Ask HN: How do you keep track of your creative thoughts? • Hacker News Board

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

#71

Post by donatzsky » Sun, Jan 06, 2019, 12:26 PM UTC

I use Trello.

I have a board called Ideas for collecting. Usually I just put the thought in the card title.

From there more details can be added in the description, and eventually the card can be moved into its own list or board for further expansion.

Since I'm on Android, I have the Add Card shortcut on my home screen, which means there's very little friction to adding new ideas.

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

#72

Post by oneeyedpigeon » Sun, Jan 06, 2019, 12:31 PM UTC

Simple text files, in markdown format. Currently working on a few little tools to manage them, including a simple web-based editor. That will let me take notes on Mac, iPad, Android phone, etc.

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

#73

Post by czam » Sun, Jan 06, 2019, 12:33 PM UTC

Index cards, often i want to do a small sketch so pen and paper are best. Make sure to put a date on the cards.

For rewiewing they can be easily clustered and amended.

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

#74

Post by Martindm » Sun, Jan 06, 2019, 12:33 PM UTC

Nobody else mentioned it which really surprises me but I use Google Keep.

Allows you to organise cards, colour code then, pin them and share them across devices.

Anyone else use this? I find it's simple and restricted UI reduces distraction; just you and the idea.

Also good for check lists, links and reminders.

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

#75

Post by vfinn » Sun, Jan 06, 2019, 12:33 PM UTC

I have simply a folder that contains 10+ text files, mostly containing numbered lists: 01_calendar; 02_TODO (just a stack of things I want to do); 03_questions (e.g.: "What substances emit sound when heated?"); 04_ideas (entrepreneurship, organization -- this is helpful because for one thing you start to see the pattern in your ideas -- what you value etc.); 05_opinions&thoughts; 06_self&improvement (my habits are like this and that, I could improve them like this); 07_read&watch&experience (list of interesting people, movies etc.); 08_my_history (contains critical events that have happened to me, it's really useful to see them all at once for self-reflection); 09_principles_I_follow; 10_humor (humorous ideas that I collect in order to create a stand-up routine someday)

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

#76

Post by JohnStrangeII » Sun, Jan 06, 2019, 12:35 PM UTC

Notebooks. Leuchtturm 1917 with enumerated pages and table of contents, more specifically.

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

#77

Post by ceidsness » Sun, Jan 06, 2019, 12:36 PM UTC

Martindm wrote: post #74

Nobody else mentioned it which really surprises me but I use Google Keep. Allows you to organise cards, colour code then, pin them and share them across devices. Anyone else use this? I find it's simple and restricted UI reduces distraction; just you and the idea. Also good for check lists, links and reminders.

You can also share Keep cards with other people's Gmail accounts.

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

#78

Post by d0mine » Sun, Jan 06, 2019, 12:37 PM UTC

MobileOrg for capturing notes on a phone. Syncing via Dropbox with Org mode files on other devices https://orgmode.org/

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

#79

Post by allworknoplay » Sun, Jan 06, 2019, 12:41 PM UTC

Vekz wrote: post #14

I email myself and capture in emacs org-mode. I have an email address that is bound to AWS SES. SES listens for incoming emails and writes them to an S3 bucket. I then have a lambda hook which listens for writes to this bucket and processes the email content. This usually means writing an emacs org-mode record on dropbox. Which is then added to my emacs agenda.

I just e-mail myself, make sure to include “idea” or “business idea” or “game idea” or whatever in the subject line, respond to the email chain if i want to iterate, and periodically go back through the search results of emails I’ve sent myself.

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

#80

Post by czechdeveloper » Sun, Jan 06, 2019, 12:49 PM UTC

alexcnwy wrote: post #3

Dynalist

I use Dynalist for everything these days - inbox, task, planning, notes, long-term storage of important information. So much, that I'm actually worried that I do not have full control over my data (I have backups at least, which is nice).