How do you manage all your projects and ideas?

Question

I have a billion potential ideas running through my head. About five of those I have actually started and have become "side projects" in addition to my "day job". Some are further along than others, and a few are even demonstrable. The problem I have is that one always takes attention away from the others. I don't want to give up any of them, so the result is that none of them are finished.

Should I just pick the project with the most potential and finish it? Then how do I support it when I want to start something new? At what point should I form a "team" instead of going lone-wolf? Should I just quit and accept the fact that all my ideas can't succeed?

Is there a (free) tool that will help me prioritize my projects and ideas, give me an overview of the status of each, and help me form a resonable time-table?

Answer 1

I use FogBugz. It's not free but it's a nice way to dump stuff out of my brain and then organize it later.

Answer 2

I use FogBugz. It's not free but it's a nice way to dump stuff out of my brain and then organize it later.

Hosted FogBugz is free for up to 2 users under their student & startup package - just sign up for the trial, and change to the S&S package from the settings screen.

It's a good central place for project planning that also happens to be an excellent bug tracker.

Answer 3

This is going to seem primitive, but I keep a TiddlyWiki on my USB drive that I typically have with me everywhere I go. It's a pretty good format for fleshing out ideas that aren't always complete thoughts yet. I have mine set up with a default page of my current ideas, I re-order them based on feasibility and interest as I update them.

Answer 4

I use Todoist.

Although technically it's a to-do list, it also allows you to rate items in terms of priority, and allows you to add sub-projects to top-level projects, or even sub-items to main items. It also allows you to put date and time due, and you can set it to alert you via email.

Answer 5

Hosted FogBugz is free for up to 2 users under their student & startup package - just sign up for the trial, and change to the S&S package from the settings screen.

Interesting. Unfortunately I'm not a student anymore so I just bought the bullet and paid for it myself. At the time, I think I paid for $150 for a single-user license which has been more than worth it.

Answer 6

Maybe I'm old school (or just plain primitive), but I always have a small spiral bound notebook with me. Whether I'm at work, or visiting the in-laws, if something hits me then I normally write it down. Later, I'll usually organize it in a text file on a USB drive.

Answer 7

I use OneNote and Live Mesh. My notebooks are saved to a Mesh folder and so I always have the latest version of my notes on all the machines I use. After setting it up, there's nothing I have to do to keep it up to date - no clicking save, since OneNote saves everything automatically, no need to tell things to sync, since Mesh does it automatically.

I also use the free versions of Backpack and Basecamp for some things.

Answer 8

You don't need a tool. You need a strategy to get yourself organized.

Getting Things Done

Answer 9

Well, my answer is not related to software project ideas, but I think it can give you a hint on how to manage your ideas.

I'm a technical and fictional writer, and just like you I'm always having ideas for a good text. I have a folder on my computer named "ideas", and for each idea I create a .doc file inside it. On the file, at first I write just a rough phrase just to remember myself what I'll want to write. As you might guess, there are dozens of files inside this folder. Every now I then I open up this folder and scan the files to check if I'm in the mood to write something. Many of my texts were written in a span of weeks or even months.

Plus, I tag the files with words like empty, started, to-correct, etc, in order to keep them organized.

Answer 10

I am slowly migrating from a set of folders and Circa notebooks into Evernote. I treat it as a Memex.

Answer 11

I do something similar to Mario except I use Google Docs, allowing me to do indexed searches, versioning, etc of all my ideas :)

Answer 12

@Tanerax, I have already though of changing to Google Docs, because this way I'll have my texts wherever I am. In fact, I already use it as a notepad when I'm not home, but a definitive change sounds nicer every day.

My only fear is losing it all if Google messes up its servers. (As if I was too disciplined to make home backups...)

Answer 13

While I do use the free version of FogBugz (love it), for a list of ideas like you mentioned I actually keep it in my Yahoo! Notepad. I suppose I really should move it to Google docs though...

For side projects like you mention, support is always a problem. It's easy enough (to some degree) to write a product in the evenings, but providing daytime support is difficult. I think the trick is to outsource that support to other places. Read "The 4 Hour Workweek". It'll give you some ideas about outsourcing.

Even if you send it overseas, as long as its just email-based support, its probably good enough.

Answer 14

I usually just enter all my ideas into a Word document, I use excel as a TODO list.

You can also use Google Code to organize your project.

Answer 15

Basecamp for organizing the "big picture" things, and Pivotal Tracker for tasks, issues, bugs, and releases. Pivotal tracker is the only issue tracking system I have ever really enjoyed using, and I've tried a lot of them!

Answer 16

My personal preference for to-do and ideas list: Remember the milk. Loves the gmail&twitter integration, and mobile interface.

Answer 17

I use Chandler from http://chandlerproject.org/.

It's pretty easy to use, you can access your database from multiple computers and even through the internet and it has a status field similar to what David Allen's Getting Things Done book suggests.