Ask HN: How do you manage your thoughts?

After years of notebook use, I've recently fallen in love with index cards.

I hesitate less before writing down a probably-bad idea (some of which turn out to be good) because it won't permanently "contaminate" a notebook.

I can sort & re-order, keep my tasks separate from ideas, and scrap cards when they are dealt with.

When I would use notebooks, I liked to keep one per project/client/theme, so now I no longer need to carry multiple notebooks everywhere -- just a small stack of blank cards.

Just recently, I started a new business with a partner. We carry little notebooks around to capture things as we surface them. Sometimes I do a quick audio recording on my phone. The most prescient ideas, questions, problems to solve are transferred to a Wiki he created for us where we can track further dialogue/brainstorming, ownership, and closure.

I use a stack of old business cards. I write on the back, and then I can shuffle, add notes, discard, etc. Cards from a week ago get reviewed, culled, and some things then get transcribed into a notebook or a wiki.

I tend to work on longer term projects on a wiki, but the ideas and fleeting thoughts go on the backs of business cards.

Tangentely.

I tried carrying a small notebook around, but it didn't really work. For household 'work' I write a todo list once a week. At the moment, I just start a new todo list everyday on paper as I sit down in the morning.

I'm a firm believer in two notebooks. I keep a little one one me at all times so I can write down ideas as I have then, and a few times a week, I transfer them to a bigger notebook which I keep at home. I find that sometimes, my thoughts gel between the first time I write them and when I transfer them.

I started using a notebook to capture ideas as they occur to me. As a policy I do not maintain any structure or withhold any topics; I just write whatever I'm thinking below the last thing I wrote.

This is really useful as a way to free your mind of your current ideas. I have a tendency of dwelling on something because I'm afraid I will lose it otherwise. By writing it, I am able to let it go and start fresh. This may sound familiar if you've read the PG essay called "The Island Test" as it is his rationale. I've only adopted it.

http://www.paulgraham.com/island.html

I have tried notebooks and index cards but I had the problem of forgetting them. Now, I keep two text files in my dropbox folder. One for work use and one for personal use. This has been working fairly well for me. I use these to take notes, ideas and track to do lists.

Two things. I use a paper folded up once horizontally and twice vertically which creates 12 spaces that I use for calendar days for immediate to do lists. For longer things, like interviews and thoughts, I use a small moleskin which makes it a real pleasure to write.