I was explaining to @documentally on Friday the way I use index cards to help map out just about everything. I tend to over think projects and also spread them far and wide over notebooks, bookmarks, iPhone/iPad apps, scraps of paper, several laptops and the margins of books. All of that is eventually collected and ends up on index cards. I know that @sleepydog now has his own system of cards and we’ve been discussing how quickly these 6″ x 4″ blanks amount into something.

Then I saw this over on Warren’s blog:

Loose Ideas folders are great. Any half-formed idea that you think might have potential to become something someday? Type it into a .txt file of its own and fling it into a folder marked Loose Ideas. Make sure it’s linked to your backups. A Loose Ideas folder is saving for the future. One day, you’re going to find in that folder the exact thing you need at that moment, whether it be a new project or a bit of business that fixes the script or book in front of you

I was assuming that everyone did this. Maybe not.

My own loose ideas folder is where at least two of the things I’m working on right now started out. You need to make a home for those crazy 3am revelations otherwise they slip down under the bed and get eaten by something that doesn’t want you to succeed.

The stuff you write doesn’t have to make it into a library, a book or even a blog post for it to be important enough to save and more importantly you don’t know when that single sentence or word you tucked safely away won’t come roaring back and save you.

Plus .txt files take up less room on your hard drive than all the HD porn you’re saving for a rainy day.