I use pen and paper, it gets messy, then I pull out the paper and re-write the list on a new paper. Then I try and do the things written, but often start doing all kinds of new things that are not written, and only when I think of something that seems "cool" do I write it down to not forget.
Ask HN: Solo devs, how do you plan your development?
111–120 of 190 posts
Re: Ask HN: Solo devs, how do you plan your development?
#112I use pen and paper, it gets messy, then I pull out the paper and re-write the list on a new paper. Then I try and do the things written, but often start doing all kinds of new things that are not written, and only when I think of something that seems "cool" do I write it down to not forget.
Ironically I started doing it when I was working at a bank where online tools were forbidden and the programming environment sucked but it stuck with me even after.
Re: Ask HN: Solo devs, how do you plan your development?
#113Re: Ask HN: Solo devs, how do you plan your development?
#114Re: Ask HN: Solo devs, how do you plan your development?
#115I use github projects with a Research/Maybe, Todo, In Progress, Testing, and Done columns. Each item has a checklist of steps needed to complete the item. For example, I might have an item that is "Workers have an inventory" and a bunch of steps to do that "Add an inventory component, add a take item event, etc." that are markdown checkboxes. This lets me do some 'design' via listing out all the classes/touchpoints,…
I took this from uncle Bob, you just give things a rating (unitless). "Oh, that's a 6, no less!", "oh that's a 2 at most". It's enough for development (I find it's only management that wants more 'reporting' and 'estimates', being solo I do that in medias res, i.e. on the spot).
However you got me curious with github projects. It seems it would integrate better for programming / design. I definitely have to experiment! Any tips to boot?
Re: Ask HN: Solo devs, how do you plan your development?
#116I 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 also use a text file to keep a daily development note, like a blog post but keep it in the project’s root just for me to see what’s I’ve done and what I’m planning to do in the next day.
Re: Ask HN: Solo devs, how do you plan your development?
#117I'm a big believer of keeping old text around too, so I don't delete things after I finish them because that added context for later usually helps a lot.
I use this to actively juggle 5-6 freelance gigs and a bunch of personal projects. I find it really easy to jump into any of those projects and get up to speed quickly.
In general I keep "busy work" to a minimum. Often times I would rather get into the code and even add pseudo code comments or TODOs instead of kanban boards and other things.
For project planning (pre-single line of code) I just brain dump stuff into a text file and go from there. I once live recorded myself doing this for a project a while back at https://nickjanetakis.com/blog/live-demo-of-planning-a-real-....
I also like that my notes file is local instead of an external service. It lets me jump between that and my code very quickly since I can use my code editor to interact with it.
Re: Ask HN: Solo devs, how do you plan your development?
#118Re: Ask HN: Solo devs, how do you plan your development?
#119I 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 `-`