Ask HN: How do you organize and store your notes?

Org-Mode is great but not perfect. I would be willing to pay a significant amount of money for anyone that can reproduce most of the features of org-mode outside of emacs in a light-weight format.

It doesn't seem like it would be that difficult but it hasn't happened yet. People seem to start replicating org-mode, realize how many complex features there are and give fall off before completion.

http://orgmode.org/

For everyone using OneNote I'd like to make the comment that there are actually 2 versions of OneNote that Microsoft makes. There is "OneNote" and "OneNote 2016". Windows has both versions while your phone and Mac has only the lesser featured but more modern looking "OneNote".

Personally, I got a Parallels VM running on my Mac with Windows just so I could use "OneNote 2016". Many more features including deeper organization and custom tags.

In general, as long as you plan it out properly, hierarchical organization tends to be superior to tag based organization, and "OneNote 2016" (and even the other version) are really good at hierarchical organization compared to say Evernote.

I use org-mode (in spacemacs), folder synchronized on some cloud, private notes GPG encrypted. For me it's more than perfect. I always find what I am looking for immediately, org-mode is useful in lots of other use cases, emacs has been around for a long time and I trust will stay for the rest of my life...

Notational Velocity on the Mac, even if it isn't updated it still quickly stores and organizes (good for rough or final works). I'll use TextEdit or iA Writer if I need to actually work with the note or to publish. Sadly at least once a month I still need to use Office for Mac for something.

I don't personally have a need to save or insert data, images, or other content. If I really need to I'll insert the online URL or the location on my server in the note. Which makes a basic solution the best solution for me.

I also use iA Writer on my iPhone synced with iCloud for on the go access, and writing *nothing personal/private for security, secure notes are encrypted and accessed online or I use a physical air gap between machines I need it on.

I used to use Evernote, but it just go so slow, seems like a larger app than necessary, and had a bunch of functionality I didn't use get in my way.

I tried OneNote, but it didn't stick.

I've been using Bear (Mac platforms only) and have really liked it so far. Free to use, syncing is $1.50/mo. Evernote migration worked pretty well for me.

http://www.bear-writer.com/

http://www.bear-writer.com/faq/Import/Migrate%20from%20Evern...

Quiver (macOS) is my go-to. It works a lot like basic Evernote functionality but stores everything in readable, text files in a JSON format. You can commit them to a git repo, read them over a network, sync them with DropBox/SyncThing/etc, and so on. It's relatively cheap too @ (iirc) $10. I have no affiliation to them; I just like the product.

There's also an iOS client being worked on as well.

http://happenapps.com/#quiver

For me vimwiki [https://github.com/vimwiki/vimwiki] is good enough, here is a nice overview: https://www.dailydrip.com/blog/vimwiki

I was using physical calendar notebooks, such as Moleskin. I also tried productivity apps like as Wunderlist or Evernote. But nothing worked for my workflow. So I made my own (Mac, iPhone, iPad) app called NotePlan (http://noteplan.co).

I have created NotePlan out of the need for a productivity app, which is not just pushing around todos or collecting them in buckets. But which resembles the way many people plan in the “real world”: Using calendars, notebooks and bullet points. If you love, Org-mode, Bullet Journal, GTD or TaskPaper, you will love NotePlan.

Here the most important features:

* One dedicated note for every day in your calendar

* A Calendar gives you an overview of all your notes

* General notes decoupled from the calendar

* Everything saved and synced with iCloud Drive as plain text

* Markdown support with custom flavour for marking tasks

WORK: I don’t a defined organizational system since it hasn't provided value for me, but my general guideline is to store the notes nearby the context of the associated topic. This can be in project file folder, on a white board, or in a collaboration tool wiki. my formats are usually txt files, email, paper (notebook, paper), or onenote. Often times I will write a note on a scrap piece of paper just to remember a topic better.

PERSONAL - I also always switch but Evernote has worked for the last year. here is my sample setup (although I do not swear by it similar to my work structure). I don’t like post-it notes near my home rig ; ). Here is a snapshot: https://www.dropbox.com/s/tlnzut54agbycnh/notes_screenshot_f...

