Organization, how to capture project momentum...
ctwardell
Posts: 1,716
I often have to switch gears and put various work and personal projects on hold to focus on what needs done at the time.
I find a lot of time is lost getting "back in the groove" when I return to a project.
Does anyone care to share what ways they use to capture ideas and project status to make it easier to pick up at a later date?
C.W.
I find a lot of time is lost getting "back in the groove" when I return to a project.
Does anyone care to share what ways they use to capture ideas and project status to make it easier to pick up at a later date?
C.W.
Comments
This should be an interesting thread, I hope some helpful strategies come out of it!
The one thing that I find really helpful is when I've left myself lots of notes. At the top of most Spin programs I have section "Private Notes" which are to remind myself what problems I was having with which versions of the code. (I also have a "Public Notes" section for users of the object.)
I also keep a notebook about projects I'm working on. I leave the first few pages of the notebook blank to act as a table of contents to be filled in later. A notebook was required in my chemistry labs (back in my college days) and I've found them very useful in other aspects of life. I've often amazed at how useful a few notes to myself from the past can be, though I'm also amazed at how often I have neglected to have leave myself any notes.
I'd also like to hear others' ideas about this.
I know a lot of science people who suffer from not taking adequate notes, but it seems to me computer scientists are the worst. They hate to document anything, which might explain why so many software products remain as glitchy and ill-tempered as they were 25 years ago.
If you break up your notes by project or subject, then it might also help to keep a separate, chronological diary that covers everything, which can help you pin down what you were doing and when.
Notebooks/Notes. This is a very good idea. I worked in R&D (mostly D) in the paint business industrial coatings field for over 20 years, and we were required to keep detailed notebooks. It's a very helpful thing to have when you need to revisit something you worked on after a period of time. Since I've been getting back into electronics as a hobby I've been keeping lots of notes on almost everything I do and it's proven to be very useful when returning to a project after months of doing other things.
http://www.peterthethinker.com/FORUM/
Peter, that's very cool. How did you go about setting up your non-forum forum? And, if you don't mind my asking, how much does it cost?
About once a month I back the entire projects folder onto an SD card, keeping 3 or 4 SD cards in rotation.
I've just recently started keeping a shelf of a couple of dozen cardboard shoeboxes for organizing project hardware, as shoeboxes seem to be a good size to hold half-built protoboards, cables, components and devices all related to a particular category of project.
It still takes time to get back into the momentum of a shelved project but knowing where both the hardware and the latest software revision is really seems to help get started again.
Another place it keep documentation on a project is on the forum. I've often gone back to project threads to figure out what I had previously done.
I finally got tired of tracking down the same threads over and over so I created an index as I've seen several other forum members do. I've found having my projects listed in an index to be a huge time saver .
Peter, that's brilliant!! I love the idea to create a Forum of/for and by yourself. Online, convenient, multi-media, shareable if you want. Must check out doing this to myself!
I'm left handed and never developed decent handwriting skills which led to poor note taking skills.
I guess the immediate action item for me is to force myself to take better notes and keep them better organized.
Thanks for the input.
C.W.
Occasionally I have the foresight to keep all the parts needed gathered in a box, unfortunately, I'm frequently cannibalizing "back burner" projects for front burner projects (this reminds me, I need to finish my kitchen oven/stove controller project). One habit I wish I had, and would like to develop is to leave myself a note when I cannibalize a project to remind myself where the "stolen" part is located.
I got this idea some years ago to build a frequency counter after seeing a circuit posted on some web site. I got to the point where it was almost completely functional, but then was side-tracked and never really finished it. The thing has been occupying my best breadboard for years because it was a real pain to wire up and I didn't want to dismantle it until I either built a permanent finished version or decided I was never going to actually build it and just buy one.
I've kind of been eye-balling it a lot here in the last couple of weeks, I could really use that breadboard for other stuff. Maybe its time has come
I're really bad about doing this (my kitchen oven/stove controller has been on a breadboard for several years). I finally just purchased a bunch of breadboards so I'd have enough to go around. The only time I clear them off is if I'm going to have some sort of electronics class for cub scouts or something along those lines and I need a bunch at the same time.
Maybe what you gurus need to do is combobulate something akin to a Makerbot except what it does is rapidly pull breadboarded projects apart, remember where each part goes on the breadboard, whilst sticking the extracted parts into conductive foam for storage. Later, when you want to restart the project, you bring up the old file, click BUILD, and watch the thing reassemble your project on the breadboard, ready to go in a matter of minutes.
If you brainiacs can't get this to work, tell me why.
Well that was just mean. . . . Oh, you where accusing yourself? Nevermind. (For some reason I thought it was directed at me.
-me-
Um, what was the question?
This video came up next to one of the "Figure 8" YouTube videos.
Figure 4 Squirrel Solution
EXACTLY!!!!
For compactness you can just stack them without lids (my circuits don't squash easily!), and the texta labels on the front of the box shines through the multiple walls for easy identification.
And for transit or delicate projects you can just put a lid on. They are disproportionately large but I find that useful because when you have to move them you can grab the various programming cables, power supplies, other generic manuals or books and throw it into the same box for the duration of the escapade.
However I really did like that forumista's suggestion of a conveyor belt desk whose surface gradually moves to the left... if you really need it you'd better rescue it before it falls over the edge into the bin
Edit: Also, After having been a Warehouse Manager for several years, I devised an Inventory Control system for my Project Parts. Each project gets a Letter/Number associated with it that coincides with an Excel Spreadsheet. Works out pretty well as long as I remember to put the letter/number on the bin or wherever I put the project parts.
From my site
as far as cost ..... Its part of my main Website . but a home server and a Dyn DNS account can do the same ! .
I like it as its lockable . but guests can post.... and It time stamps my work.. Its by no means a legal EE notebook . but for my internal needs it does very well. I can upload on ANY computer in the world . and thusI have a portable living document.
also it handles attachments VERY well......
I ended up doing all my work I want public on that site.
I cant write so I have to type . thus it just fits well...
If you build your BOM and have all your vendors entered it can automaticall create RFQs and POs (and tell you how many to buy to get the best price)
I use it at work to create BOMs and rollup costs before I put everything into our $200k ERP system, not bad for $99!
http://www.trilogydesign.com/
BTW, I am not affiliated with them in any way, just a very happy customer for 10+ years
If I've been way from a project for a a while, I simple look at the history. I'm usually up to speed pretty quick.
This is where source control shines. You can add your unit test code in separate folders or branches. Whatever works for ya.