Organizing Ideas

I like ideas,

and often have many (potential) project ideas, thoughts, insights etc. spinning around my head.

All these ideas are very exciting, but focusing only on a few things at a time is the only way to ever get somewhere with these things.

So to not let new ideas distract me right away, or so that I can remember to focus on them, eventually at some point…

…I write ideas down.

For the most part I have used the notes app on my iphone. The ‘ideas’ notes are very fun to read through after a couple of years, but it is no way to organize thoughts, or thinking.

Recently, I have started using Obsidian to write down ideas in a blogish format like this, and Trello to try to organize snippets of thoughts and projects in categories.

Todo-list/queue/set

Today, as I felt rather energized, I got thinking about what’s on my todo-list. Not only my boring day-to-day list of chores but the list of things I want to do. That list is not exactly a list but exists mostly in my head, and pieces of it are scattered around my Trello ‘Ideas’ board. What is not really working is when a new idea joins in, it kinda just gets added to the top of the queue, since I am usually most excited about the latest idea or project. It is however rare that I take something out of the queue.

So, today I felt the “queue” (really it’s just a large set) was getting a tad too large. After all, I can’t even remember all the stuff that’s in the queue---They just sometimes show up and I think: “Hey, that’s also a thing I am doing/have been wanting to do!”

If I try to think of some examples of “current” projects and ideas I have popping through my head semi-regularly right now there is (in kinda this order of excitement/deadline dread):

• Get started with my new drawing tablet.
• Booktrips to Berlin and Stockholm.
• Output my thoughts. < psst,.. doing this one right now!
• Usually something to study for uni.
• Find tracks and practice Dj:ing.
• Read about/start to practice some spirituality.
• Continue development on the blog.
• Bleach and draw on some T-shirts.
• Catch up on stabilizing my picture of the day.
• Continue development of my Rave simulator game.
• Get a password manager.
• Apply for a job during the summer.
• Continue development on my terminal website.
• Find a driving school and get my drivers license.
• Eventually get new screen printing gear.
• Eventually get a new tattooing machine.
• Maintain randomantagning.se.
• Finish the last part of a web development course.
• Do some business of websites for other people.

Fuck! That was way more than I initially remembered. As you can guess, my investment in each point drastically dwindles after the first few. (But they’re still naggning my mind.)

Focus!

The latest idea was to implement some kind of focus. I was thinking a Trello board with only a few, nicely hand picked, areas to work on. That would mean I could actually put everything else on the shelf instead of having to worry about it once in a while, and maybe get some actual work done on the items in focus.

Another idea is to allocate time for all the items I cant scrap. So that I can work on several things but keep them from conflicting. But that sounds like a biig step for me---I am not a planner. Maybe I would need a calendar of some sort. I have heard about Notion and believe it could be everything that Obsidian, Trello and a calendar is at once. (Just realized Obsidian also has “Canvases”.) I also heard it is a bit too bloated with features and has a bit of a learning curve. I should probably put it in the todo…

Maybe I will implement the focus board, maybe I will learn to plan. Maybe I will do neither of those. At least writing this out has helped me some of the way. Since I am into the hole thing of digital gardening this piece on Organizing ideas can continue to grow here on the site, as my understanding of the topic deepens.

How do you organize your thoughts?