Why prefer plaintext?

Tools I’ve tried: evernote, markdown, org-mode, dropbox paper, onenote, google keep, regular paper, todoist, trello, wunderlist, todo.txt/todo.sh, dropbox, pinboard, pocket, instapaper, bullet journal.

What I’m using circa 2019: markdown, dropbox, google keep, pinboard, bullet journal.

What I need

• simple, ubiquitous capture (so that getting more information is easy);
• open access (e.g. not ecosystem dependant to retrieve or backup my information;
• value-generating (e.g. the system should get out my way, so I generate output rather than fiddling with the system).

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What I’ve settled on

Right now, only Dropbox, Pinboard and Google Keep are proprietary. Dropbox is only used as a backup, so can easily be replaced. Pinboard has easy export of all my data, in a sane format. Google Keep is only used for plaintext notes so I could just use more markdown notes. Right now it’s just used for separation of concerns between temporary and long-term notes.

• Dropbox: Used for basically all data storage.
  • Notes are taken in a notes/ subfolder
  • todo.md, journal.md, projects.md (long-term as-yet-unrealised ideas) inside notes/
  • references/ folder for al kinds of random information
• Pinboard: bookmark archive, and “read it later”
  • Proves bookmarks tagged as “to read”, rather than a specific offline-available reading interface. Just links directly back to the host site.
• Google Keep: Used for transient notes, and for saving highlights that I share from my Android Epub reader Moon Reader pro.
• BulletJournal: Freeform notes and diagrams are sometimes required in meetings, and a bullet journal lets me take a bit of offline time to review my behaviours and make sure I’m working in the right direction.

Working hard towards your vision is worthless if you have a poor vision.

All of these tools are incredibly simple. Google keep serves 1 purpose, formatless brief notes. If these notes become ‘knowledge’, they get refactored into some meaningful markdown in dropbox.

Dropbox saves all of my information, no matter the format. It also interacts with iA writer for notes on markdown, and allows for files to be saved offline (such as documents needed when travelling).

Pinboard is useful as it means I don’t have a massive note dump inside multiple markdown files: I have tagged notes that can be referenced and shared, as well as saving the markdown notes for processed knowledge that can be beneficial long-term.

Why not X?

Notetaking

• Evernote: Proprietary. Constant issues with entering information (would constantly mix HTML styles based on where information was copied from, resulting in difficult to read/distracting styling). Too easy to dump information without any structure. Fine if you only want to search, but not very good for discovery and exploring your own content. Cannot easily modify existing content via scripts, or search in innovative ways. Plus, rumours of dying make me want to move my notes now, before my archive gets bigger and more difficult to manage.
• OneNote: Freeform notes sound nice, but work horribly on mobile. Don’t like side-panning.
• Dropbox Paper: gets sluggish with large notes, and difficult for offline access, although the interface is a rather lovely and simple interpretation of markdown.

Todos

• Todoist: Ended up wfiddling too much with structure and tags and scheduling, rather than just getting work done.
• Wunderlist: Basically the same as todoist.
• Trello: The kanban style approach sounds nice, but I’m not working with other people, so don’t need anything like a WIP stage. Focusing on a single task is much more beneficial for productivity, so don’t want to constantly see everything and try to juggle multiple “states”. I only have 1 WIP active, otherwise it’s todo or moved to a separate location (done).

Read later

Both pocket and instapaper are reasonable enough, but I want my information split across less sources, and want to streamline my process so I’m not using so many different pieces of software.

Paired with this, it just because a dumping ground of posts, and with my revelation of most content being low effort meaningless shit, I’ve moved away from blogs and towards books, so a dedicated read-it-later service isn’t valuable.