Ask HN: How do you keep track of your creative thoughts?
Hi Hackernews, I am a developer with lots of random creative thoughts, especially when I am in shower or after a few shots of caffeine. I have yet to find a perfect solution to keep track of my random thoughts.
Here are a few things that I've tried at least for a few months:
1. Physical notebook: still using, but some times my notebook is in my backpack/left at home/in office 2. Evernote alike: never works for me. I hate the constant changing features/UI and the overhead of simply opening it 3. (My pick) use instant IM to send messages to myself: the IM tool really doesn't matter. It could be mail app, facebook messenger, slack. Laptop and phone syncing is free and always reliable.
I know these are my throw away thoughts. I am wondering whether there are some amazingly good solutions that I didn't know of. Otherwise I am planning to create one for myself.
Thanks!
284 comments
[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 346 ms ] threadThen it failed syncing.
Then I noticed search doesn't work over note titles.
Then it prevented me from having more than 100 attached links (yes, links, not files) per note. Hard-coded.
Then it started crawling performance-wise. Slow startup, slow scroll.
Currently, I'm at file level when on desktop, and on paper when not. I'm not particulary happy with this either, but at least I'm aware of limitations at all times.
(I didn't bother to figure out what goes wrong. These notes are throw aways anyway)
I came across Dynalist through workflowy and was instantly hooked as you don't feel bad for just throwing something in and not following it any further, while also having the option of structuring your information really neatly, throwing in tasks, going back and finding earlier notes, etc.
For me it works for almost everything from drafting outlines for writing through task management, keeping track of research, study notes for books & courses, etc.
Evernote was good, but I felt like my notes went in and died. A graveyard of creative thoughts.
Lately, I’ve been spending more time trying to figure out how to revisit and make use of my creative thoughts captured in note form.
I use trello for that reason, with different boards for different categories of ideas (fiction, startup/project ideas, gaming, etc)
Trello’s UI always feels very inviting to look back and restructure, reconsider etc.
Instead of feeling like you are just amassing a pile of trash, it feels like slowly building up and structuring my own personal encyclopedia of ideas and thoughts. A bit closer to the analog feeling of a scrap book.
https://zwischenzugs.com/2017/12/03/how-i-manage-my-time/
I'm in my late 20s and I face a constant struggle in organising myself. Your blog post seems to be a nice window in how I should approach this issue. Thanks!
I really liked this solution since it was reliable. The synced entries were deleted from my phone automatically so I did not have to worry about an endless list of tasks on my phone.
An insane collection of project/notes/ideas/code folders on iCloud for permanence.
It's the fastest way to get those thoughts stored, and I always have my phone on me these days.
On NYE I went through my books of 2018 and it was a great experience -- both reiterating all the things I've actually accomplished and refreshing various thoughts and ideas that I had stored and sort of let go. https://www.instagram.com/p/BsDWesbnkDI/
It gives me something to show my kids someday.
For the rare occasions I don't happen to have it at hand, it's easy to scavenge a scrap of paper to scribble things down and then later glue into the notebook.
That's where I find using a physical notebook better.
Sometime I do is write everything out in pencil first and then I make sure to re-read it. That gives me a chance to make quick changes / fixes and then more importantly it allows me to go back with a pen when I'm done to write over / highlight headings, keywords, key snippets, and key bullet points while also being able to add things like stars next to important items, arrows to connected items, and other things that I possibly forgot to jot down or couldn't finish once I have the clarity of the entire ordeal's organization jotted down in one place.
This helps me commit things to memory much better and something about having a hand written hard copy feels like I actually did some "official work" on a side project / personal organization / preparation project.
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.
If you use it for general email stuff, just have a Cron job pulling your email down and append new stuff to a file that gets synchronized.
I don't really get why AWS, S3, or lambda are involved, unless you just wanted to see if you could do it.
I use org-brain on the backend and the lambda function does some processing to automatically categorize and such.
I think the law of least effort applied to me.
I organize everything in it, and I have also a daily journal in zim, it is synchronized with syncthing https://syncthing.net/ on all my computers and my phone.
When I have something quick to add and don't have access to my computer, I send to myself a message and slack, or on whatsapp and I add it later to my notes
I send myself emails, record audio, then in the end everything is converted to .txt file on structured dropbox folders.
When I went to school for art (until I switched), I learnd that artists and writers have long used physical notebooks, but that you can't just use them as a convenience: you have to actually put effort into ensuring you put something in it each day whether you're feeling creative or not. And you have to go back and read it to critically evaluate what you're doing. It has to be a process, not just a reminder.
I also keep a notebook next to my bed, because for me sometimes good ideas emerge when everything quiets down. I transfer any writings to a digital format while I'm drinking coffee in the morning.
Nothing particularly special about Keep itself, but I find having a mobile app handy as I get to sleep easier if I simply grab my phone off the beside table and jot down notes. Otherwise I lay awake worrying I'll forget in the morning.
In retrospect I should have put it under version control; nearly a decade's worth of ideas and no clue when most were thought up.
Ideas for my active project/startup are organized in a relatively more disciplined fashion and consist of multiple text files under version control.
I think the cross-platform support is crucial, which is why I was dismayed to learn that Microsoft acquired the parent company. I don't want to be tied into a Microsoft account to use Wunderlist, or see second-rate versions of the tool become the norm for the non-Windows platforms. Strangely, Wunderlist has not been shut down nor have people been forced to migrate (yet) even though this was announced a few years back.
I still use paper notebooks from time to time, especially when I am listening to someone talking or I need to digram something out.
Unfortunately, Notion does not have a browser extension yet so you always have to open the website or app to jot down something, but I hope this will come soon.
If you want to add notes without opening an app, you can try Google Keep. It has a Chrome extension that works really well.
https://trello.com/b/alB1ryRP
All other smaller thoughts and ideas usually get written into atelegram’s saved messages and then get processed on mac later.