Capturing Ideas

March 27, 2020

I wrote a few weeks ago about figuring out what you like to write. While doing so, I mentioned recording ideas. As a writer, it’s important to be able to record ideas as they pop into your head, as you never know what’s going to be a good idea and what’s not. There are two ways I record or capture ideas: a notebook and my phone.

I’ve always got at least one notebook and pencil with me. While my phone works just as well, this allows me to record ideas in the event that I’m not allowed to use my phone, or when I don’t want people to think I’m texting and not paying attention. I can quickly jot down the thought that popped into my head, then add it to my digital notes later.

The setup on my phone is a lot more complicated. Basically, I open up an app on my phone, type a few keys, type in the idea, push a few more keys (none of which is enter), then the note is saved and synced between my phone, my server, and my laptop. This utilizes Emacs (my favorite text editor), an app called Termux (lets me run Emacs on my phone), and Syncthing (synchronizes my notes files across my machines). The setup for this is outside the scope of this essay, because I’ve taken years to fine-tune it to my needs, often programming parts of it myself. For someone who wants something they don’t need to spend hours setting up and maintaining, there are better solutions.

There are tons of notes applications out there if you want to use your phone, but the one I used to use is called Orgzly. Orgzly organizes notes into notebooks, sorting them under headings that you can reorganize. It goes beyond just recording notes that you can look over later; you can schedule tasks, tag and search entries, give certain tasks priority, to name a few things. Orgzly utilizes an extension for Emacs called Org Mode, storing its information in Org Mode’s file format. Org Mode is what I use to capture and file notes (and most of my life), so Orgzly is a good option for people that want all of that, but don’t want to learn Emacs.

These are only my methods. I’ve seen other people with their own way of doing things. Some people just use a notebook and record everything later on index cards. Others go entirely digital using some program I’ve never heard of. Don’t force yourself to use a solution you don’t like. Find something that works for you.