I think I need a better notetaking system. Ideally, something that combines the searchability and linkability of hypertext with the portability, flexibility, and tactile niftiness of a fountain pen and a pad of paper.

Actually, I do have a pretty good note-taking system, consisting of a pad of paper and a fountain pen, plus a personal wiki for linking and searching. The pad of paper gets stream-of-consciousness jottings and doodlings as I work. Any ideas or information or todo items that I expect to need to hang on to get typed into WikidPad, or, if it's information that doesn't translate well to plain text (like a diagram), it gets filed in a folder.

This really works pretty well on most days. But occasionally, I get days like today, when the ideas and tasks start coming faster than I can get them down on paper. It went something like this:

I was working on the online Help for an application, trying to figure out what a parameter does, when I discover that there is a bug in how the dialog box that this parameter is set in works. So, then I'm working on entering this bug into the bug database, and I discover another bug, and I'm jotting notes about both of those. And then a coworker needs something proofread, and another coworker is like, "My RoboHelp project won't compile, WTF?," and the programmer is e-mailing me about UI design. And then...

Honestly, I don't remember all of it, but right now my head feels like the kitchen junk drawer, and I really wish there were an easy way it dump it out and sort all its contents.

On the plus side, 1 bug is entered in the database, and the doc is proofread. The RoboHelp project has so far resisted my troubleshooting wiles. I should probably write down what I've tried so far, before I forget it. And try to reconstruct how I produced the second bug.

And have some chocolate.