I (and am sure many here) have been in the same situation. I have tried physical books (which I'm still biased towards), OneNote (my next favourite, especially on tablets with stylus), txt files, wiki etc.
Ultimately what I realised is that it is all useless if I don't have a periodic review session for these ideas.
So, what I am doing these days (not with much success due to lack of discipline) is to have 2 or 3 different sources for such ideas - notebook, onenote, email, bookmarks, Google Keep etc. But spend sometime during the weekend to organise these week's ideas into the correct container. In my case the 'source of truth' is OneNote, so I have several notebooks and sections within each notebook and I file things there.
Even though this is tedious and repetitive I find it to be absolutely necessary if anything good has to come out of those ideas. It also gives me a chance to revisit old ideas and file my new half-baked ideas into a section where it fits in with some other idea.
The other important task is that I need to plan some small action items with these ideas or else it will just accumulate there and cause lot of stress eventually.
P.S. It will be great to hear your thoughts on the tool you plan to create. Like what features you find missing and how you plan to accommodate the user's laziness in your UX
It is a little surprising to see a handful of recommendation for OneNote. I have never used OneNote before, but will definitely give it a try.
I think one's idea tracking system should cover two parts: fast and slow. The slow part is as you mentioned we should periodically review ideas. For this part, I am almost 100% happy with Github issues/wiki/projects.
For the fast part, like you, I used notebook, IM, Google Keep and a bash script at the same time (whichever that is most handy). I am 90% happy with the process. Given the high frequency of the day I am spending tracking ideas (~10 times per day), I am willing to spend some time to fine tune the practice until I am 99% happy.
The idea I have in mind is to write a IM-like note taking app for iPhone and Mac, which stores plain-text and image in iCloud drive. The app should utilize platform features such as Siri, 3D touch, Mac status bar to enable fastest idea capturing.
This sounds boring to me, but I believe if it is done right, it could be my most efficient zero-effort idea tracking solution on the go. (And review ideas using the plain-text db in iCloud)
Your idea sounds good. I'm tempted to say that handwriting (via stylus or finger) is important and so is intelligent reminder system. But that may be worth adding later.
Periodic review is the most important thing for your creative ideas, next to writing them down.
I love to write on clean sheets of copy paper. Most notebooks don't lie flat and the ones that do seem to fall apart with travel. I used to have tons of loose copy paper floating around my laptop bag, desk, folders, cabinets, etc... It was getting lost and damaged so I bought an iPad Pro and got used to writing on it. I still prefer paper, but at least I'm not losing my ideas now.
Two years ago I printed everything out (including all the scanned copy paper from older notes). It was about a ream of paper.
I started going through it, it was surprised at how many amazing and prescient thoughts I'd had and later forgotten about. There were thoughts that, combined with newer thoughts, created powerful insights that have benefited my clients and made me more money.
I have not done a review of my notes since then and I sorely need to, but I can say with absolute certainty that periodically reviewing your notes will bring you great value.
I’ve been using a new system for the past few weeks, so I don’t know how well it will stick:
I carry a small spiral-bound memo book with me all the time for short-term notes. In the case of random thoughts, it’s generally just a title.
Every morning, I move everything from the memo book into other systems and tear out the used pages. For ideas, this means putting the title at the top of a blank sheet of paper and free writing until I either run out of things to say or reach the bottom of the page.
About once a week, I file all the new notes in a binder sorted by title and put an index card for each one in a Leitner box for reviewing in the future.
When working through reviews, if I find a note interesting it gets promoted all the way to the front section of the box, and otherwise it gets pushed back one, so that its review cycle gets longer. I also use the review as an opportunity to ensure the note is recorded properly in a topical index.
I love this. I did something similar .. but then I kept on putting them through the wash. I briefly looked up notebooks that are washing machine safe, but I think the ones I found cost more than I wanted to spend.
I'll give this a go, again, but be more diligent about taking stuff out of my pockets for laundry. Well, I'll try to be, at least.
That’s part of the reason I move everything out of my carry-around book daily: it’s the most physically vulnerable part of the system, so I want to minimize the damage that losing it would cause.
The problem with OneNote is that its file format is proprietary (though documented). I have random notes that are 20 years old. Notes I take today need to be readable 20 years from now. Will OneNote be around 20 years from now? I prefer to store my notes in plain text because it is guaranteed to be readable decades from now.
Do you intend to restore today's backup of your OneNote files with a copy of OneNote 2039? It might work or might not.
But if you keep using OneNote for the next 20 years, I can guarantee that it won't suddenly implode and suddently make all your notes unreadable by anything else.
You can export an entire notebook, or individual notes to PDF. PDF is easily converted to text so there is one way to archive.
I had stopped using Apple Notes because the format was a proprietary binary format with no export feature. When I found an app to export as text I went back to using Notes.
Oh, man, you just have written my exact thoughts!
I also have a problem revisiting my notes, ideas, etc. I was thinking about creating a note-taking app with reminder. I know, that there is a whole world of note apps as well as reminder apps, but i wanted to have specific tool. Also, what is the point to be a programmer if you don’t create things for yourself, right?)
OneNote is by far the best electronic note-taking and organizing tool out there, in spite of many glaring shortcomings. (e.g.: It really needs a way to tag things, as the full text search quickly becomes less useful as you pour more of your life in it, especially web clips; also need real tree-structure organizing that lets you go deeper than just Notebook/Section/Page; UI is a disaster for pen/touch use since removing radial menus, etc.) It's the main reason I will never go back to a "caveman laptop" w/o pen support. I just wish MS would really put serious effort into OneNote as a product.
That said, I capture critical ideas and project and research info in OneNote, but still use a plain old notebook (using a system I made up myself similar to the old Franklin planner and Bullet Journals) to do much of my ordinary day-to-day notetaking, planning, and task management. The truth is, there is NO electronic "day management" system available today that is even close to as good as what Palm had 20 years ago.
Hey dublin, I'm on the OneNote team. Thank you for the feedback. I had a few follow-up questions for you:
- OneNote lets you nest multiple levels of sections and pages. Is this the tree-structure you're looking for?
- You can add tags and search for tags now in both OneNote for Win10 and Mac. Once you've given it a try, can you tell me if that's the tagging support you're looking for?
- Besides the lack of the radial menus, what else about pen/touch use is painful for you? Is this in OneNote for Win10 or OneNote 2016?
Dedicate a wall in your bedroom or private office to hang a whiteboard for writing your ideas. If one of your creative ideas is going to have a positive impact on your life, it worth to be in front of your eyes.
Ultimately what I realised is that it is all useless if I don't have a periodic review session for these ideas.
So, what I am doing these days (not with much success due to lack of discipline) is to have 2 or 3 different sources for such ideas - notebook, onenote, email, bookmarks, Google Keep etc. But spend sometime during the weekend to organise these week's ideas into the correct container. In my case the 'source of truth' is OneNote, so I have several notebooks and sections within each notebook and I file things there.
Even though this is tedious and repetitive I find it to be absolutely necessary if anything good has to come out of those ideas. It also gives me a chance to revisit old ideas and file my new half-baked ideas into a section where it fits in with some other idea.
The other important task is that I need to plan some small action items with these ideas or else it will just accumulate there and cause lot of stress eventually.
P.S. It will be great to hear your thoughts on the tool you plan to create. Like what features you find missing and how you plan to accommodate the user's laziness in your UX