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The single biggest mental hack I have for getting around this is this. Just write it down. As soon as I write it down and stick it on a list of product ideas

The single biggest mental hack I have for getting around this is this. Just write it down. As soon as I write it down and stick it on a list of product ideas it's out of my head and I can focus again. As a bonus you've got a nice list 'o' stuff that you can go poke through whenever you get some spare tuits. At the moment I have (pause to look at trello) 57 items on the company "Product Ideas" backlog. Two have come off and are being actively developed. The rest - I rarely think about.

platz 13y ago
I feel like once I write something down in a list it will dissappear into the 'backlog' forever.
- Kluny 13y ago
  Well, yeah, but if you start building it and get stuck halfway and give it up, it's still going to be stuck in backlog forever, only now you've wasted a few days on it.
- mindcrime 13y ago
  I can see why you would think that, but then again, what's the other alternative? You either have time/resources to do it now, or you don't. As far as I can tell, you really have three choice: you can do it, forget it, or write it down. If you write it down, at least there's a fighting chance you'll revisit the idea when you do have time/resources. Also, empirical observation shows me that, in my own case at least, things that are put on lists do sometimes get done eventually. I'm always obsessively making lists and writing down notes about possible new features for Quoddy, and over time I find that I do keep working further and further down the list... to the point that now I'm starting on stuff that was originally labelled "Speculative / TODO: Sometime Before The Heat Death Of The Universe".
- hasenj 13y ago
  I thought that was kinda the point. Get it out of your head so you can continue focusing on your current project.
- beat 13y ago
  Have you TRIED it? You can try things like a Kanban (Trello is awesome) to roll work forward out of your backlog. Or a to-do list. But the simple fact is, you will always have more work to do than you have bandwidth to do it, if you're a remotely interesting person. So sure, some things will "disappear". That's okay. If they DON'T disappear, other things won't get done.
beaugunderson 13y ago
That's one of the central ideas behind Getting Things Done (GTD): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getting_Things_Done http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getting_Things_Done Getting things written down and out of my head definitely helps me to focus.
anoncow 13y ago
>Just write it down. Cannot agree more. If you don't write it down, you will forget it. Trying to remember a feature, that you knew was good, but cannot remember now because you didn't write it down, can be frustrating.

platz 13y ago

I feel like once I write something down in a list it will dissappear into the 'backlog' forever.

Kluny 13y ago
Well, yeah, but if you start building it and get stuck halfway and give it up, it's still going to be stuck in backlog forever, only now you've wasted a few days on it.
mindcrime 13y ago
I can see why you would think that, but then again, what's the other alternative? You either have time/resources to do it now, or you don't. As far as I can tell, you really have three choice: you can do it, forget it, or write it down. If you write it down, at least there's a fighting chance you'll revisit the idea when you do have time/resources. Also, empirical observation shows me that, in my own case at least, things that are put on lists do sometimes get done eventually. I'm always obsessively making lists and writing down notes about possible new features for Quoddy, and over time I find that I do keep working further and further down the list... to the point that now I'm starting on stuff that was originally labelled "Speculative / TODO: Sometime Before The Heat Death Of The Universe".
hasenj 13y ago
I thought that was kinda the point. Get it out of your head so you can continue focusing on your current project.
beat 13y ago
Have you TRIED it? You can try things like a Kanban (Trello is awesome) to roll work forward out of your backlog. Or a to-do list. But the simple fact is, you will always have more work to do than you have bandwidth to do it, if you're a remotely interesting person. So sure, some things will "disappear". That's okay. If they DON'T disappear, other things won't get done.

beaugunderson 13y ago

That's one of the central ideas behind Getting Things Done (GTD): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getting_Things_Done http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getting_Things_Done Getting things written down and out of my head definitely helps me to focus.

anoncow 13y ago

>Just write it down. Cannot agree more. If you don't write it down, you will forget it. Trying to remember a feature, that you knew was good, but cannot remember now because you didn't write it down, can be frustrating.