How do you manage your ideas? Gonna build an MVP to learn React.
So I want to start learning react and for that I am thinking of building a simple web app to help indie hackers manage their ideas.
I am trying to identify 5 MVP features that I'd focus on the first.
You'd be helping a lot by answering these 3.5 questions:
- Do you keep track of your ideas?
1.1 If not, would you like to?
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What tool do you use for tracking your idea?
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What feature you feel would help take action/discard your ideas in such a tool?
Motivation:
I keeping track of my ideas in a simple text file. I find that I just write them and don't do anything about them. I hope this tool would make it easier for me to develop/discard ideas.
Disclaimer:
I know there are a lot of idea management tools out there and yet I want to build one for myself to learn React.
UPDATE Thank you very much for all that shared their ways of keeping track of ideas. I've learned a few interesting things and discovered a couple of cool tools (mine the comments for some gems 🙂 ).
I spent a few hours today and got my oAuth2 and CRUD backend part prototyped. Tomorrow I'll kick off my learning of react.
Thanks again to all. I will keep following the thread :)
Right now I use evernote. In the past I did this with trello. But both is clunky when you have a inspiration "on the go" without desktop tools.
I have 1 Backlog for Problem Areas worth investigating more.
And 1 Backlog for Solutions which comes to my mind where I have to validate the problem and or the market.
Also I have 1 backlog with "Inspiration". Pretty Good solutions which inspires me.
Hey thanks for sharing :)
I have a few followup questions.
Why did you move from trello to evernote?
What device are you using the most for recording your ideas?
How often do you get back to your backlogs to review, pick or discard an idea?
Because Trello mobile is not for fast access. It takes to long. Evernote as well is not fast / Slick enough.
Honestly I would prefer apple notes, but I use an android device right now.
mostly I record on the go, where inspiration happens. then I edit, redraft and add stuff on my desktop when I am in the working zone.
No real routine yet, I think every couple of weeks or month.
Cool Klaus. Thanks a bunch for sharing this :)
Yes
Pen and paper (notebook)
The way I usually work is I write down the idea, if I keep thinking about the idea I take a page and write down stuff in as much detail as I can, then I move on to work what I should be working on. Then when I need something new to work on I go back to look at the ideas I flushed out in to detailed ideas to see if I have anything worth working on
Thanks for sharing. It's interesting to hear you're only doing it on paper.
Do you have a structure/template for when you're trying to write the details? Would you mind sharing an example?
Trello boards
Thanks for replying.
What exactly do you like about trello for idea management?
Mind sharing what columns you have setup for your idea management?
Just saw this from your link in another post. Too bad you're learning React - I just switched from React to Vue.
I have a beta open source app that started and grew from the same idea - keeping track of and building on ideas. http://brisaboards.com
Azure DevOps seems pretty nice. I've just started using it for a similar project.
Currently, I use Trello for all the ideas I have. What I like about Trello is that it loads relatively fast, fast enough that I don't feel annoyed or lose patience or lose inspiration by the time I start typing the idea out. I keep it simple by having a dedicated idea board where I chuck all ideas good and bad.
For each idea, I just create a card on the idea board. In each card, I upload photos and type away in the comment area so I'll be able to easily keep track of the date and time I had each idea of functions, etc. It's arranged in a chronological manner of course and not nicely categorized into relevant sections of marketing, product, etc.
But who cares, the whole point of this for me is that when a new idea and inspiration come up, I've got a board which I can quickly scribble things down and revisit whenever I feel is appropriate.
Hope this helps!
It does help a lot thanks. Would you mind elaborating a bit on your process of revisiting your ideas?
Not too sure what you mean exactly by "process" of revisiting ideas.
If I have a thoughts on a particular past idea on Trello, I simply go into Trello and type in a new comment in the card where I stored the idea. I keep at adding comments to that card until the point I start embarking on that project and I revisit that card whenever I need to check if I miss out on any thoughts I scribbled there in the past.
The idea cards are permanently there and I'll move the cards up and down accordingly to what I think are the more promising ideas I should work on over time.
I don't think this counts for much of a process for revisiting ideas. Haha.
How I envision
Thanks for the replay Zhhan. It's helpful for me to get an understanding on how people try to manage their ideas.
Cheers and good luck!
Airtable.
Hmm.. interesting. Thanks for sharing :)
Yes, I keep track of them.
Workflowy/Dynalist. I love how fluid this way of taking notes is.
I don't look at it in such a binary way. The ideas are listed and revisited once in a while. As you talk, meet, read, and learn, you can iterate on the ideas, improve them, or detail them.
In the end, I'm working on something that didn't require an idea. Saw one of the tools used in one of my contract work projects and figured I can iterate and improve on it, and apply my own angle to it. The world deserves better than what's currently on the market. First customer switched in a heartbeat a week ago, upon finding it :)
Wow Dynalist looks like an awesome tool. I'll definitely check it out. Also it can act as an inspiration for how they implemented markdown. Thanks for sharing this!
Good luck with your project!
It really seems dynalist is a better workflowy. thanks for sharing!
Notepad, and no desire to use a complicated tool. But if your main goal is to learn React, go for it!
Simplicity is always gonna win. Thanks for sharing!
Two things:
More idea you have (bad or good), more idea will pop up.
Thanks for sharing. I took a look at laverna and it does seem quick.
I've come to learn that most people are using some sort of note taking app to keep track their ideas.
Yes
google keep & notion.so
I think both are perfect
Cool thanks for sharing :)
How often do you get back to your list?
Do you iterate on your ideas?
No thanks , wish i can help more.
Can u explain your question because i think they are the same!
Not sure what you meant with
No thanks , wish i can help more.They are indeed quite similar. The first one is more about the time interval that you have for returning to your list and reconsidering each/one idea.
I meant I wish that my answer would be more informative and helpful.
Usually, I record ideas about web and mobile apps on Google keep, and when I have time to work on the idea that I like more (or have a feeling about) I use notion to organize.
The direct answer is 'When I have time'.
Your comments are really helpful to me ;) Thanks!
I think there might be an opportunity for tracking the life cycle of an idea. The trick it to keep it simple.
Hope so ...
a folder in my iCloud Notes app
How often do you get back to your list?
Do you iterate on your ideas?
I have tried a number of other methods - paper and pen, Evernote, google spreadsheet. I have found that while the Notes app is mostly unstructured it is the fastest way to record the idea. A lot of the ideas I have occur to me randomly and I try to write them down ASAP.
With regard to iterating, I have a folder that is called creative and then sub-folders: app, business, video. A note within one of those typically contains a single idea. With the notes app the first line of the note shows up as the title of the note in list view. So I give it a name in line 1 and then tab down and jot any ideas. Sometimes I revisit, but if it becomes more of a project it will outgrow the notes app.
Writing down ASAP and having a splendit mobile experience is the most important part. Found nothing like apple notes for this, though. This is sad, when you are on android..
Cool thanks for sharing this. It's interesting to see how you structure things.
In regards of beating the speed of note taking. Do you think a bot for telegram/slack/facebook chat/whatsapp would be of use?
I guess this will help with storing the idea while on the go but would still be inconvenient for when at home.
Let's do an experiment :) How many clicks does it take you to write down a new idea? I'll try to use it as a threshold for making the react app fast :)