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Ask HN: How do you keep track of your ideas?
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
- linuxjuicer 15y agoIdeas 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.
- lien 15y agoi 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.
- johnnyjustice 15y agoHow do you balance that with the culture of patenting and fear of ideas being stolen?
- caw 15y agoWhile 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.
- dpatru 15y agoOne of the best ways to protect yourself from patents is to have the idea first and publish it. It's hard for a patent applicant to argue the he is the first inventor and that the idea was non-obvious if it was published in a blog.
- lien 15y agocorporations care about ideas being stolen because hundreds of millions are at stake. When you are a startup you have nothing to lose and everything to gain. that includes telling everyone about what you are doing.
- rada 15y agoI use GQueues, project management loosely integrated with your gmail account.
- SeMeAntoja 15y agoI 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.
- ammmir 15y agoi 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.
- ryanstout 15y agoI like workflowy.com, the outline format is nice to keep things in groups.
- M83 15y agothanks for this, hadn't seen it before
- rorrr 15y agoEmail to myself, tag with "idea".
- buttzmcgee 15y agoI 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.
- theitgirl 15y agoI do the same. If I want to keep track of additional notes or resources, I reply to the thread.
- ppjim 15y agoI 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.
- OpenAlgorithm 15y agoI 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.
- fabiandesimone 15y agoHave you tried Evernote? Is fantastic. I can't imagine not using it.
- darkmethod 15y agoEvernote is a fine tool to retain content for later retrieval. I use http://www.evernote.com/about/download/web_clipper.php http://www.evernote.com/about/download/web_clipper.php and later add additional comments where needed. I also use a pocket size Moleskine to keep ideas/thoughts/daily-journals. Some of my coworkers/friends refer to it as my Dr Jones journal.
- fjw 15y agoI use Evernote as well. I have one journal that is only devoted to my ideas and expanding on them. When I'm on the go, I sync on my phone using the Evernote iPhone app.
- tep 15y agoIf you run linux, I recommend BasKet: http://basket.kde.org/ http://basket.kde.org/
- bobsoap 15y agoNo concerns regarding privacy and trusting a 3rd party with your ideas?
- fabiandesimone 15y agoNot 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.
- M83 15y agohttp://www.paulgraham.com/ideas.html http://www.paulgraham.com/ideas.html
- sahil_lmn 15y agoA 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 . . .
- tectonic 15y agoAnd I put up a website too: http://ideaperdiem.com http://ideaperdiem.com
- Zakuzaa 15y agoI have been using trello lately.
- DrData 15y agoI email myself from my iPhone and #tag the email with the topic in the subject line.
- strangerstudios 15y agoI 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=1083134 http://www.google.com/support/wave/bin/answer.py?answer=1083...
- rpwilcox 15y agoIf 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)
- sathishmanohar 15y agoEvernote + 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.
- strick 15y agoideas.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.
- ccarnino 15y agoA 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.
- bradleyland 15y agoI 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.
- sairam313 15y agoI 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.
- doubaokun 15y agoI will suggest http://notemoz.com http://notemoz.com
- M83 15y agoI use http://www.google.com/notebook 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.
- mrzerga 15y agothe same thing that im using for planning and keeping my notes - ToDoList, similar to evernote, but much more customizable. freeware obviously.