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Ask HN: Solo devs, how do you plan your development?

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Re: Ask HN: Solo devs, how do you plan your development?

#71
One of reasons I did my Sciter Notes (https://notes.sciter.com) is to track ideas and progress (see checkmark list button). Idea definition frequently require hyperlinks, images, etc. so todo.txt is not enough in case of UI related stuff.

Also to track customers, their licenses and services.

Sciter Notes is storing data strictly on local drive and so the data is not shared with third parties.

Re: Ask HN: Solo devs, how do you plan your development?

#73

You can use email as a TODO stack. You take the top item of your inbox and react to it. You react by replying to it, archiving it, or by doing the task(s) described in it. To add a new item simply email it to yourself. Archived items are done. Inbox is the list of items you working trough. Send items is the things you are waiting for.

Perfect for those of us running our own email server :)

Re: Ask HN: Solo devs, how do you plan your development?

#74
I find GitHub "Projects" (https://help.github.com/en/github/managing-your-work-on-gith...) is the most flexible. It is basically boards of columns. Each card can be an issue, or a piece of markdown text. You can use the markdown as a note or as a list of tasks and subtasks.

I find GitHub project boards more fun to use than Trello boards, because you can just type and let your ideas flow.

Within GitHub project boards, you can also add cards from issues, or you can convert your markdown text cards to issues.

Re: Ask HN: Solo devs, how do you plan your development?

#75

I have a file called todo.txt, with the current tasks at the top, and everything else below that. It is in version control. As I finish stuff, I delete it out of the file. I add new stuff towards the top if I want to do it soon, towards the bottom if I want to save it for later. For things which are just ideas, I have a second file called brainstorm.txt.

I’ve been doing the same thing (todo.txt) for a while, surprised to learn it’s not just me. I like separating out brainstorm.txt, that would help keep it focused.

Re: Ask HN: Solo devs, how do you plan your development?

#76
The main advantage of tools like this are that you can use them to communicate. When I don't have the need to do that, I don't use them. I try to use tools that will remember this sort of thing on their own.

I keep notes on ideas in a personal wiki (AwkiAwki), and I open up the recent changes page to remember what I was taking notes about. For anything past the planning or brainstorming stages, I just use `ls -t|sed 10q` on my directory full of editor session dumps. I always keep a scratch/memo buffer open in acme so there will be some brief notes, an outline of the behavior I planned to implement, or (more often) I can gather what was going on from which files were open and where the cursor is in those files. For non-code projects, there will at least be some text, so there will be a session dump.

Re: Ask HN: Solo devs, how do you plan your development?

#77
post #58

I have a file called todo.txt, with the current tasks at the top, and everything else below that. It is in version control. As I finish stuff, I delete it out of the file. I add new stuff towards the top if I want to do it soon, towards the bottom if I want to save it for later. For things which are just ideas, I have a second file called brainstorm.txt.

I use a todo.diff - so the text editor color codes my lines started with `+` and `-`

That's such a hack, I love it.

Re: Ask HN: Solo devs, how do you plan your development?

#79
post #55

I use Trello, then it gets messy, switch to Keep to start over, that gets confusing or messy, I have a txt file with my todos, that gets messy, I try a project management tool like Basecamp, doesn't do the trick, start over fresh on Trello, that gets messy.... I think you see where I'm going with this.

I actually settled on 2 text markdown files. One for short term and one for long term tasks and notes. I usually have a list pending tasks and a list of done tasks in each file somewhere (usually at the top). Sometimes I include some very detailed notes in there too, giving each one it's own h2 title (##) and new sections almost always get added to the top of the file rather than the bottom. I also never delete anything, but I have an '## Archive' section at the bottom where I'll periodically move stuff to. I'll also rearrange the sections sometimes to make them all hang together better.

It gets messy, but it's flexible, and when I run it through a markdown formatter it looks fairly nice.

Re: Ask HN: Solo devs, how do you plan your development?

#80

I have a file called todo.txt, with the current tasks at the top, and everything else below that. It is in version control. As I finish stuff, I delete it out of the file. I add new stuff towards the top if I want to do it soon, towards the bottom if I want to save it for later. For things which are just ideas, I have a second file called brainstorm.txt.

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