I open a Gdocs page and start writing a project diary. It serves the same purpose as the recording of transactions in accounting: rather than try to skip to a s

I open a Gdocs page and start writing a project diary. It serves the same purpose as the recording of transactions in accounting: rather than try to skip to a summary of tasks, bugs, or features, first I have to develop a "primary source of truth" about the project as a narrative - what I am developing, why I should prioritize something right now, and the feedback I hope to get from developing it. As aspects of the project turn into specific tasks and data I can consider making formal artifacts for them, but it's unwise to do it too early in a solo project because of the added overhead and distraction from overall priorities. Structurally, coding on your own is really different from having a team to communicate with and leads or managers to specialize time allocation. You have the freedom to automate everything you are working with, and that's your biggest advantage. Where formality is added, it should be done with the support of a script that takes care of the technical details and keeps your friction down - it is not hard to automate turning TODO or FIXME source comments into a report, for example.