I bought and liked Tripcase, but then my company’s travel system gave us Tripit for free. Then Google came out with Google trips which somehow blew them both out of the water and I used it exclusively. It worked after requesting access to your Gmail account and extracting all the travel bookings, so it had pre - iPhone trip history as well.
Then Google killed Google Trips and told us to sign into Google for the same functionality. I feel like this was a bait and switch. Tripit is still connected to the company travel system and still works, so now I need to decide what to do for non-work travel - back to Tripcase or go along with “don’t be evil” Google’s plan.
Ha, true. I guess it’s a tightrope walk between putting up with the devil you know vs that feeling you might be trying to make those new shiny too-small shoes stretch.
The sticky notes are in Outlook. Weird, eh?
I’m all in with Office 365 and use outlook so not much of an issue for me but not great if you use another mail client.
Funny thing: Travel apps are not a virus I’ve caught.
My company is standardized on Egencia for travel accommodations. A year or two ago management handed down a mandate: All travel MUST be booked through Egencia; exceptions require approval from the line manager and a person high up in the corporate stratosphere.
There as some grumbling about that, which I did not understand. They’re REQUIRING us to do LESS work and exercise the MORE CONVENIENT option; even where it may cost more money? I’ll take that.
And it’s a pretty good app for seeing your itinerary at a glance while rushing through an airport or waiting for Lyft.
For travel that does not fit the app, such as personal travel, I just use airline apps and download itineraries as PDFs into whatever note-taking app I’m currently using. Today that’s the Mac Finder paired with iPad/iPhone Files. I also enter information in my calendar. And I’m going to try to be more conscientious about printing things out; lately I’m more conscious of the possibility that I’ll be without connectivity and without even my iPhone or iPad. What if I get mugged?
I tried a sip of Google’s kool-aid. All my trips are now on google.com/travel. Any travel related email via gmail gets turned into a trip, so if I forward an itinerary from my work email to my home email, it gets ingested and turned into a trip. This is much more convenient than using other travel apps or note taking apps or printing out. I’ll have to see if it’s as good offline as the Google Trips app was.
I’m interested in the historic trip data as well as the current or upcoming trip. For example, I discovered that some of my trips booked through work had not been reported to the corresponding hotel loyalty scheme. The Google information contained all the booking numbers and I was able to enter the missing trip information required by the hotel chain. This may be enough to get a few more free days for a vacation at some point.
I don’t know what the rules are about responding to old threads. Maybe someone could enlighten me on the proper thread etiquette so I don’t make an ass out of myself, or at least do so less often.
I have given this topic a lot of thought. As much as I love to explore new apps and find new ways solve problems. I also enjoy streamlining things. When I work in too many applications, I easily forget where I saved the thing I was working on and then I have to waste about 30 minutes looking for the damn thing.
Maybe a helpful way of looking at the CRIMP (compulsive reactive information management purchasing) problem is to try to create a habit of trying to get the most out of the apps we use and really dig deep into them to solve as many problems as possible with them. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes the need to fix a particular problem is so great and the app to fix it is just so particularly suited to that problem that it just makes sense to add the app to your toolbox. But I say if you can tweak the tool and maybe get 75% of the way there and if 75% of the way is enough to satisfy you, then maybe when you look at the time saved in not having to remember if you did the work in this app or that app, it is worth it to not have the perfect app for the job.
Let me give a concrete example, I have been very interested in this thread on roam research. And in looking at it and the information from it, it definitely looks like an interesting app, but I am heavily invested in Devonthink at this point in time (I have almost everything in it). So I created a wiki-link/markdown note type database in Devonthink and am toying around with using that as a general information/notes warehouse. Now I just started doing this, so who knows if it will get the desired result, but at least if I ultimately end up going to Roam or some other app for this purpose, maybe I can use Devonthink’s shortcomings to give me a better idea of the features I need in the app I end up going with to scratch the itch.
