First, and for the record, I have NOT changed by apps or workflow, but I am experimenting with something.
Out of curiosity, I watched this video that was posted by @WayneG.
I came away impressed but to understand why, you need a little background. For ~8 years I was an Evernote (EN) power user. In fact, I even created an entire GTD system within EN. Over time, EN lost its way, and newer apps came to market or existing ones matured, so I switched to other apps.
After watching the video, I decided to do an experiment and ended up testing a combination of EN+OF+TaskClone. I’m quite impressed. Here is what I’m surprised and impressed by, in no particular order:
As always, the web clipper is first in class
EN seems fast and reliable on all my devices
EN connects to my Google Calendar and offers to open a Meeting Template for my upcoming meeting. The template grabs the subject date, and attendees and inserts a place for notes and tasks.
TaskClone automatically grabs those tasks and sends them to OF, then inserts [TC] in the note indicating the tasks have been sent to OF.
I tested exporting a notebook to DEVONthink as .enex files. Once in DT, I can convert those files to any format I want so they are “future-proofed.”
I can BCC emails to EN, saving multiple clicks compared to my current system
I miss the Review feature in OF and the ability to BCC email to OF.
I’m not suggesting I’m changing my workflow, but I did want to share my experiment, especially for those who have not seen EN lately and are not familiar with TaskClone.
I tried TaskClone back in 2014, it was rudimentary at the time with no indicator over which tasks had been transferred to OmniFocus. Ideally what I actually wanted at the time, was the tasks to be completed in EN when they were transferred to OF.
They are not checked off by Taskclone, but they are marked as having gone to OmniFocus. I suspect this is because task management is a feature of Evernote so one may still want it within that system, in addition to OmniFocus. Personally, I don’t care that they are checked off as long as they end up in the task manager. So far, it seems to be working well, but you need to follow the instructions carefully. There is a peculiarity related to using checklists rather than Tasks. The documentation explains it.
That makes two of us! I want to be clear, I have NOT changed apps or my workflow. I’m just experimenting out of curiosity. I don’t expect it to ultimately change anything for me.
What’s a proverbial “power user” if not someone who likes experimenting?
DEVON ingests .enex files like a champ so backing up to DT makes a lot of sense. The issue is having a clear backup strategy across all your notebooks, that’s a quite more difficult to automate unless you happen to have only one notebook (and I think heavy taggers don’t need many notebooks in EN)
I agree. IF I were to use EN, I’d create the backup strategy I currently use between DT and Apple Notes–and annually export all EN notes to DT. It only takes about an hour a year or less, so this is not difficult. I also have BackBlaze, and I perform weekly manual backups to two separate external drives, so I should be covered if the worst happens.
I have to say, I like EN so far, but I’m loath to even consider a change, especially since I’m proficient with Apple’s default apps, which continue to improve.
The thing that bothers me most about Notes and Reminders is the ridiculous amount of clicking required to get things entered or linked. This should be much easier with Notes and Reminders than it is. I suspect that Apple requires so many clicks because the majority of their consumer market are not power users and need the “hand holding” of clicking fields to enter data. That is just a guess, of course.
I only became concerned about backup strategy when Evernote began their turmoiled 10.x release, becoming perfectly aware that if Evernote went down I perhaps could not have the opportunity to download everything.
While I am confident (or blatantly crazy) that I will not lose any files by my own mistakes (hence my policy of not using Time Machine or Backblaze, resorting to whatever iCloud Drive has in terms of disaster recovery) , I first need to have my files at least under my control (which may not necessarily happen with iCloud Drive, by the way). If Evernote had been bought by, say, Microsoft or Facebook I think I would be still using it. But perhaps I will get back to it, I love it very much.
IF you decide to go back to EN, I recommend a routine exporting to DEVONthink or other secondary “safe” place for your files. I export (import into) my Apple Notes to DT at the end of each academic year.
I agree. But when I was an EN user I only exported my data as .enex files every couple of weeks and backed them up like any other file. I had verified that EagleFiler could import the data but I never did that until I decided to leave Evernote. YMMV
Once you know that DEVON, EagleFiler, even Apple Notes can import .enex files (kudos to Evernote for more or less keeping its own export standard format documented and stable over the years) I think this is the best strategy.
If memory serves your Apple Notes → DT was semi-automated by some AppleScript or 3rd party app, which with Evernote would be a little bit more tedious. But yes, that’s what I would do in that case. Which honestly I would not think I would switch to become fully invested in Evernote what with the pricing and the fact that, well, having everything stored in plain folders makes it easier to try new apps
I generally agree. Like I said, I’m just experimenting, not changing my apps or workflow. I would love to use plain text for my notes, but I’ve tried; plain text for my work notes doesn’t work for me. I need tables and embedded files of various sorts that I can easily annotate, open, and otherwise manage. Obsidian, a great apps, is clunky in this regard. So, this leaves me with more propriety options. I’ve settled on AN. It is good, just not great, though getting better.
Markdown is adequate for me --I only create bespoke meeting notes and don’t do long form writing, but its main shortcoming is the difficulty of embedding images and of course tables are tricky. Good old RTF files could make do, as the format has been around since forever, but the default styling looks like Wordpad documents from 30 years ago, so one needs to create its own set of templates with more modern styles. Also, with RTF linking documents in a standard way becomes harder and iOS support is less strong. So no perfect solution here for me.
Apple Notes is also good, but I’m wary of its syncing surprises! Perhaps I should adopt your backup strategy but in that case I would probably switch back to my old friend Evernote.
I admit that I like Evernote as I’ve experimented with it, but I’m not willing to pay a $100+/year subscription nor upend my workflow. And, not withstanding the occasional sync issues, Apple Works is working fine and with my backup to DT, I’m confident that I’ll not lose anything important.
A number of fine Markdown editors allow one to insert and even drop and drop images into a Markdown document, among them iA Writer, Typora, and NotePlan. And the TableFlip app makes Markdown tables a breeze.
I agree with this. And while I don’t use Obsidian for everything (nor am I Obsidian obsessed), there is also a slick plug in to create tables in a fairly easy fashion. But while all that is true, I tend to personally lean more towards the text-files-arent-always-the-best camp. I use Evernote for that stuff.
I want to be clear, I have NOT changed apps or my workflow. I’m just experimenting out of curiosity. I don’t expect it to ultimately change anything for me.
