Note to self

Focus on the process not on the tools!!

Process

Ubiquitous capture

Open formats

I do not want my stuff ending up in some closed database or format which is not easily transferable to something else. This means that for instance Evernote is not the best match. Instead I use plain text files as much as possible.

  • Todo file: todo.txt plain text format

  • Minutes and documents: org-mode syntax

For the actual next action list, the plain text open format requirement is less stringent. Tasks are generally easy to export and less longlived. In this case having a good application/tool to do task management is more important.

Tools

Use tools that are intended for the purpose. For instance using Evernote as a task list is a poor fit and doesn’t work very well.

  • Storage: Dropbox or any other file/directory sync

  • Task list (Android): Simpletask

  • Task list (Windows): todotxt.net