Of course, sometimes an app comes around that is totally unique and innovative or different from anything I may already have in my toolbox. But it seems like that with a lot of these apps that involve note taking, document management, etc., there are apps I may already have access to in Setapp or otherwise to at least try to replicate a similar process in one of the apps I am already using.
I don’t know, I am just tired of watching tutorial videos of all the cool ways other people use apps, then getting the application and figuring out I either don’t have the will or knowledge to use the app in that way, or maybe it just doesn’t fit with how I do my work.
As the guy who started this thread, your comments are welcome!
My thinking on this has evolved since I started the threae. Now I realize that all of us here enjoy learning about and trying new apps, or else we wouldn’t be here. If you’ve got a process that’s broken or a tool that’s missing and you need to try another app to solve the problem, that’s a productive use of time. But a lot of the time we’re just trying new apps for fun.
And that’s OK. But the key is to recognize what we’re doing, and do it at the appropriate time.
Sometimes a new app sticks, and turns out to be better than the already-good app we were previously using. But most of the time the old app is good enough, and so when we’re done playing with the new thing, it’s time to put the toys back in their box and get back to work (paraphrasing @bowline on that last bit).
Like you, I’m interested in Roam. But I think it may be one of those apps that sound good in theory, but don’t actually fit in my workflow.
I also don’t know the rules on reviving old threads, but this is a fascinating thread so I’m doing it anyway How have you all done over the last couple of years? Any major app changes?
Having spent the last couple of weeks reviewing all my workflows and apps, today I just thought “what am I even doing?”. I’ve spent 4hrs this week alone (thanks Toggl - not being reviewed!), researching PKM systems, even though I have no need or desire to change my current system. Definitely a case of getting distracted by shiny things!
My review has been useful in other areas, so I think I recommend a review generally for people like me who just fell into patterns and haven’t really assessed them before. I’ve identified a clear problem with my task manager (I suspect the problem is the human not the computer) and I’m unhappy with my book list management (thread already started on that!). Everything else is fine and as folk have said elsewhere in this thread, 75% or “good enough” should suffice most the time.
The review has cost me money, but in a good way. All my reading of this forum lead me to discover Moom (how did I not know about this amazingly simple app!) and PopClip (I LOVE IT). Sometimes you don’t know what you need until you waste time reading about apps and discover it!
I keep doing app changes for almost anything, recently switched from Keyboard Maestro to BTT --not really sure I like it, maybe I’ll come back. But before switching I have a key criteria: I will not switch to another app that does not ensure that is not interoperable or switching from it will be difficult.
Calendar and Task managers are an easy bunch, I don’t have that sophisticated system as I rely con timeblocking within the calendar. So it is usually a matter of migrating around 30-40 tasks, most of them recurrent, which also helps me to understand the program and how it can help my workflow. Currently settled on Reminders+Calendar+Goodtask+Fantastical.
Email is also easy because I am doing Gmail (latest G Suite bruhaha was hard) Settled on Mimestream.
Notes/file archiving has to be done with iCloud Drive compatibility and not in a cloud server and/or proprietary database. Eagle Filer wins here for me, and Markdown for text notes, RTF for note-taking with images. (RTF seems future proof to me, so it’s a little cumbersome para works). I do not do note-linking. Currently also testing Agenda for taking meeting notes. I have to come up with a system to migrate these notes from Agenda to EagleFiler.
Password managers need to be compatible with Keepass, period. Strongbox over iCloud Drive rocking it for me since the 1Password drama.
Browser changes are also easy but moving bookmarks between them can be a little tricky, so I resorted to use my filesystem to store .webloc files instead of using native bookmark capability. Whenever I want to bookmark soething, I launch a special Finder window with an iCloud Drive folder where I store my bookmarks and drag & drop there. Then, changing browsers does not disrupt my work.
