For Designers: Don’t Let Ideas Die in App Switching

I’ve talked to enough designers (and worked with enough design work) to notice a pattern:

ideas don’t disappear because you’re not inspired—they disappear because you’re busy.

You see a nice spacing rhythm, a good transition, a clean copy line… and then you tell yourself “I’ll remember it”.

You won’t.

The worst timing is always the same:

you’re mid-flow in Figma / a doc / a build

you spot something worth saving

you don’t want to break your focus to open a notes app

So you postpone it, and it fades.

I keep the capture step stupidly small.

If I’m working, I only allow myself one sentence.

Not a full explanation. Not a perfect archive. Just enough to keep the spark alive.

Examples of what I actually write:

“This hover feels calm because easing is slow + no overshoot”

“Use 8px more top padding; current header feels tight”

“This palette works: warm yellow + deep blue, no pure white”

Later, when I’m in “整理模式”, I expand it. But capture first.

InspireDrop is good for that first 3-second capture.

Then when a note is worth keeping, I sync it to Apple Notes (or wherever you live long-term).

That’s the workflow: capture fast → keep flow → graduate later.

If you design for a living, you probably have dozens of tiny “micro-observations” every week.

This is for anyone who:

loses good ideas because they don’t want to switch apps

wants a light “scratchpad” that doesn’t become another system

prefers collecting sparks first, organizing later

The goal isn’t to record everything.

It’s to stop losing the good ones.