This post was published 4 years 4 months 2 days ago and as such probably does not reflect my current opinions, knowledge or ability.
Yesterday I wrote about how getting a notepad has made a huge difference to my programming. This post will follow on by looking at various ways of improving your plans and programs, without even touching a computer. These are all techniques which have helped me in the past, or I intend to try in the future. If you have another method to add, drop me an email or leave a comment and I’ll add a follow-up post next week to share everyone’s ideas.
1. A Sketchbook.
As I discussed yesterday, I’ve found having a sketchbook can be a great way to gather my notes and thoughts, and work through both rough and detailed plans.
2. Flashcards or Notecards
Great for learning a programming language. By writing examples of difference constructs on each card (for example a card with a for loop, another with a switch block) you can easily check back on how to implement them (without needing to fire up a web browser or search through a huge programming reference). You can add more cards as you learn, and scribble notes about things which might catch you out otherwise on the back.
3. Bookmarks
I often find myself referring to the same programming reference books when I come to a problem, and then spending time scouring the web when they’re missing the information I’m looking for. By writing it down on a bookmark and sticking it in the appropriate section of the book, it saves you or someone else having to search the web over again for the same information.
4. Postit Notes
Alright, so Postit notes are good for just about anything. Make quick reminders for yourself or someone else. Brainstorm ideas on Postit notes so you can easily work through and remove ones which wont work. Make a flexible plan where you can move all your notes around as it comes together. I love Postits.
5. Cover Your Desk In Paper
At the end of high school, I had a roll of wallpaper attached over my desk. It means you’re never short of somewhere to make notes or scribble down an idea, and you wont have to worry about losing them. When the paper is covered, you can just rip it off and start over.
6. Poster or Flipchart Paper
When I try and make rough plans and mindmaps, I often end up making everything tiny, wasting time trying to keep them neat and orderly, or running out of paper entirely. The answer? Use a bigger sheet of paper of course. You don’t have to worry about running out of space or exactly where you’re writing, making planning much faster and effective, and you can always refine the design in a more organised way afterwards.
Do you do any of these suggestions, and do they work for you?
Don’t forget to let me know if you have any more ideas, or if you’ve written about something similar before. I’ll share everyone’s suggestions and links next week.
For years I scribbled everything on bits of paper – postits, the back of page-a-day calendars, the back of old printous. I always kept a notebook as well but I tended to only record the stuff I thought I might need to go back to weeks or months later. However, that meant that I would often have permanently recorded a decision but not the train of thought that got me there or the fix for a problem but not the things I did while I was trying to figure out what was wrong. All that stuff would have been written on scraps of paper which would either be thrown away or ‘filed’ randomly in a pile on my desk.
I now record pretty well everything in a series of notebooks (I prefer something spiral bound, between A5 and A4, with squared pages) with big headings in coloured pens on the top corner of the pages so that I can look through them. I score through discarded designs and fruitless paths but they are still there if I want to see them again.
I still jot things down on scrappy bits of paper and but I either transfer them into the notebook if they they’re getting me somewhere (sellotape is useful) or throw them out straight away. I get through far more notebooks than I used to and they’re certainly not neat but on the odd occasion that I do want to remember why I did something a year ago, I can generally still find it.
I knew you’d have something to add if I started talking about notebooks.
Almost everything I write goes in my notebook too, but I still use other bits of paper for reminders or to make bigger plans.
I remember for Higher Physics I had all the equations written over my walls in chalk – it looked cool but I don’t think it actually helped me at all…
I was going to suggest toilet paper (does no-one else get ideas while sitting on their throne?) but after that much more serious suggestion I think I’m going to have to suggest hanging a notebook close by or putting a whiteboard up (ok… not paper but still) so at least the paper has no chance of getting soggy (oops!) and can always be copied to a more permanent storage location at a later date.
I guess if you work on a whiteboard or blackboard you can always take a photo to store it more permanently. Having a digital copy of notes could prove useful.
Here was me trying to be silly and you go and be all serious about it
If we’re moving to digital methods of keeping notes, I’m still considering the EEE PC as it’ll boot up fast enough for me not to forget what I was going to scribble down. I think I’d probably install LAMPP to it with WordPress as it seems the best idea for keeping notes. I always loose all my recorded ponderings in a sea of “Untitled Documents” I guess if anyone could suggest something similar (haven’t looked into it yet as I am waiting a while yet before I get the EEE) but not needing Apache installed then I’d be interested
Kontact has a diary function so you could keep notes by date if that’s what you meant. If not you could just force yourself into using sensible directory/file names.
Good job justifying getting an EEEPC though
well… Kontact => Qt => not on my PC
but the whole point was taggable notes and things… so I wouldn’t have to force myself… it seems to be an easier way of doing it to stop me falling into the bad habit of not naming things. True, I guess I could tag them with stupidly irrelevant things, but I think it’s unlikely to be as bad as notes that already have a “default name” that I just need to click OK to…
There’s still the fact that there are very few notes to be made in our lectures… but if you fiddle around with WordPress a bit it can make a fairly solid CMS.
A picture paints a thousands words.
If you can’t draw it, it can’t be done.
For any sizable project, use a bug tracking database.
Source code revision systems are more important than source code.
A messy desk means tidy mind.
A tidy desk means no work is being done.
high lighter pen are ace, smell em enough and you fell lighter and get high.
Real bits of physical paper are no search able, but are permanent. (almost)
Virtual bits of paper are searchable, but are easy to loose (without backups).
Hmmm… I agree entirely with the points on bug tracking and source revision systems.
I think with my art skills though if I couldn’t do anything I couldn’t draw, I’d be in big trouble.
Anyway, thanks for those.
try this site
http://www.bubbl.us/
my mind operates in wierd ways sometimes!
Thanks aaron, that looks really useful. I tried to install some mindmapping software before (unsuccessfully) so I’ll check that out later. Could be especially useful at university when I can’t use the software I would at home.
I still enjoy mind mapping on paper though.
I love the idea of covering your desk in wallpaper. That’s awesome! *runs off to do just that*
I love always have a place to scribble, I just hate having to move my computer and stuff to cover my desk again.
Good Luck!
I stumbled upon your site accidentally on purpose… Actually I like Aarons comment above that mentioned bubbl.us, and it inspired me to share about Freemind http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page . This application has helped me many times.
Thanks for the link Chris, I’ve had a look at Freemind before and it seems like it could be really useful.