I would change this to " don’t switch for no compelling reason". Generally, I am with you. I always look for the new shiny object. Now I learn - how to quit fast. If the new app does not feel right, I shall drop it quickly, I normally give myself two weeks to trial.
Like you said - the ground shifts under you. If we do not try new things , we could still be using abacus and not computers
I see you have Calendar (iCal) and Fantastical listed. I’m not certain how Fantastical works, I thought it was a calendar in its own right, is there a reason you use both? (As an aside, I’ve seen lots of your comments in the forum during my lurking/research - thank you so much for all you’ve shared - and you and a couple of other folk are the reason I’m considering how a switch to Reminders might work!)
I have two jobs currently, and I will shortly be switching full-time to a job I previously did part-time (partly the reason that prompted my “let’s overhaul my entire tech set-up for fun”). I didn’t have the headspace in my job A to look at calendars properly, but job B is far more conducive to time blocking and I’m considering it. I failed with it before, but job A was almost entirely reactive and I think the failure was due to the nature of the work, rather than me! In job B, one of my colleagues manages their entire to-do list via calendar and emails (GSuite). Everything gets scheduled in their calendar as a task, it’s incredible. (They are also one of the most organised, productive people I’ve had the pleasure of working with, so it does work for them!)
Because Fantastical also supports displaying, checking and re-scheduling Apple Reminders (also Google Tasks and Todoist, afaik) on top of the Calendar, this makes it ideal for visually planning the day and week from the Mac. Goodtask gives a little bit more oomph regarding what to do with the tasks with the configurable actions and can also selectively hide calendar events (which makes it nice for a Today view while on mobile), but the killer combo is Reminders+Fantastical for me. Remember, this is all very personal, and preferences may vary over time (I was a die-hard Omnifocus user on its day)
This is a great observation. We always say that productivity is some kind of personal skill but the nature of the work to be done and the control you have over it is key. Failure with a system is not a personal failure, the company also needs to provide some kind of rules of engagement regarding how stuff gets done otherwise it can get crazy really fast.
My company CEO works like that. Everything goes to the calendar and he’s extremely productive and focused. Obviously he has more control over his own calendar than I have
I’ve revisited some of Apple’s default apps when they have received new features, etc. and I’ve evaluated some new items like Notion. My biggest change occurred when I took a fresh look at software that I have been using for years and discovered quite a few changes under the surface. It’s kind of like finding money in an old suit you haven’t worn for years.
I am in the process of evaluating Reminders as a possible replacement for Things. One of my primary goals on this is to simplify.
I think I may be looking for a task manager that lets me easily make a fresh start now and then–purge tasks into some kind of backup format, and then copy them back into my to-do list when it makes sense to do so. That task manager may be OmniFocus. Ugh.
Or maybe just a plain text list with some system for recurring reminders?
If you enjoyed it and got everything else done that needs to be done, then maybe that was time well spent?
As you know I made that change. While I miss a few things in Things, overall, Reminders works great and is better integrated into the OS. The Smart List function is a simple version of OF perspectives—it is powerful enough for my needs. The number of items in the Weekly Smart List is a little “misleading.” Many of those are my daily routines—e.g., enter my daily weight, log meals, check my today and flagged items, etc.
I especially like the ability to double click the subject line of an email and send the email to Reminders.
I’ll add that I replicate Things Header feature by using all caps to recreate a Heading and then indent the tasks under it. Not as pretty as Things but works the same. One can collapse “headings” and move them as well, even to other Lists and all the tasks follow. As you can see below, the “headings are in bold, can be collapsed/expanded and tasks from Notes or emails from Mail include the URL to the Note or email.
As you know most reminder apps allow you to hide completed items, but I’m not aware of any that allow export/import. I wonder if a “post it note” application, something like Google Keep (individual notes/lists) that allows you to archive and retrieve your files might work for you?
In any event there are plenty of reminder apps to chose from, Capterra currently lists 1247.
How have you all done over the last couple of years? Any major app changes?
