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Ask HN: How do you keep track of your ideas?

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Re: Ask HN: How do you keep track of your ideas?

#51

Post by mkuhn »

I love GTD for all thing I need to get done but ideas IMHO don't really fit that "mantra".

I keep track of my ideas in a Moleskine Notebook. They are available in many formats and are able to whitstand almost anything. What I love about having a small "book" of ideas is that I can take them anywhere, scrible and brainstorm around my ideas etc. All this is possible without being restricted by a given format. Its also very easy to browse through ideas if you store them this way and I found it very easy to find ideas again once you remember you had some solution or approach to something.

If I by chance don't have my Moleskine with me I email myself the idea and as soon as I get home or start emptying my mailbox the idea gets transfered into the notebook.

Re: Ask HN: How do you keep track of your ideas?

#53

Post by trustfundbaby »

run4yourlives wrote: post #3

I don't, and neither should you. :-) If an idea is worth pursuing, it reoccurs in several ways. For instance, with my current project I can have a casual conversation with someone around a pain point and instantly see how my idea could help. Many of my ideas seem brilliant when I first have them, but then fizzle the more I think about them. Even if they are wonderful and viable, your motivation to build them out is a…

The faintest ink is better than the best memory --- Chinese saying (allegedly)

Re: Ask HN: How do you keep track of your ideas?

#55

Post by trustfundbaby »

simonsez wrote: post #34
kgosser wrote: post #33

Evernote.

I'm curious how you use Evernote to keep it effective. I use Evernote as well to keep track of ideas, but I find as I start to fill out the ideas with research and notes the "parent" section - the list of ideas - becomes overwhelmed. I ended up moving to a Google Apps Spreadsheet for a list of ideas, and then fill out info on each idea in Evernote, but would love to hear about better methods...

I use a bulleted list first, add sub bullets as ideas come, and when I'm ready to work on it, I make it into a full blown note with all my details in it.

Re: Ask HN: How do you keep track of your ideas?

#57

Post by JeremyHerrman »

I'm one of the few active users of Google Wave. I'm all about the tracking of history so I can see how an idea evolved. I used to use local text files, but I didn't like that they weren't available on the web and could easily be buried on my desktop/documents folder. Wave also has rich formatting and supports inline attachments. One caveat - you can't really export out of wave easily.

Re: Ask HN: How do you keep track of your ideas?

#60

Post by bpourriahi »

run4yourlives wrote: post #3

I don't, and neither should you. :-) If an idea is worth pursuing, it reoccurs in several ways. For instance, with my current project I can have a casual conversation with someone around a pain point and instantly see how my idea could help. Many of my ideas seem brilliant when I first have them, but then fizzle the more I think about them. Even if they are wonderful and viable, your motivation to build them out is a…

I agree with the complete opposite of this.
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