Capturing ideas

Ideas is a pinboard for raw material: something that annoyed you, a line you liked, a thing you keep explaining. No character count, no post button, nothing that implies it should be finished.

Where ideas come from

• You jot one: from the Ideas board or the quick-capture field on Homebase.
• The coach asks: question cards on the board, drawn from your topics. Answer one and the answer becomes an idea.

Fresh captures get a topic tag automatically where the coach is confident. You can change or clear it any time.

An idea belongs to the organisation you were in when you captured it, and the board shows that organisation’s ideas. If you belong to several, the switcher at the top of the nav is also what changes this board, your drafts and the pick-up zones on Homebase. Nobody else ever sees any of them: this is about which of your own piles you are looking at, not about who can read it.

Warmth

An idea cools as it ages: hot for the first couple of days, then warm, then cooling. Past a week it is cold and the mark disappears altogether, because a badge that says “old” on every card is noise, not a nudge.

At four weeks the coach asks about it once: keep it, or let it go. Letting go of something you no longer believe in is a perfectly good outcome, and that is the whole of the intervention. Nothing is deleted for you.

Where a parked piece goes

It depends on how far it got, and the difference matters when you go looking for it.

Opening an idea does not paste it onto the page. The thought goes into the conversation with the coach and the sheet in front of you starts empty, because what you jotted down at a traffic light is material, not a first draft.

An idea you opened and closed again without writing anything is still an idea, and it is still on this board. A draft you save for later stays a draft: it is in Posts, under Drafts, not here. The board is for raw material; once there are words on the page, the piece has left it.