This is why I moved a huge portion of my TODO list into an IDEAS list. This is an outliner document (Org-mode) that contains notes on lots of different ideas.
So why didn't I just delete those items? Because writing down that stuff helps me not to think about it the whole day if I don't want to.
The IDEAS list grows and grows, but that's okay. I don't feel obliged to implement any of these ideas. Whenever I recall an idea, I go to that document, add some notes, and that's it. No deep research, no domain buying, no name searching. Just writing or extending on what comes to my mind, and roughly structuring it.
From time to time it happens that I do want to implement one of these ideas. And in that case I have some nice, simple spec to start from.
As a side note, I started to do that after I read "Writing, Briefly" from Paul Graham (http://paulgraham.com/writing44.html), which contains the following great advice:
...
when you finish, leave yourself something easy to start with;
accumulate notes for topics you plan to cover at the bottom of the file;
don't feel obliged to cover any of them;
...
These points are applicable far outside the scope of writing. In that sense, my IDEAS list is the clearly separated "bottom" of my TODO list that contains the "accumulated notes".
As a final note, this concept seems to be somehow related to the Not-To-Do list that some people advocate.
I had to laugh out loud because I have the exact same files (IDEAS and TODO, both uppercase) sitting in each of my projects as well as my homedir. On a more serious note, I can relate to a lot of the points the article makes about accumulating idea debt. I'm not sure yet whether it is holding me back, since I now have this huge list of things I might want to do, or whether it's giving me the opportunity to make a note of something and move on with daily business for the time being.
Similar here... I had one large (master) TODO file and one large IDEAS file and I would move tasks from TODO file on my daily TODO list. The IDEAS file grown to more then 50 pages and I rarely read it... :-)
Nowdays I moved to paper so NSA can not read my ideas and tasks anymore. For TODOs I use one paper sheet per project/subject and carry all these 10-12 sheets in a folder. Then I move the tasks on my daily TODO list in Moleskine... For IDEAS: I draw/sketch/write them on paper and store them in archive folder (just in case I need it)... :-)
> For IDEAS: I draw/sketch/write them on paper and store them in archive folder (just in case I need it)
I don't think that paper is a good medium for that. Often I'm not sure if I had written about this or a similar idea yet, so full text search is very handy here. Also, I'm sometimes changing ideas, which is also not so good on paper (unless you use pencil & rubber instead of a pen).
Indeed! The concept of a "spark file" describes exactly what I'm doing.
> Also do you have anything written down about using org-mode for todos and ideas?
This is pretty basic Org-mode usage. My To-Do list is just nested headings, each with a TODO or DONE marker (Shift+Left, Shift+Right). My IDEAS list doesn't even have those markers, it is just nested headings and nested lists. The only "advanced thing" that I do is moving items via Mod+Up and Mod+Down. This is very handy, as that moves the whole subtree up and down. And I'm using the "Tab" key for folding and unfolding subtrees.
Org-mode offers much more than what I'm using here. I'm not yet a power-user of Org-mode. For example, the "agenda view" might simplify a lot of what I'm doing (not for IDEAS, but for TODO, meetings, etc). But I didn't find the time to dig deeper into Org-mode yet.
I would highly recommend learning some of agenda mode. I originally started with only using the tree editing features. But one of the coolest features is the agenda mode and the fact that you can create custom views which pull in all the details you want. Here is the view I use all the time:
(setq org-agenda-custom-commands
'(("w" "Agenda and Next todos"
((agenda "" ((org-agenda-ndays 1))) ;show anything scheduled for today including habits
(todo "NEXT|IN PROGRESS"
((org-agenda-overriding-header "Working On"))) ;things that I am currently working on
(todo "TODO"
((org-agenda-overriding-header "Check Todo's"))) ;Todo items to check on periodically
(todo "WAITING"
((org-agenda-overriding-header "Waiting On"))))))) ;things I am blocking on
I do the exactly the same. It's a similar principle to kanban/agile, where you have a pool of potential work to do (in your case your ideas list), but you only pull in a fixed amount to work on at any one time (in your case to your TODO list). Otherwise I find I tend to get overwhelmed by my evergrowing todo list and never get anything done. Of course it's key to periodically review the ideas list, but this can just be done whenever your todo list is empty.
Moved towards a similar approach. Now I finally have time to start a new project. Now the next step is: how to improve and structure the process of picking an idea. Any tips?
So why didn't I just delete those items? Because writing down that stuff helps me not to think about it the whole day if I don't want to.
The IDEAS list grows and grows, but that's okay. I don't feel obliged to implement any of these ideas. Whenever I recall an idea, I go to that document, add some notes, and that's it. No deep research, no domain buying, no name searching. Just writing or extending on what comes to my mind, and roughly structuring it.
From time to time it happens that I do want to implement one of these ideas. And in that case I have some nice, simple spec to start from.
As a side note, I started to do that after I read "Writing, Briefly" from Paul Graham (http://paulgraham.com/writing44.html), which contains the following great advice:
These points are applicable far outside the scope of writing. In that sense, my IDEAS list is the clearly separated "bottom" of my TODO list that contains the "accumulated notes".As a final note, this concept seems to be somehow related to the Not-To-Do list that some people advocate.