I am currently in search of software that can help me keep track of conversations with a lot of different contacts. In my head, I’m thining a “personal CRM system” (customer relationship management) that can hold multiple journal notes linked to one or more contacts and projects. (The “rolodex” metaphore might also be applicable, to some extent.) I would refer to this prior to calling a colleague or customer and also add notes from the current interaction.
Trying to do this using Drafts has failed, as I have not found its organisational capabilities to be suitable for this use case. I have heard a lot of buzz around Obsidian, could that be an option, I wonder?
Are anyone here using a software solution to cover this use case, or have an alternative approach to keeping track of journal entries with the possibility for semi-advanced filtering? Access across Mac,iPad and iPhone would be a great plus.
I’ve also tried with Obsidian but the limiting factor, at least for me, is the wonky iOS app - it takes too long to synch and the user interface isn’t suitable for my needs of requiring pertinent info in seconds. Looking forward to learning about some possible options.
If you are a Gmail/Google Workspace user you can, create a Google Docs document for each contact, paste the URL of the document into Apple Contacts, and use the URL to open Google Docs from Apple Contacts.
This also works on iPhone and iPad using Safari or the Google Docs app (if installed).
I use Obsidian for this, it’s not perfect, but it works for my basic needs. I use it to take notes on people/orgs/conversations and then use backlinks to connect it all. It’s not as good as a real CRM solution, but it gets the job done.
As always, it depends on what you need to track, how often and how much effort it’s worth. I wanted the same and found Obsidian scratched that itch. Add in a little Keyboard Maestro and a Streamdeck and you’re a button press away from most everything.
Start simple, a folder for contacts and interactions, add meetings and projects a bit later. With all the available plugins, you really don’t even need Keyboard Maestro anymore. The key here is in the flexibility and linking, you can have multiple, simultaneous, custom views in to the same data- by person, by day, by company, by project, linking out or pulling in from the web, Salesforce, JIRA. And Ecalidraw is just the cherry on top.
We had a recent conversation about using Airtable this way. You could do something similar with Retool or any other low/no-code app builders you have access to.
I am in the middle of this currently! I was using AirTable, but found that Notion is much easier for this kind of thing for me.
The only negative thing about these ideas that I have found…is they never connect to the actual Contacts app in your phone. (maybe you don’t need them all in there). But then imagine things like Birthdays, etc that you want to see in the calendar as well.
In a couple days, Lunatask will be releasing a new version that includes “relationship tracking”, that might give you something close to what you’re looking for.
This app doesn’t get talked about much here, possibly because it’s electron based? But I like it a lot, and the developer is super responsive on the Slack channel. You might be able to weigh in there on the relationship tracking feature and help shape its future development.
I think Tana would be a good platform for this. It has all the tools to track individuals, companies, contacts, meetings, journaled notes, etc., with the flexibility to quickly set up your own approach (or use others’ templates), and adapt. Tana is nearing the paid-beta phase, very soon, with final release likely in the 3rd quarter this year. One can join now by accessing the “Introduce Yourself” channel at the Tana Slack Community, and posting a hello message for the mods to give you a Tana invite.
Even if you don’t want to commit to a still-beta service, now, you might want to experiment.
As mentioned by @karlnyhus I am using Obsidian for that. I am still tweaking my people template but the big advantage is I can link to all my notes on meetings and any other interactions or things people sent me.
I am also investigating ways to sync at least a subset of my Farley File to Contacts. There is a plug-in that does just that. However I don’t want all my Farley File notes in Obsidian in my contacts on my devices just a subset. I’m still looking at the options on how to configure it.
I’ve discovered that making sure the devices are synced regularly changes the load time. Another key factor, make a top level note that is a TOC of the contacts or Farley File notes and you can easily get to anyone. I have a top level home note that is open in iOS Obsidian all the time. It has a link to the Contacts note list among other things I want quick access to in Obsidian when on mobile. I just timed it and on my iPhone 13 Pro it’s between 2-3 seconds for that note to display when I click on Obsidian. I have around 7000 notes in 122 folders in my Obsidian vault. So it’s largish but not huge.
My brother’s coworker has built a CRM in Tana for his work/professional life. He’s made good use of the inherited tags so he can slice by function, level of relationship, see where they sit in the org chart on their record, get weekly/monthly reports of activity, and so on. Tana’s neat.
A lot of excellent suggestions here, thank you all so much for all the great suggestions. Will have to download and experiment with a several of these apps before making a final call, but it truly is such a superior experience to relying on AppStore reviews and searches.
I use Obsidian for this and it works well for my needs. Here is how I do it:
I have one folder called People. I have a note for each person I want to keep track of. The note will have things like their birthday, what their kids names are, etc.
Then I have another folder called Communication. After a call, I will create a new note and stick it in this folder. The note will have a link back to the person’s note in the People folder. Then I can open that note, click on the backlinks and see the list of all the notes for that person in Communication. Sometimes if the call is really small, it will just be a one line bullet point in the Daily Note and as long as there is a link to the person’s note, this will work too.
BusyContacts (you can buy separately or enjoy as part of SetApp). It syncs with the Apple DB of contacts, has a big notes section with a one-button date and time stamp addition, it automatically shows you linked events (it used to show email exchanges, but Apple locked them out), and has room for a lot of custom fields if you want to add them.
I’ve used it for years and think it’s much better than Apple’s Contacts, but I haven’t used it as a hard-core professional CRM (just personal CRM).
