I really like having new ideas, talk about it, being challenged by people or challenge friends on their ideas. As soon as I remember, I always had a ton of ideas at any moment of the day, mostly on evenings or at night. I can get really obsesed by some of them sometimes and like, even until staying awake all night long to work on it.
Until I discovered digital gardens, I wasn’t very focus on keeping ideas somewhere. By reading here and there about workflow, Zettelkasten, second-brain and getting inspirations from people who’re really into these, I told myself that I should really keep more about my ideas.
So here it is! A folder entirely dedicated to idea. 💡
Why keeping track of ideas?
I want to keep track of my ideas to help me create new connexions between subjects and speed up my ability to retrieve a specific idea mostly.
I also think that, by forcing me writing and formating them so it can be read would help me to have even more ideas and create more consistants forms. By this, I’m digging deeper in the treated subject as well.
It also can help other and give inspiration to some people working on specifics subject. As for me, ideas have almost no value, I’m totally ok to share it with people. I think that execution is way more valuable than having the idea itself.
“To me, ideas are worth nothing unless executed. They are just multiplier. Execution is worth millions.” Derek Sivers
Just like this :
| 💡 | x | ⚙️ | $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| 😩 Awful idea | -1 | 😩 No execution | $1 |
| 😞 Weak idea | 1 | 😞 Weak execution | $1000 |
| 😐 So-So idea | 5 | 😐 So-So execution | $10 000 |
| 😊 Good idea | 10 | 😊 Good execution | $100 000 |
| 😁 Great idea | 15 | 😁 Great execution | $1 000 000 |
| 💫 Brillant idea | 20 | 💫 Brillant execution | $10 000 000 |
Idea workflow
I’m mostly using GitJournal to brain drop my ideas on my smartphone. It sync a Github repository that is also my Obsidian vault. When I’m in a situation I can’t or don’t want to use my phone, I’m just using a pencil and a notebook. More on my tools here!
After writing down things, I’m reviewing it on my computer and write it here, on my garden. I’m classifying ideas in two different folders :
- Graveyard where I keep track of my dead ideas. The ones I tried but didn’t worked for any reasons and from which I learned. 🕯
- Incubator where I put my still green ideas. I never tried it (and so can’t put it in my Graveyard 😄) and for some, maybe never will. But I still want to have them. 🌱
I use hashtags to categorize each ideas, according to the Zettelkasten method, and then let Obsidian do the magic to connect them together using the graph method.
Bi directionnal links help me to go back and forth between ideas and concepts and nurture my creativity. Ideas so become more consistant and precise than ever.