Spark Files: Keeping Track of Your Ideas, Concepts & Thoughts

For those who don’t know what a Spark file is: it’s essentially a file (be it in Evernote, Google Keep, or in my case, a Markdown text file stored in Dropbox) where you can dump random ideas. Once those ideas are recorded, you can review them later to see if they have any merit.

Every time you come up with a new idea, it often feels like the best idea in the world. The problem is that you might be too excited about your own idea (“don’t get high on your own supply”) and might not see its flaws. Writing it down and revisiting it later is a great way to self-critique.

Here’s how I manage my ideas:

• If I’m at my PC, where I have access to my various *.spark.md files, I’ll access them directly.
• If I’m on the move, I’ll either email myself the idea or dump it in Google Keep on my phone, to move it later into the correct text file.

Why *.spark.md? So I can easily find them using Everything. I’ve set up a shortcut (Alt+Z, under Options > General > Keyboard -> Toggle window Hotkey) to toggle the window, and configured it to close the window once I’ve opened a file (Options > General > Results -> Close Window on execute).

I open the file with Visual Studio Code because of its excellent extension support. I’m using markdownlint (for maintaining a consistent Markdown file), Markdown Preview Enhanced (to see how the file compiles), and English Support for LanguageTool (as an alternative to Grammarly, since Grammarly doesn’t support anything other than English and lacks a VSCode extension). It’s a neat combination!

The ideas I place in my Spark files are usually about programming, such as features I want to add to a project I’ve had in mind since 2014. This project is intended to compete with Reddit, which I feel has declined in quality with poor puns and low-quality communities.

Reviewing these ideas periodically has given me several well-developed concepts over the years. I can’t share them here because I intend to monetize them eventually. :^)

I wanted to share this process with you because it has really helped me keep my ideas organized. I hope it will help you too.

PS: The Spark File concept originates from a blog post in 2012: Medium/The Spark File (if that link ever dies, it’s also available on web.archive.org).