I’ve tried Dynalist and Workflowy. They fall into the category of nice apps that I never found a use for.
The developers of Roam Research and/or Obsidian previously worked on Dynaist and/or Workflowy. And I think Dynalist started as a Workflowy clone with added features.
The developers of Dynalist and Obsidian are the same (Erica Xu and Shida Li). I don’t they would consider Dynalist to be a Workflowy clone, though Obsidian definitely plays off of Roam. (As do what seems like 8,329 other apps or websites in the WannabeRoam category.)
I have a running markdown file where I log thing I do for the day grouped by weeks. I have Alfred snippets for the week header and the day header, so those are very fast to create and have a consistent style.
When I create a week, I list some goals/tasks for the week. As I am creating new days at the top, I always see my weekly goals.
Under each day, I jot down, what I have done.
Currently I am using obsidian and I link all the meeting or development notes.
When I finish a week, I can review what I have done in the week and how it compares to my goals.
As development usually involves a lot of detours, a done list is very helpful on days, where I feel
I didn’t make progress.
I also started linking future meeting notes at the top of the file. This way, I don’t get lost in my (almost) one folder approach.
Check out interstitial journal habit from Tony and the Coach.me crew — I incorporated this into my daily log which i record in Airtable
I’ve written up a quick blog post that is almost a train of consciousness as to what method is best for me in terms of keeping a daily note.
I get the feeling I will never be entirely satisfied, no matter what method I choose!
Maybe you are focused on technique over content?
No one (I think) goes to bed every night thinking “what a great day, doing that excellent wiki-linking and markdown!” But they might think “I’m glad I wrote those thoughts down and got them off my mind”.
You’re definitely not alone! I’ve settled on Evernote, despite every flaw and the creepy updates, in order to contain my CRIMPing.
Nevertheless, I still tout around on automations for both on iOS and macOS (via AppleScript) and that has kept me going on my light CRIMPing habit. I even created my Daily Note and Quick-crosslinking features…
I guess every app has its own problems (for me I can’t stand Devonthink built-in editor) but at least I’m still on the same database I’ve been using for years… in the end it’s more a matter of doing the work everyday than about the tools anyway.
Here’s something I do. Flag/Tag your entries as maker/manager/consumer and see how the math treats you at the end of the week.
Reminds me of the create/consume/connect balance, but I can never remember where I heard that from.
Also reminds me of David Seah’s Printable CEO, an idea that I try to remember every couple of months!
I used OO for work-related daily notes from 2016 until 2019 when I switched jobs, at which point I didn’t have access to a Mac at work. How did v3 make things go backwards for you?
Now that I get to use a Mac again, I’ve tried using other tools, and so far I’m still evaluating. I’ve been trying Agenda for the past couple of months, but I’m not really feeling it so far. I’m close to switching back to OO, but I might check out some of the other apps mentioned on this thread. (Using DT for notes, btw, was a virtual non-starter.)
In your blog post, you wrote:
I still have OmniOutliner Pro, which I’ve toyed with once again…
Of course, that also means I lose the integrated DevonThink search.
If you mean you’d like to use DT to index your OO notes, then read up on this post on how you can do that.
You can view indexed OO files in DEVONthink macOS because of QuickLook, but you cannot search their content. You cannot view OO at all on DEVONthink iOS as it doesn’t support QuickLook.
but you cannot search their content.
In a way you can, but it’s not the best. The indexing helps locate which of your OO files the search string exists and DT will display those files. Select one of those files and open it using OO, then click ⌘G and it will highlight the searched string accordingly. Not the smoothest, but that got me by.
I keep a daily note for the last ~4 years now (disclaimer: I have developed NotePlan to help me do this). I have a mix of digital and paper journal.
In NotePlan I’m planning my main tasks for the day and anything I need to keep track of (follow-ups, issues, reminders). I’m usually reviewing the previous day to see if there is anything unfinished I need to transfer.
I have a morning routine where I first journal on paper what I did the previous day (without checking my digital tools). That’s just to remind myself and be more aware of what I’m doing. Then I summarize what I want to achieve for the current day. Mostly NotePlan already reflects that, but by writing and thinking about the main tasks again, I can reflect if this is moving me towards my goals or not. Then make changes as needed.
Something I started just a few months ago and got stuck with me is the bullet journal style of time tracking on paper. You draw a table with the hours of the day on the left side (8am, 9am…) with 4 cells for each hour (15 min increments). I write down what I do into these cells. At the end of the week I review how much time I spent on actual work, how my routines look like, etc and apply tweaks if I have some ideas.
Hi Eduard. I actually used NotePlan 2 for some time with my daily note practise. I used NP2 via Setappp.
However, I had to re-evaluate the value and my use of the app as v3 has been developed and it’s pricing announced. Ultimately I determined that NP3 would be too expensive for its role in my workflow.
I pay for a lot of software. I have Setapp, I’ve bought DevonThink, Agenda, OmniOutliner, etc. I would probably pay for NP3 of it was around half the price of the announced cost. Ideally NP3 would be in Setapp.
So, while I realise your app can be great for daily notes, it’s not so great to displace the apps I already own at the price it is being offered.
I say this in the kindest, most positive way possible. It’s your product and you sell it at the maximum the market will bear - good stuff and keep doing that. But the price has exceeded my willingness to pay.
This is similar to David Seah’s Emergent Task Timer or his Task Progress Tracker. Seah’s products are well thought out and most of them are free for print-yourself.
I use a combination of drafts, day one and omnifocus.
In the morning I open Day One to my morning planning journal and I open the Omnifocus forecast view, and fill out a series of questions that I paste using my text expander snippet for daily planning. (If I’m on iOS I write my morning planning in Drafts then paste to DayOne.)
While evaluating the 3-5 main things due today, I look at everything due the upcoming week to see if there’s something I need to prep for. For things without a concrete deadline I attach a “next” tag. I have setup omnifocus so it shows anything tagged “next” in the forecast view.
I also use the forecast view to look at my scheduled meeting for the day and include those in the schedule for the day section.
My Morning review questions:
Morning ReviewWednesday 10-28-2020
Time 11:59:40 AM
#morning planning #2020Oct
Schedule for the Day:
What are the 3-5 main things that NEED to be done today:
[ ]
My accomplishments from yesterday:
Area of improvement from yesterday:
3 Things I’m grateful for:
I’m excited about:
Affirmations or Inspirations:
Exercise for the day:
I then paste the list of things I have to do today into drafts. I hate Badge app icons but leave this on for Drafts.
Throughout the day I will add things I need to do, ideas, notes, in my Drafts app. The Badge icon serves as reminder that there are things I haven’t done or need to organize.