I've tried several apps like Evernote, Trello, Asana or voice Memo apps ... Also I am maintaining like 2-3 ToDo lists on paper troughout my home. But in the end I often loose tasks, or interesting ideas come up again like 2 months later and I cant remember where I already wrote about it.
What Tools do you use?
If someone sends me an e-mail about something that needs doing for work, I hit a keybinding, and a buffer pops up with a TODO item, by default scheduled for today, with a link back to that e-mail (and any selected text added as well). I write a quick headline, then C-c C-c and it's filed under "Misc" in my work org file. Sometimes I hit C-c C-w to immediately file it under some project heading instead (not much harder because of auto-completion). Since it's scheduled in my work org file, it shows up in my work agenda, which I open every morning and whenever I need a task to do. When I'm working on the task, I might write further notes for that task under that heading. It's all plain text, easily greppable, versioned in git.
I have a non-work org file and capture template too. I go through the non-work agenda a bit more rarely than the work one (spending less time on work is on my non-work TODO), but it's a nice way of sending messages to yourself in the future ("* TODO renew passport SCHEDULED: <2027-01-30 +10y>"). And I feel pretty confident in the system, since I've been using it for over ten years …
If I'm not at my computer and I get an idea or something, I'll typically just send myself a very short message over IRC. I find phone-typing a pain, and rarely have the need to look at my agenda on the phone (though I know there are org-mode phone apps should the need arise).
Part of the trick is reviewing & refactoring the trello lists on occasion to make sure the 1-3 boards you look at the most don’t feel unwieldy. Example: I recently threw several lists of wacky ideas and things into an unsorted “someday hell” board.
This makes it very clear what is and what is not a priority. If I rewrite the same thing for tenth time, maybe it's not important after all.
I find it more satisfying to physically draw a line through the tasks that I finished, rather than check them off a list on my phone. If a task stays on the fridge for more than a week I regretfully discard it as something that didn't need doing.
As a bonus my kids add notes to my list and draw silly pictures beneath some of them.
How do you add tasks/ideas/notes on the go?
I may have to look into emacs org mode but the above system scales well to potentially hundreds of notes. And if somehow it didn't, I would just add another column.
For notes, I am using Notebooks App for iOS[3]. The biggest selling point is being able to synchronize with the directory hierarchy of markdown files via WebDAVS. On the desktop, the same directory can be accessed via applications like Simplenote[7] or nvALT[6]. I use my own web app and even a bunch of shell and Python scripts working with this directory as I like to experiment with information organization features specific to me.
In general, to discover new tools, I like to read UsesThis[4] interviews. It has very good Signal to Noise ratio once you start reading the interviews but quickly levels off as people tend to use mostly the same well-established tools. ProductHunt[5] is low signal-to-noise ratio, with lots of new unproven but interesting tools.
[1] https://www.pocketinformant.com/ [2] https://www.toodledo.com/ [3] https://www.notebooksapp.com/ [4] https://usesthis.com/ [5] https://www.producthunt.com/ [6] http://brettterpstra.com/projects/nvalt/ [7] https://simplenote.com/
I recently switched to Bear [2] and ditched all of the other apps.
If I have some important tasks and TODOs I try to put them in my google calendar with a specific date and an allotted time. That way I know when it will get done and can make sure that I don't waste too much time on it.
Tiddlywiki, because it lives locally, is insanely fast and there's nothing I think easier/faster than it for making notes and todo's are more or less just notes.
I use GTD to keep on top of stuff. Once a day I go through everything that's been added to the system but not yet categorized. I move it to the appropriate to-do list or reference document where I'll know to find it later.
I have lists for things like "gift ideas for family", "potential software experiments", "active work projects", "books to read", or "to consider next year". I also have a primary list for things that actively need doing.
Remember, it's not the tool that matters. It's the process and the system.
Then I rely on he fact that pending iOS reminders sit on my phone lock screen until I mark them as completed. I also use the “remind me again in an hour / tomorrow” options a lot.
