For side projects I don't bother with tickets, but keep a plain markdown journal with todo lists. Every project directory (that contains the git repo) will also

For side projects I don't bother with tickets, but keep a plain markdown journal with todo lists. Every project directory (that contains the git repo) will also have a "meta" subdirectory that contains journal/logs/notes, and that folder name is prefixed with `_` so it's at the top. Writing a project journal might seem onerous to some people, but if you get into a habit of writing, it gets easier. Eventually the cognitive load becomes trivial. And it's so valuable when you're returning to a project that you dropped for a year. I started a daily journal writing habit a long time ago (~15 yrs), and it has evolved a lot since then. Specifically, now I write a work journal for every dayjob, and an individual one for each side project. My system has gotten more complex over time, so there are other notes files, but basically you just have to get into the habit and evolve your own system that makes sense to you as you go. I probably shouldn't even mention this because it sounds crazy, but another thing that really helps me is that I arrange my source code based on each major feature, with scripts that can assemble/build/test the app at that stage. For example, it's nice to be able to get a version of the app that has no user accounts, and another version with account authentication. Yes, you could rely on `git checkout <hash>` to go back to an earlier stage of development in the code base, but that doesn't include subsequent iterations+refactoring that you might have done for that feature. Well, I'm not recommending that you do this, so I'm not going to say any more.