Tip of the Week: Create an Idea Bank
July 24th, 2007 (2:00pm) Anne Zelenka 18 Comments
Angela Booth suggests that experienced writers can use journals as their idea banks:
If you’ve been writing for a few years, your journal acts as your idea bank. It’s best to maintain several journals: one for ideas, another for essays, as well as a journal for a long project like a book.
If you’re writing a novel, for example, your journal will keep you “in” the novel, even if you have to leave the project for a week or two.
An idea bank would be helpful for anyone who works with information and ideas. You don’t have to use a paper journal, because there are lots of desktop or online solutions too. You could use a wiki, a note-taking application, a desktop information manager like DevonThink or PersonalBrain, a password-protected blog (to keep your ideas under wraps while they’re gestating), or text files.
How do you capture your ideas?
18 Comments Post your own comment
45n5 says: July 24th, 2007 2:27pm
“How do you capture your ideas?”
old fashioned white board next to my desk, the easiest way for me to capture ideas on the fly
Aldrin Leal says: July 24th, 2007 4:36pm
OneNote, for quick thoughts.
Next, perhaps… Freemind it.
Rebecca Thorman says: July 24th, 2007 5:14pm
Notes all over the place and the drafts feature in Gmail.
gotbob says: July 24th, 2007 6:59pm
Note pad, whiteboard and my favorite any time…Olympus Digital voice recorder.
47 Hats » Blog Archive » Read the Web Worker Daily Comrade! says: July 24th, 2007 7:08pm
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Jeremy Wagstaff says: July 24th, 2007 7:18pm
Would definitely recommend PersonalBrain for that. Create an extra thought called “ideas” and have those notes link to that (in addition to permanent links their more formal category thoughts.) If the idea turns into something more than an idea, it could drop the link to the idea thought and instead be linked to something called “projects” or “campaigns” or whatever.
Jason Fried says: July 24th, 2007 10:20pm
I may be biased, but I swear by Backpack.
George Mandis says: July 24th, 2007 11:09pm
I’m a big proponent of using Wikis for organizing just about anything these days. However, I’ve found that Journler for the Mac is really growing on me. You’re not just limited to having to type in your idea - you can record audio, video or take a snapshot with just a click. I’ve recorded conversations and taken snapshots of things I’d scribbled elsewhere and find it’s remarkably useful.
Larry Wright says: July 25th, 2007 2:17am
For capturing random ideas and rough sketches, I use a paper notebook. Any time I have an idea that’s more than a fleeting thought, it goes in there. It’s hard to beat the simplicity of paper for just doodling.
Once an idea moves beyond the conceptual stage, I tend to use Backpack to organize that. Each idea gets it’s own page. I use the body of the page for the overall vision and “elevator pitch”, the lists to capture high level features, and Writeboards for in-depth writing. It’s not a perfect tool, but it’s the best I’ve found so far. Wikis are good, but lack some of the flexibility and organization that Backpack provides.
All this to say: Jason is certainly biased, but he’s also right :)
Christian Schade says: July 25th, 2007 3:19am
Several cool collaboration platform are popping up on the web - I’ve alpha-tested ThinkFold (http://www.thinkfold.com/) - an outliner with lots of nice features as well as MindMeister (http://www.mindmeister.com/) - a mindmapper with MindManager/Freemind compatibility.
Khoa Bui says: July 25th, 2007 5:53am
I use Destiny Goals (http://www.destinygoals.com) it’s simple and its FREE!
ScottK says: July 25th, 2007 12:39pm
I use google docs so I can access them wherever I am.
Robert says: July 25th, 2007 4:55pm
I’m using Journler. One of the best accumulating tools…always opened right from the start in the morning.
Eric Nentrup says: July 25th, 2007 10:13pm
MY UBIQUITOUS CAPTURE TOOLBOX:
Lo-Fi: my wallet is a 3×5 notecard carrier…a bonafide Levenger ripoff from FranklinCovey carried at OfficeDepot for a fraction of Levenger’s $40 tag…it’s only $15 and you can get it here - http://www.officedepot.com/ddSKU.do?level=SK&id=178792&No=10&Nr=FILTER(domestic)&N=1000000307+10324&Ne=6+1+10313+5&An=browse
And I carry my own “custom 3×5 power business card” I made on my inkjet.
Other than that, I usually have a Moleskine in my bag….and a stack of custom made “note pages” I designed and run off when I need them.
Hi-Fi: I’m using an alpha build of OmniGroup’s OmniFocus on my Mac, along with their other fine products….Especially OmniOutliner. I live in OmniOutliner and it responds to the way I think like a lifelong dance partner.
There’s a bit of crosstalk with iCal’s task list right now I’m trying to figure out. Either way, I capture ideas in the midst of my workflow using quicksilver to toss the fragment of a thought into iCal or OmniFocus (and hopefully, only one but not the other sooner than later!)
HandsFree: Jott.com. THE COOLEST THING since we decided to cut the cord to our fones.
WebHund says: July 26th, 2007 9:09am
Big ol’ Pile of Index Cards:
http://pileofindexcards.org/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page
Wow.
Matt Harwood says: July 30th, 2007 8:08am
Journler is beautiful, I use that along with paper. There is always Wridea.com which I am hoping to check to see if improvements have been made.
Matthew Cornell says: August 27th, 2007 6:05am
My system is pretty simple: I use a text file, Emacs for editing it, plus a simple macro for capture and time-stamping. It’s very fast, and allows me (with completion) to tag entries Wiki-style.
More here, if you’re interested: My Big-Arse Text File - a Poor Man’s Wiki+Blog+PIM
http://ideamatt.blogspot.com/2005/08/my-big-arse-text-file-poor-mans.html
Riccardo says: October 29th, 2007 4:21pm
ever heard of evernotes?
http://www.evernote.com
beats most things I’ve seen on Windows, and it fits perfectly the paradigm suggested by Angela Booth