I’ve talked about Things. I’ve talked about Evernote. And I love them both. But something was missing in my information process. I needed a place for random thoughts & ideas to go in the pre-brainstorming stage. Those thoughts that cross your mind in the middle of a conversation or during a movie. Thoughts you want to come back to later but aren’t ready to make any sort of permanent place for.

Enter Simplenote.

Simplenote is an iPhone app that has a sister desktop app called Notational Velocity. I first read about it a while back in a post from Scott McClellan on the formerly Collide now Echo Hub blog. It is quick & simple…less bulky than Evernote for on the run note taking.

In my world, information doesn’t stay in Simplenote permanently. About once a week I go through Simplenote & filter all of the information that’s in there. I decide if it needs to be filed in Evernote, turned into an action step in Things, or sometimes, needs to marinate in Simplenote a while longer.

Did I mention they’re both free?!

What’s your go-to method for capturing random thoughts & ideas?