It wasn't until I discovered AI tools that I realized there might be a better way - one that works with our nighttime brain instead of against it.

The solution below may be super simple, but aren’t those usually the best?

Your AI-Powered Fix

Smart speakers and AI assistants solve the 3 AM capture problem beautifully: just whisper and sleep. That's it.

Traditional nighttime capture methods all share the same fatal flaw: they expect you to be awake and functioning. But at 3 AM, you're not. Here's why an AI-powered fix is different:

Zero Movement Required

Just your voice in the darkness. There is no need to sit up or reach for anything, no bright screens or writing tools.

Zero Organization Needed

No categorizing or filing, and no trying to be coherent as AI handles the hard parts later

Zero Sleep Lost

No fully waking up or exposure to sleep-disrupting light. Back to sleep in seconds

Easy Set Up

AI Toolkit

Find Your Flow

Here's the thing about those 3 AM ideas - they're not just random sparks in the dark. They're your mind finally having the space to connect dots it can't see in the daylight. That project roadblock? Your brain's been quietly solving it. That client presentation? The perfect angle hits when you're not looking for it. Once you start catching these moments, something magical happens: patterns emerge, solutions connect, and those seemingly scattered thoughts reveal themselves as pieces of a larger puzzle.

Quick Wins

Meet Jackson Barn Cat a.k.a. JBC, office manager, resident AI-whisperer, and all-around curious cat. Each week he’ll nose bop a new challenge 😺

Try the Three-Night Test:

😴 Night One: Set up your device and test whisper mode

🛌 Night Two: Capture one “midnight” thought

🌙 Night Three: Capture everything that comes to mind - let those ideas flow!

Share your favorite captured insight in the comments of the poll below - we'd love to hear your midnight brilliance!

❝

"Using AI as my midnight thought partner has been revolutionary. Instead of lying awake trying to remember every detail, I just mumble into my phone and let tomorrow-me (with AI's help) figure it out."

Sarah K

Next Week

Next week we'll explore how AI can help transform your captured midnight inspirations into structured, actionable ideas. Now that you're catching those brilliant moments, let's make them shine.

The Last Word

Sleep well, knowing your 3 AM brilliance is safe. For once, "I'll remember it in the morning" can actually be true.