I use OneNote! It's probably the only Microsoft software that I use, but its amazing. You are able to create Notebooks, that contain section-groups, sections, and pages. You can draw, record, paste, etc.

https://www.onenote.com/

I created a web app to do this for me, including the ability to save the posts I created. I wanted something that would allow me to create even more than notes, and allow for HTML and CSS. I created https://mypost.io.

Officially: MyPost is your post, your content. Create beautiful web pages in minutes for free. Whether you know how to code or don't know how to code at all, MyPost is for you. The combination of HTML, BBCode, and various font icons will allow you to write professional and personal posts in no time. No experience necessary!

I shared it with the world... and people have taken a liking to it and found their own uses for it too. Completely free. If you decide to experiment.. hopefully you find a purpose for it.

- Clear https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/clear-tasks-reminders-to-do-...

- Sublime Editor + Markdown + (private) GitHub repository

I use a mixture of Zim Wiki for personal stuff, Dokuwiki (the portable wiki on a stick install) for my own work-related stuff, and Confluence wiki for work-related stuff shared with the team.

I just find that the wiki format works really well for me.

A mixture of things. From the top of my head: Folders of plain text files, mindmaps, paper

Having said this, the actual challenge for me lies in deciding what notes are actually worth storing. I recently browsed through the hard drive of on old laptop and was astonished to find out how maybe 95% of the notes were completely pointless. I guess a good deal of notes are only important the moment you are writing them down (to make something clear to yourself). In other words, much could have been written directly into /dev/null.

Standard Notes. Simple and encrypted. Available on every platform. Markdown and code editors, as well as custom themes.

https://standardnotes.org

Personal: Evernote, as a big dump of things I may need in the future. I don't use tags, but when adding a note I try to include meaningful keywords which I think the future me may use to find the note.

Work / Projects: Workflowy. Each project gets a dedicated top-level folder in my Workflowy account, and under that are the (Diary) folder for chronological records, and various non-chronological / accumulation folders for things like (Site), (Marketing), etc.

Mainly text files (using Notepad2-mod as editor) for short term or quick takes, and Evernote for medium/long term notes.

I keep my notes from books, talks, etc as a repo of markdown files so I can access it anywhere. I also have a second private repo for personal notes. For meeting notes, I like Dropbox Paper.

https://github.com/tedmiston/notes

Mindly software's "bubble" on smartphone and TODO, NOTE, ..., in editor if they can't be immediately digested by Trac's ticket or wiki page.

If it's valuable it would end up as git committed record in sqlite Trac database, and simply erased if not.

I write my notes in restructuredtext, and have them version controlled in. GitRepo. Spacemacs support for restructuredtext is as good as vim's. I can also edit my notes from the Web editor offered in GitLab, or GitHub.

I'm starting to use Gitbook and Gitbook-Editor for my personal notes. Love the Editor's UI and the fact that I can keep it in my private repository is also pretty nifty.

I'm curious to hear what's everyone's workflow

I've been using Todoist. Now that I'm good with the keyboard shortcuts (including the quick-add from the desktop app), I find it to be a lot more effective than Evernote or OneNote was.

Org mode, in git repo. Can be exported as blog, but I mostly do not care, since I am usually at my desk.

I push the repo to a server I own on the net. If it has secrets, I gitencypt it.

A journal made up of both digital logs and a physical notepad, a graph of associations between things, and a wiki for deeper details on specific topics.

At work I log my activities and notes on an incredibly long text file.

For other notes I just email myself. I like email as a format. It's accessible on all platforms.

For small notes I use Apple Notes app. Intentionally I don't keep too many notes in it.

Some larger ones graduate into a .txt file which go into a iCloud folder.

when I just have my phone, I use an app like Google keep for temporary notes.

However, if I have a little spiral flip pad, I much prefer that.

Anything I put into the phone, I transcribe onto a bigger sketch pad. I feel like having them in the phone is less accessible in some sense. Thought to paper is just easier to for me.

Google Keep:

- simple interface

- can access it on multiple devices

- shareable

- can set time/location reminder

- can pin/set color+picture for each note

- checklist, audio note, etc.

Google Keep. It lacks formatting, but it's readily available on all platforms.

Dropbox's Paper

Pen and paper!

- Pilot precise V5 - Small lined soft cover moleskins.