HN Explorer

Ask HN: What tools do you use for note-taking, progress tracking and TODO lists?

45 points by storik ↗ HN
I usually work on multiple projects at once, using several computers and phones and need to get better at tracking progress I made (for my personal purposes), managing TODO lists and taking personal notes.

I'm quite unorganised in this regard and I'm looking to change this so that I can finally stop worrying that I forgot about implementing a feature or that I forgot how I solved a particular problem a few months ago.

I need to obtain inner peace to be able to focus more on solving actual problems rather than living in fear over note-keeping.

My "system" so far is like this: I keep one Markdown file per computer I work on. Each file contains:

  - TODO lists for multiple projects

  - personal, general TODO lists (not related to particular projects)

  - my insights (regarding e.g. newly read papers or notes when learning new algorithms)

  - links to materials I find interesting and want to read later (papers, tutorials, links to HN :), etc.)
All of these MD files are unorganised (TODO lists for a single project can be found at multiple places in the file, interleaved between links and unrelated notes). I tried synchronising the MD files using Git, but that seemed like an overhead for me. I think I need something that does automatically save history and it would be nice to show the date and times when a note was taken (so that a graphs of my activity could be made over time - but this is not required).

I guess I would like to have a solution that not only synchronises across all platforms (Linux, macOS, Windows, iOS), but most importantly is secure as my notes can contain sensitive information. If there is an open-source solution for this problem, I have no problem with self-hosting such system.

How do you keep your notes/TODOs/track progress?

64 comments

[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 144 ms ] thread
rman666
I use MS OneNote because it’s available for free for all my devices, syncs, and has a decent UI. It does not support MarkDown at this time.
vinay_ys
I have Evernote subscription and I use that. But lately, I find myself using more and more Apple Notes and it seems to meet my needs as I have an iPhone and MacBook.
kosmodrom
For daily TODO lists pen and pencil is the best, you will feel this funny dopamine hits when you cross out finished a task.
smartis2812
Personally, I also have the feeling that I remember points better, if I write them down instead of digital notes. Nothing beats Pen&Paper.
spdebbarma
I have two primary programs to handle this on a generic level across devices. It was important for me to be able to easily access everything from my phone or PC.

- Notion [1]

I use Notion to create notes, share thoughts, save links and resources, and write blog drafts. The focus here is to easily share them with my partners or publicly, if needed. Notion is extremely versatile and if I had to recommend an application, it would be this.

- Standard Notes [2]

I wanted a tool like Bear (for Mac) and this is the closest I could find. This is for personal use so I wanted something that would securely store my data. I use this for journaling and maintaining To-Do's.

To manage projects and keep track of how I've been progressing, I use Trello[3], cause it's one of the best kanban boards out there.

[1] notion.so/ [2] standardnotes.org/ [3] trello.com/

notJim
Why use both Notion and Standard Notes? I use Bear, but have been vaguely thinking of moving to Notion.
FullMetalJason
1. iOS reminders app for to-dos 2. google calendar for day to day tasks and meetings 3. Evernote for weekly, monthly and yearly progress(I should get a better tool for this)
notJim
I use Bear. It's basically like Apple Notes, but more fully-featured. In particular, it uses markdown (more or less), and has checkboxes you can use for todos.
h1d
While I liked it feature wise, I don't think I want to pay a monthly fee just to take notes.
Farraige
I thought the same, but it's €15.99 a year. I usually buy a couple of Leuchtturm notebooks a year, which cost that each. Looking at it that way, it's well made and I want it to stick around.
eliasson
> ...it's well made and I want it to stick around.

Fully agree. And for me personally I think €15.99 is cheap - I use it way more than any of the video games I keep buying.

[deleted]
(comment deleted)
lormayna
I use Zim, writing notes in Markdown and push the changes in a private Bitbucket private repository.
fathead_glacier
Org-mode. Once you get hooked and comfortable there is hardly going back.

Org-mode support todo lists, agendas, scheduling, recording time per task, latex export, references (with org-tef) and executing code in the document (with babel) and more.

To give you an idea of what the workflow is while I am working on my PhD thesis. I write text with references in sections with todo tags, add my python code, execute it and export to latex. Now I can track how much work I did today in what section and I can also see other files in a common agenda. All of this is in plain text files so git work as well and if you decide to migrate a python script can parse it.

All of this in a free and open source solution if you are happy to work with Emacs. In my opinion it is worth it even if you keep a running Emacs version only for this.

Mxtetris
+1 for org-mode.

Org-mode files are tree-structured, so anything you can structure as a tree should work well with org-mode. The navigation controls work nicely: expanding/collapsing, reordering, searching within subtrees.

noobly
Perhaps you know this, but other curious readers may not: it's worth noting (perhaps in an org-file) that properties such as tags, priorities and timestamps allow you to catalogue and access information without using the tree structure, so it can work for non-tree like structures too.

To any interested readers, I'd watch Carsten Dominik's (the original Org-Mode auhtor) Google Tech Talk on the topic. It's good to see it explained from the creator's perspective, imo.

niklasmtj
Since you use MD files for "organising" you may have a look at Notable [1] which is Open Source and uses MD files under the hood. And you can tag your posts to organise your projects

Personally I use a combination of Bear App [2] for Mac to organize my Notes. Bear has a built in tag function which is really easy to use. Also I'm a huge fan of it's minimalistic design. For ToDos I use Things 3 [3] which let's you categorize your ToDos in different projects.

But both are Mac only currently which is a pain point at work where I use Windows.

