MacStories Selects

[pkondo]

Interesting article. I’ve never heard of Agenda. Does anyone use it? I didn’t immediately find a need for it but a little curious.

Introducing MacStories Selects: The Best New Apps, App Updates, and iOS Games...

[ChrisUpchurch]

There has been some discussion about it:

Agenda, the "new" note taking software

Recently it feels like I’ve been hearing about Agenda everywhere, and I am curious to see who here is using it, on which platform, and for what purposes. It seems like it might fit in as my work notebook, but I’d like to read some example workflows involving it! Similarly, if you’ve tried it but realised it didn’t work for you I’d like to hear why, and what you liked about it as well as disliked.

Agenda -- are you using it? How?

I’m interested Agenda users’ impressions of the app these days. I use time blocking to plan my activities, and use DropTask for that because it has very good two-way integration with Google Calendar – what I plan in DropTask shows up in BusyCal via the Google Cal sync, and what I schedule in Busy Cal shows up in DropTask. In this mix, I find I need a good notetaker to flesh out the tasks that I’m planning with DropTask. Note taking is not a strong suite of DropTask. So I occasionally turn…

Agenda with Things?

I seem to recall someone mentioned using Agenda with Things. Can’t find the post now. Are any of you using the two together? If so, what does your (conceptual) workflow look like?

I’ll be honest, this was a piece of software that I didn’t really ‘get’ in the past. However, some of the things Frederico has written about it have helped me see where it fits. I’m still not sure it would fit the way I work (few of my notes are tied to particular dates/calendar events) but I’m beginning to see how it might.

[beck]

@ChrisUpchurch

software that I didn’t really ‘get’ in the past

Same. I’m going to go read Frederico’s posts on your suggestion.

Initially I thought it was a brilliant app, but the “Projects” requirement for notes throws me (or I maybe I don’t understand how to use it?). Robust notes on future/past meetings that automatically connects to my calendar is something I could really use, but I have no interest in the project/task management features. Note Plan is similarly confounding.

[clarker]

Are we conflating Federico with Francesco? I can’t keep them straight either.

[beck]

YES

Apologies to Francesco!

[pkondo]

@ChrisUpchurch - thanks for the links. I was initially came to just post that link to the Macstories article and at the last minute, added in my question about Agenda, which made me the type of person I hate - those that don’t use search.

Your answer though made me think about how I need to do a better job of looking for solutions to those things that I have problems with. Sure it’s fun to look at shiny new apps but I need to cut down on time spent doing this. This forum does not help! I need to focus on the areas that I truly have issues with and I honestly doubt that not having a notes app tie to a calendar is hardly a problem. I’ve got bigger issues to deal with (like finding a better Contacts manager).

[anon41602260]

@beck

Initially I thought it was a brilliant app, but the “Projects” requirement for notes throws me (or I maybe I don’t understand how to use it?).

OmniFocus and Things also use the “Projects” metaphor, which doesn’t quite cut it for me. Thankfully, beyond the “projects” term, what those two and Agenda really mean is more like “group”. Groups of tasks. I like that metaphor better.

I do formal project management and what those apps mean by “projects” sure are not projects in the formal sense.

[cornchip]

I’ve slowly ramped up my Agenda use over the year. It is my app at work for transient notes that I don’t plan to look at again, but want to have around in case. I have a project for each client and for some ongoing internal initiatives and I generally have one note per meeting. I just open Agenda, go to the right project, start a new project and start typing with the context of the previous meeting below the note. Any tasks that come up either go in OF or in our shared task management tool, not Agenda.

I don’t think it’s suitable for life organization or project management, but it’s really working for me in this limited role. And I am comfortable recommending it for this kind of work because I started having success with it about six months into using it, so I’m over the excitement of a new app.