Here's how I write notes: For ideas: 1. I time box thinking about the idea I've had. If after 10 minutes I don't feel like it's particularly useful, I just fo

Here's how I write notes: For ideas: 1. I time box thinking about the idea I've had. If after 10 minutes I don't feel like it's particularly useful, I just forget it. 2. Write it in one of the markdown files I keep in my Documents directory (partitioned by broad category). 3. Skim through the rest of the file and see if the other things in there are still interesting. If not, delete. For designs: 1. Usually while I'm working, I keep a temporary file in an editor that keeps a backup of open files (it won't even have a file name). Everything I think of goes in there roughshod, in between separators. Completely free-form. 2. If I need to switch to something else for an extended period of time, I save the file to disk. 3. Once I've built the project or feature, I close the unsaved file (i.e. throw it out). For writing: 1. One markdown file per piece, done in a similar fashion to the design documents. The bottom-most section of the file is for the current draft, and everything above it is free-form rough ideas. 2. Either post it, throw it out, or put in long term storage depending on what it's for and how I feel about it. - Search is done with grep. Backup is done with rsync over SSH (I just have it mirror my home dir). No notes apps, no special systems. Just markdown files and directories so that I can access it from anywhere with anything.