

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

I've never found a solution that I like for tracking and then later revisiting ideas.  I have Google Docs, spreadsheets, folders, and scraps of paper.  Are there web apps for idea tracking that you guys trust, and that hopefully allow both public and private ideas?  I'm also starting a Twitter feed for random ideas that I have: http://twitter.com/ideaperdiem
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ryanstout
I like workflowy.com, the outline format is nice to keep things in groups.

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M83
thanks for this, hadn't seen it before

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OpenAlgorithm
I have a section on my desk for all my scraps of paper, I prefer paper,
because it is physically in front of you reminding you of your ideas and to
take action on them.

Plus writing seems to be less mechanical and more creative, which helps me get
the juices flowing when I come up with a new idea.

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lien
i never keep track of my ideas. i only have a few that really stand out and
those i never forget. if your ideas don't come back to you over and over
again, then those aren't good ideas. also, i try to be proactive about finding
out whether they're good ideas by talking to people - anyone - old bosses, old
friends, new friends, guys who hit on me at coffee shop, etc.

Why do ideas have to be private? if you have an idea, you can be sure that you
are probably not the only one who came up with them, so feel free to discuss
openly.

there's nothing worse than being paranoid about keeping your ideas to
yourself.

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johnnyjustice
How do you balance that with the culture of patenting and fear of ideas being
stolen?

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caw
While that's possible I would say that's extremely unlikely, so you're better
off getting the feedback.

Think of this way, on the spectrum of loathing to loving your idea, they have
to be on the top end and have either the resources or technical knowledge to
execute, and now they have to pass you who has a hypothesis already and is
looking for feedback. They don't know how much or what you've already gotten,
so if they flat copy/paste based on what you've spoken to them about they
could be heading off in a different direction. If that's the case they're not
really competing with you because they're somewhere else in a different niche.

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sairam313
I have been trying to find an optimal solution myself for a while. I used to
have a google spreadsheet before. I like evernote/springpad. But all 3 are
blocked at my work location and that's where I get most ideas that I want to
record. IPhone form factor/keyboard doesn't allow for a quick note typing. For
now, I am using a plain Google tasks list to record all ideas. I can access it
from gmail or calendar and the google calendar is not blocked at my workplace.
I would love to use evernote extensively, but till I get access to it at work,
Google tasks does it for now.

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fabiandesimone
Have you tried Evernote?

Is fantastic. I can't imagine not using it.

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bobsoap
No concerns regarding privacy and trusting a 3rd party with your ideas?

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fabiandesimone
Not at all. I'm not sure they are reading my notes and even if they did I'm
not sure they are worth much without execution.

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SeMeAntoja
I use pivotal tracker works great. I like pivotal more cause i just attach the
documents ive written and come back to them later on and its better organized.
Recommend you do that.

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sahil_lmn
A combination of things that isn't optimal: \- Text files, named by date, in a
directory called "notes" \- Items in my to-do list in Astrid (app for Android)
\- For things I've thought a lot about, either text files of their own or
pages of a notebook (the latter being rare).

I was actually thinking about building an app to deal with this. However,
EverNote looks appealing and I should try it out . . .

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rpwilcox
If the idea seems viable I'll put it in my personal Kanban board (in a
"Waiting" swim-lane). This Kanban board is a project level queue - one card
per project.

If my "Active Projects" kanban swim lane has some space, I'll pull from the
"Waiting" swim-lane.

This way I can schedule those ideas, if I have some time (shown by the swim-
lanes on the Kanban Board)

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bradleyland
I would suggest that if your ideas are so numerous that you need anything more
than a simple notebook to track them, you're probably working on the wrong
problem.

Ideas die in a vacuum. Don't be the guy that retires with a notebook full of
ideas that no one ever tried. Talk to people and develop your ideas. If it
doesn't work, toss it and move on.

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strangerstudios
I found Google Wave really useful for keeping track of ideas, especially to
share with other people.

Google Wave of course is being shut down at some point, but it will carry on
in some form:
[http://www.google.com/support/wave/bin/answer.py?answer=1083...](http://www.google.com/support/wave/bin/answer.py?answer=1083134)

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M83
I use <http://www.google.com/notebook>, however it is closed to new signups
and has no new development being done.

I'll probably move to Evernote or checkout some suggestions in this thread.

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sathishmanohar
Evernote + Google Docs. Thats it.

When ideas include sketches, I just draw it on a paper, and take a picture of
the paper with evernote, and throw the paper away, that way I get the best of
both worlds.

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ppjim
I use a text file and I have an 'ideas' folder in dropbox. One folder per
idea. If I need to add more information like photos or a business model
canvas. I just put into that folder. It's works for me.

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linuxjuicer
Ideas are very important. Sometimes too important to digitize. I bought a
black covered, blank, hardbound book that I use to write and draw out my
ideas. And I lock it in a safe.

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ccarnino
A Springpad memo. I always tray to describe the idea at lease in 3 key points.
Problem, Solution, Business model.

Then I write down everything else.

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ammmir
i used to have a draft message in gmail, but it grew too unwieldy.

now i use a private github repo and have all ideas in one markdown file that's
easily editable via github's web editor. i already spend a good amount of time
in github for other projects, so this is pretty good for me.

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tectonic
And I put up a website too: <http://ideaperdiem.com>

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DrData
I email myself from my iPhone and #tag the email with the topic in the subject
line.

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rada
I use GQueues, project management loosely integrated with your gmail account.

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strick
ideas.txt and dropbox is my primary system.

I've also played around with Simplenote on iOS plus the mac software
Notational Velocity. They sync nicely.

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Zakuzaa
I have been using trello lately.

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rorrr
Email to myself, tag with "idea".

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buttzmcgee
I use this and will often reply to the emails whenever I want to expand an
idea. It allows me to track the growth and trends of specific ideas.

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mrzerga
the same thing that im using for planning and keeping my notes - ToDoList,
similar to evernote, but much more customizable. freeware obviously.

