How do you take notes?
cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/51403759
Ok basically what the title ask. There are so many note taking apps available and also the good old notepad, but, how do you take notes? What do you actually take-keep notes on? Is it like complicated things or simple ones?
All time times that I started using an app or a pen and paper intended up just using a simple reminder for things. Others I just remember.
Obsidian sync'd with my desktop PC, usually. Though also experimenting with doing the same with Orgro. Both on my phone. If I happen to be in front of my PC, just org-mode in emacs.
Obsidian vault in my cloud storage. Does everything I need with no bells and whistles.
Notesnook FOSS and free tier is sufficient for me. I'll subscribe if I can't find a donate option.
Moved away from Joplin because it wasn't a good fit for me. The Notesnook devs seem to fit my communication style better and the Notesnook app is beautiful and the fancy features don't get in the way too much for me. Exports also make sense.
Currently, poorly. I’m trying to pick up some Zettelkasten habits. I started to, using Logseq, and now I’m trying to switch to Org-roam.
This is pretty much ditto to my status. I loved logseq's paradigm of easy linking and transclusion from the journal dumps.
Are you trying to do something similar with org-roam? I still haven't figured out my way around with the org (roam) ecosystem
If by transclusion you mean hyperlinks & copypasta, then yes. I’m looking at using Zotero as well. I still haven’t really gotten the hang of Emacs, never mind org-mode or org-roam. It’s a lot. Too bad I didn’t pick up Emacs decades ago instead of vi.
I use obsidian for just text stuff I need to remember later. If I need to do math or need a diagram temporarily I prefer pencil and paper. If I want to save diagrams for later I have a drawing tablet that I use like a whiteboard so that I can save and use layers. If you don't have a drawing tablet Autodesk sketchbook is a decent substitute that can be used on your phone.
Am I weird for just using a pen and paper? I recently upgraded my setup by buying a binder and ~1000 pages so I won't have to burn through notebooks or money.
One thing that I know for sure is weird is that I use a fountain pen for it all...
Zim just works.
Complex stuff (talks, projects, brainstorming, etc): The notes get taken on paper. Some things stay there, because the act of writing them down is enough. Some things then move to my "second brain;" for personal stuff, that's currently on Notion (I'm contemplating migrating it to Obsidian or something similar). For work stuff, that's a Slack thread, or (if it's really important) Confluence.
Todos go into Google Tasks. I used to use Todoist, but I got frustrated by how inflexible the notification system was.
Shopping lists (and a few other similar lists that need to be shared) go into Google Keep.
The good old notepad. One-time notes go in my pocket, anything even short-term get put in the bullet journal.
Nextcloud notes finally got good enough to replace google keep a while ago.
Been happily using that since.
Notesnook at the moment. Excited that they're started supporting self-hosting. It seems immature but working well for people. I'll get round to hosting my own sync server when I have the time and maybe once self-hosting is more mature.
Selfhosting Joplin with my partner on our synolgy nas. Works great, not perfect but good enough.
I used to keep a text file in each project, with todo items at the top and a 'done' section at the bottom. File gets too big, start a new file.
Now I use a note taking program that stores markdown notes with links in between them. Kind of the same idea, mostly, some notes are to-do items and others are lists. I have about 10000 notes in there.
For digital notes I’m a big fan of plaintext in the basic notes app. Anything more and I get distracted trying to beautify it and my actual notes suffer for it :(
On my tablet I use xournal++, and on my computer I use vim.
I use notally for things I read on my tablet or phone, it loads quick on older devices which is the main goal. Otherwise I just get out a document for more important notes.
email and notepadd++ are the most common but sometimes a calendar.
I use a 20+ year old PDA for notes and other general productivity/organization needs. Distraction free, keeps me off my phone, and a fun conversation piece. Handy for staying on top of my ADHD.
Vimwiki & syncthing
Lightweight, libre, synchs on all my devices. Links between notes. All I need.
I taught myself LaTeX in college and just hand typed notes during class in notepad++
LaTeX is great. Typst is good also, it trys to simplify what LaTeX does. https://typst.app/
Silverbullet or Trillium Notes
An event or something I need to do on a specific time? Calendar app.
Something I need to do when I have time? The Simple Notes app has a handy widget which I havenon the phone homescreen to have it on my sight constantly to remember I have stuff that needs doing.
Anything else I use Quillpad for.
I have an entire Second Brain on OneNote organized into sections pertaining to many things. There is no tagging system. I have recently gotten into Obsidian. It is fully free and there are ways to get around the subscription to sync feature. It has tagging, uses primally markdown which I am now learning more of and so many free plugins like kanban style boards and spreadsheets. I had previously used links in OneNote to link to Google Sheets but now I will move some important info to Obsidian. Where you can link within and externally plus so many more features, and for all platforms.
Previously used OINotepad.
Now using neutriNote for quick note taking.
Foxy Notes only one that I've stuck with
I use Logseq for work and it's a godsend when trying to pull up old commands, code snippets, and when something happened.