Now I use voice commands to set reminders every day. With each year, voice tech gets better and I'm proven more wrong. I don't even feel weird using them in public anymore.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go turn on some music with my Echo, and tell my Pixel to record reminders for the week.
It's the same thing Newt is speaking into in the movie Pacific Rim. I was tickled when I saw that. They're hard to get nowadays; the later 700 and 800 models are bigger, clunkier, and cheaper-feeling.
Before I often stressed when I couldn't recall something I knew was important or had been a cool idea. Now I still don't have time to explore 90% of the things I think about, but I don't stress about it.
https://www.levenger.com/International-Pocket-Briefcase-2269...
It has 3x5 cards and a pen. This is basically my real-world inbox. I jot down notes, recommendations, ideas. The important next step is to regularly empty the inbox, so that useful jottings end up turned into something that gets handled. E.g., times and dates go into my calendar, tasks go into my kanban board, books I might want to read go in my Amazon wishlist, etc.
And depending on the note type go through them every day/week/month to see if they are still relevant. Some people like to go the whole GTD way but I like to pick just the parts that work for me.
I dont think I could recover from the mess now.. i just live with it :-(
Until recently I had a section in my notebook devoted to project ideas, but it got a bit unwieldy, and I've switched to keeping those in Markdown: https://gitlab.com/lyndsysimon/ideas
I either use an "ideas" tag in Standard Notes, or have 1 pinned note called "Ideas" or "Journal" that I constantly make updates to.
This is an app I've been building for over a year now. Benefits are encryption + cross-platform sync.
It wasn't initially apparent that there seems to be both a free and (subscription?) paid version, which had me very confused while reading the 'longevity' page as to how a SaaS is going to last forever. The 'Always Free' box isn't very clear that it describes a different product version (no download button, not clearly a standalone feature list) and the text on the far left is basically background noise.
Maybe I'm completely off-base, but while SN only ever see the encrypted blobs, editors often (almost always) require me to send over my plain-text to a server which then sends it back to me. That's not really end-to-end... what's the motivation behind the hosted plugins, and not downloading signed binaries/code that operate through a permissions-based API?
In the future, I could imagine for example a desktop app that runs all of the extensions locally (but would mean no web access). But the hosted architecture is not bad. The only remote connection made is when the script is first downloaded. After that, the note editing all happens locally in-frame, and the end-to-end architecture remains intact. The question really becomes, can you trust the script that's initially loaded? This will be up to the user. The editor feature is a layer of convenience that comes at a minor cost of potential privacy, but is no more untrustworthy than the SN web app you load in your browser (assuming the editor is coming from our servers and not some random link).
Great features but I find the pricing a bit too high (for a consumer product).
Does it have vim bindings?
But I think the tool is basically unimportant, compared to actually in practice using it daily. Pen/paper, huge file, Evernote, they're all useless if you're not actually doing the work or actually consulting them regularly.
Going to check out Omnifocus btw..
I tried a lot of TODO and note taking apps and none of it worked for me. Once written down, I remember most of it without looking at my journal.
As a UX guy, how would you approach this?
I have a history of all of those huge text files which give me great insight into what I have been up to over the years.
* Long term notes without tasks or deliverable dates: OneNote
* Short term notes pending a permanent home: Apple's IOS Notes
* Dated tasks: Google Calendar
I don't understand how to tap into the assistant from the phone app. If the assistant is evaluating my list without my request, the assistant can't make heads or tails of my tasks and so does not make an appearance.
All in all, not really all that helpful.
If I need to voice memo, then I just use the stock voice memos app.
Anything needing organisation goes into Trello.
It's just quick and easy note app and syncs with cloud with no fuss.
- Resophnotes (using Simple notes backend)
.
On mobile:
- Google keep (Writing nonote s- Notational Acceleration (Reading notes)
Mix use of iCloud Notes and Sublime Text on the laptop
I bacially want this guy, as a Service.
