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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?

#11

Post by run4yourlives »

kaens wrote: post #6
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 that many ideas seem silly after they've sat for a bit, but I disagree that you shouldn't keep track of your ideas. I get a lot of ideas. I keep track of them. If they fizzle, I remove them from the list. I simply don't always have the time to jump on implementation of the ones I consider "good" when I have the idea. Also, keeping track of them means that I'll basically never have a point where I'm going "hmm…

I simply don't always have the time to jump on implementation of the ones I consider "good" when I have the idea.

An idea you can't execute is worth about as much to you as no idea at all. The concept of an idea being so timeless that it will be both relevant and somehow forgotten in the future if not recorded is not one I accept.

Either your idea is so great that you'll a)make time for it or b) remember it in the future, or it probably isn't as wonderful as you initially thought after all.

hmmm nothing to do, wish I had an idea!

A person who generates so many ideas that he's considering recording them won't find themselves in this position: You'll always have more ideas than time to implement them, so don't sweat it.

Not recording ideas is both a way of validating them and focusing your mind on implementation. "Idea people" like us can easily lose ourselves in the mental masturbation that is the generation of "ideas". The last thing we should be doing is encouraging staying in that stage longer than we have to.

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

#13

Post by byoung2 »

klous wrote: post #12

Google Docs spreadsheet, with the following column headers: Idea/Elevator Pitch, Value Proposition, Target Market, Unique Selling Proposition, Revenue Model, Exit Strategy, Barriers To Entry, Competitors, Startup Costs

You're not afraid that Google will steal your ideas? ;-)

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

#14

Post by cpr »

I have a 20-year-old, 37K-line todo.txt file (edited in Emacs) of all ideas I've ever had over those two decades, plus notes & some contact info. (And most of the actual to-do items are deleted when I finish them, so it's actually contained a lot more info over the that time.)

I've tried a lot of other schemes, but this still seems like the best method for collecting and organizing my thoughts.

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

#15

Post by Random_Person »

I keep a smallish (3x5"?) leather-bound mead journal (the ones with graph paper) in my cargo pants and a Pilot G-2 gel pencil in my left pocket. Everything goes in said journal. Ideas, information, sketches, IP information of the schools I work in...

It's batteries never run down.

It's memory never becomes corrupt.

I don't have to transfer the information when I perform a system upgrade.

I have access to it while in remote locations (hunting/fishing/hiking-- I have a lot of ideas in the middle of nowhere.)

It has a .5 second boot time and auto-loads notepad.

I'm very rarely without my cargo pants/shorts.

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

#17

Post by GBKS »

Any text editor will do, main thing is that it's super quick to write things down. GTD-stuff is overkill for me.

I found that keeping a list of ideas will clear my head to be open for new ideas. Otherwise my brain will use a lot of memory/CPU to keep the old ideas around.

Second thing I found useful is to expand on ideas when I have some time. I simply take one and write a whole document on it, detailing design, features, purpose, value, target market etc - anything I can think of. I keep revising those randomly. The good ideas stick and turn into documented project plans over time.

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

#19

Post by kmort »

Each idea is noted, some evolve into a long text file. The ones I really start to flesh-out get their own folder, and their multiple text files get C-tagged together with my own Vim format and tag system.

But I do want much more. Some of these notes become to-do items, reference items, fantasy user doc or rantings to myself. As they grow, they become different things.

I would love an "actionable" tag system. That is, an editor (web/wiki-based, I don't mind) that for each article I can drop certain smart tags onto. Drop a labelled Milestone tag on it and it becomes a to-do item. Drop a Due Date onto it as well, or perhaps a Dependency tag linked to another article and there's a mini-project manager.

If I don't feel as "projecty" right now with this set of notes I might just drop some regular tags on it. "OpenGL" or "Django" and now I'm collating notes across projects. A Parent/Child tag, just to give some articles some structure, if I want.

I've tried a lot of to-do apps and note-taking apps, but none of them quite seem to match how my brain just loves to note stuff down, but only organise how and when I want to. I've got a reasonably refined list of about a dozen such smart tags that I think would suit me well. sigh Just got to find some time...

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