[1] https://github.com/notable/notable

[2] https://bear.app/

[3] https://culturedcode.com/things/

ssawyer06
Google Keep. Free. Desktop + mobile. But they’ll probably discontinue it one day.
jazoom
And they are probably mining it for data. I use Keep as a synchronised shopping list with my wife, among other things. I'd really like a self-hostable replacement.
zenkoi
Yeah if you have no concern over privacy.
h1d
After trying several tools, I just got to feel a plain text is all I need for my todo list as I don't want to start decorating the list when I have that list to consume first.

For Mac, Unclutter is really useful (which also acts as a clipboard manager) as it gives you instant access to the note with a scroll down from the top of the screen. And I just have the list written in the order of priority under several categories, which are just bracketed text headers and it serves me well.

https://unclutterapp.com

For Notes, I ended up using Apple's note as it did things fairly and you can attach files and also encrypt individual entries which I find useful to keep sensitive information.

rofo1
GNU's nano. Seriously :)

And nfs-equivalent between machines to "sync" (if nfs is out of the question, rsync works good enough)

JohnFen
I've never managed to get along well with Nano, personally, but I'm with you on using a fairly minimalist text editor.
ha470
Bear.app is incredible! It's been my daily driver for todos, notes, thoughts, planning, etc for a while.
OedipusRex
I used to use Wunderlist because it had a GREAT widget on Android. Then I switched to Evernote when I got an iPhone. Now I'm in a hybrid of real pen and paper and Evernote. Eventually I feel I will go 100% pen and paper. I use Pocket for saving things on the web that I want to come back to.

I've found that because I work with computer SO much that I need something analog to bypass that resistance to using a screen after a long day on computers. I have two notebooks. One strictly for work that I treat like an Engineers Notebook, 1-page a day, date at the top, sign off when the page is done, etc. The other I use for personal stuff and usually is just a to-do list.

devinjflick
I've been in the Dev world for about 4 years now. When I started I was also undertaking a reorganization of my life as well. Tracking all this was initially done digitally, but I found myself too often forgetting to update those digital mediums because of screen burn out. I actually use a system exactly like yours, though I have 3 notebooks: Engineering work notebook, A page a day dated listing my todos for the day and any insights when solving them; Daily/Weekly planner to track appointments and keep myself on task with personal goals; and a personal journal to record thoughts and feelings on everything from daily life to large philosophy questions.

The one thing I wish it did have a search function lol.

EDIT: A big reason I pushed away from digital and on to physical was distractions. Paper notebooks dont have the majority of human knowledge and world events just a click away.

m-p-3
"Eventually I feel I will go 100% pen and paper."

I'm still looking for THE epaper notepad that works well for note-taking, but also reading emails, managing a calendar, etc and that is also running Android.

mindv0rtex
I use Joplin. It can sync across Windows, OS X and iOS (didn't try it on Android), notes are in Markdown. The note editor is not awesome, compared to smth like Typora, but it's ok if you just want to type in Markdown.
s_c_r
I use vimwiki. Simple, light-weight, and does exactly what I need. I also use org mode in spacemacs with evil, but so far I haven't come across any functionality in org mode that I needed that vimwiki didn't also provide.

https://github.com/vimwiki/vimwiki

codefreakxff
Dropbox Paper. Excels at combining notes and todo lists with assignment and due dates. Easy markdown editing, code blocks, embedded content
ktm5j
I love Paper except for the fact that I can't get it to show the folder view as default. It's just one click, but it drives me crazy that it won't remember that I want to see the folder view.
DougWebb
On Windows, I just use the Microsoft Sticky Notes app. I'd used text files for a long time, and tried various local and web-based apps, but the key feature for me is that the note has to be visible or I'll eventually forget about it. I've got a whiteboard beside my desk and that's good for some things, but having the notes on my desktop is easier to edit. My second monitor on each work computer is a mess of notes, but I never forget about them.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sticky_Notes

lioeters
In collaboration with others, I often use Trello, Asana, Notion, Google Drive.

---

That said, if you have the time and inclination, you can always roll your own custom, personalized solution by combining tools at hand: editor/stack of choice, Git, rsync, grep, etc.

My own "system" has evolved over the years. These days I use (and continue to develop) a React app that serves a personal dashboard and watches a folder of Markdown files for live/hot reload. It has various features that I've added as needed, like calendar, events, to-do list, different "views" that organize and list the notes, extracting Markdown "front matter" for metadata like tags.. I also use it as a scratchpad for code.

The biggest advantage to this approach is the infinite extensibility. If I want, I can integrate my book collection and keep virtual shelves for "reading now" and "to read"; use Git for tracking tasks/time/progress; push the system to a remote server and put my dashboard behind a login, for different devices to access the central repo; share and up/download static files; dynamic spreadsheet-like functionality (calculate tax, currency conversions); add a text-based chat over WebSockets for collaboration..

But this is kind of how I've always used personal computers, by building my own systems. I get great enjoyment out of it, and the tools fit my needs perfectly (well, limited by my technical ability and there's always room for improvement).

m_fayer
Dynalist - it specializes in hierarchical lists like Workflowy, but with a lot of rich functionality layered on top. I've been using it daily for over a year.
funkjunky
I use a dot grid bullet journal with multiple colored fountain pens. I find it addresses most of your concerns whilst being flexible enough to accommodate any deviation you can dream of, without any dependencies on technological solutions. It's dated, organized, consolidated, efficient, flexible, portable, with room for artistic expression, and it gets you away from your monitor and keyboard and phone.