TL;DR: I decided to write things down, because no single note-taking app convinced me so far.
Well, obvious. I use Notion (and love/hate it), and write things down a lot. What a surprise.
Tired of note-taking apps
211–220 of 481 posts
Re: Tired of note-taking apps
#212Trying to use all the bells and whistles of a note taking app is a distraction from just using the app to write things down. Depending on the platform, get yourself a stylus and just write as you normally would on paper. Later you can learn the features... Worked for me and I love it! I use my digital notebook as a secondary brain.
Re: Tired of note-taking apps
#213Yes this is self promotion, but its also under a thread about people frustrated with note taking apps so I think it is ok - I made NitroNotes[0] because I was annoyed at even the slow startup speed of Apple Notes. You have 7 Dots, each one corresponding to a separate note. You swipe between each note (or on macOS you can Click Cmd+1, 2, etc). The app is less than a MB on iOS, and just over a MB on macOS. It syncs usi…
US apple store, for the ones in the US [0]. Just made me discover that the Apple App ID is the same. Only difference is :s/GB/US/g
Re: Tired of note-taking apps
#214Yes this is self promotion, but its also under a thread about people frustrated with note taking apps so I think it is ok - I made NitroNotes[0] because I was annoyed at even the slow startup speed of Apple Notes. You have 7 Dots, each one corresponding to a separate note. You swipe between each note (or on macOS you can Click Cmd+1, 2, etc). The app is less than a MB on iOS, and just over a MB on macOS. It syncs usi…
US apple store, for the ones in the US [0]. Just made me discover that the Apple App ID is the same. Only difference is :s/GB/US/g [0]: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/nitronotes/id1502080216
Thank you for that.
Re: Tired of note-taking apps
#215> It’s not because of limited choices. But it’s the other way around. There are so many note-taking apps you could try but end up sticking to none. At least, that’s my story. It’s a perfect example of the paradox of choice. Either this is not a good example of the paradox of choice, or as I am more inclined to believe, the paradox of choice is mostly bunk. While I don't discount that some consumers may be frustrated…
> Fewer apps would not make the apps better.
I don't think the author is saying this.
You can agree on the following simultaneously:
* More competition and innovation in this space might lead to better tools and possibly better individual outcomes.
* More options might lead to more exploration, experimentation and high switching costs, paralysis by indecision, procrastination via tinkering, and possibly worse individual outcomes.
The truly major innovations are behind us: language, writing, writing instruments, paper, word processor.
Of course, other tools could accelerate your process but depending on what you're working on, if you don't pick a system and stick with it for a while, you might experience worse outcomes.
> the non-satisfaction with note-taking applications shows ... more choices are in fact needed.
Satisfaction is as much a function of our perspective as it is of the tool.
You can ask
"What is the best tool?"
or you can ask
"What is good enough?"
Re: Tired of note-taking apps
#216I just use whatever comes with the phone, never understood the "market" of note taking apps.
Does Android ship with a note taking app?
Kind of, either you have Google's or some other one provided by the device manufacter.
For me that use them as digital paper replacement, more than enough, just like on the Symbian days.
Before J2ME and Symbian, I would just use SMS drafts as quick notes.
So I am not the target market, whatever it might be.
Re: Tired of note-taking apps
#217Personally I find Apple Notes the most convenient for quick jotting down of ideas etc. It’s not the most advanced in terms of features but it loads instantly, is quick to use and is available on all of my devices. Have tried numerous alternatives but they’ve never stuck e.g. they’re slow to start up or are fussy to use or don’t work well on one platform. For deeper sketching out of ideas, diagrams etc I really like C…
Is there a way to use it on a different platform?
I like to use Linux systems and even though Microsoft sells Windows, OneNote allows me to use it in a browser.
Apple still seems to favor their walled garden so that you have to live with all their downsides in order to enjoy the good parts.
Re: Tired of note-taking apps
#218I've tried many different systems, and the one I settled on is a single simple doc. It's the only method I've used for over a year. You can do google doc or office doc, but the key for me was having one doc that I just keep prepending to. Each day i'll add the date yyyy-mm-dd (dow) in bold and then list my work for the day... I use hyperlinks to dedicated docs or online guides for more involved projects (quick ctrl-k…
I have been using a single text file for past 5 years. Ability to do vim regex search is a big plus. Lately I have been thinking of adding a search engine on top of mac's notes.sqlite db.
I've written a bit about combining a todo list with notetaking in a single text file:
https://jeffhuang.com/productivity_text_file/
Last time I posted it on Hacker News, quite a few people told me they adopted this workflow.
Re: Tired of note-taking apps
#219https://github.com/foambubble/foam Roam-like note taking app using VS Code. Still early days but has momentum. Been using it for a week for some project docs, and so far I like it.
Thanks for posting this! Been playing around with org-mode and org-roam but setup is definitely more challenging and it does feel like a bit of platform lock-in since the only useful org editor is emacs.
Re: Tired of note-taking apps
#220Earlier quoted context omitted.
That’s my issue with the Microsoft surface stylus work- and a lesser extent Apple. They don’t compare to written, and a decent amount is the pen tip friction. Wacom comes close. However the apps themselves ? I’d like to use one note more, but PDFs don’t become copy-able text. Searchable but not copyable. Writing on a surface device is ugh. And I had really high hopes that they would push on the tech. Procreate -iOS-…
They make screen films to recreate this friction on the iPad Pro. A lot of my artists friends use them: https://paperlike.com/
Another endorsement for paperlike. The latest version is even better. And it’s much smoother and you don’t lose as much sharpness of the screen