Idea bank

Ideas arrive at inconvenient moments and leave just as quickly, which is the entire reason for keeping one. It can be a spreadsheet, a note on a phone, a database or a stack of index cards, and the format matters far less than having one place everything goes. A useful entry is more than a title. Add a line on who it is for, what it promises, and why you thought of it, because a two-word note read back in six weeks is usually unreadable. The failure mode is the bank that only ever fills up. A hundred untouched ideas is a to-do list you are avoiding, so a regular cull keeps it a working tool.