Category: Productivity

It’s that time of the year again to review the productivity tools/system changes I’ve worked with, replaced, or refined over the last year.

Broadly speaking – not a lot has changed. Noteworthy bits are:

1. I’ve moved away from Google tools. My mail, calendar, and file storage are now all Proton. I love Proton tools. The killer app will be when they finally deliver a spreadsheet tool. In terms of privacy-first, they’re a truly professional outfit. Mail and Calendar work great, VPN, Pass, and Authenticator are awesome products, and Docs is a great Word-like alternative. Sure, you have to pay for Proton, but the privacy and convenience make it money well spent.
   
   I’ve also removed myself from social media (unless you call YouTube social media). The only other social media-ish app I use is WhatsApp, as that’s the main source of comms for all the family. I’d prefer to go to Signal, but I’d be a voice in the wilderness there.
   
   I don’t see myself fully dropping Google, mainly because of YouTube. I have loads of purchased Google Movies (remember that?) programmes and films, and YouTube itself is hugely useful to me. In fact, I’m hoping to start a little fun channel in the New Year (“The Dunn Thing”) to talk about productivity, retirement planning, music, reading, general life stuff, and just to see how I enjoy it and if it can work going forward.
   
   
2. Notesnook is a great little alternative to Evernote – again, it’s privacy-first, and with my student discount, it’s peanuts for a yearly subscription. I did take a look at Standard Notes (who Proton have sided with) but pricing is quite expensive for the Pro subscription – the Free version is too restrictive.
   
   
3. I’m still using Obsidian. It’s mainly been a vault for work notes, and also to create Daily Scrum docs. It’s a great and powerful tool, although I haven’t really gone fully KPM/Zettelkasten or explored the new Bases feature.
   
   
4. Analogue. This is where the biggest change has been for me over the year. I’ve rediscovered and am loving writing on paper again. I’ve kept a personal journal and filled it in daily over the last 7 months; it’s definitely a stayer. I’m going to go with the Leuchteurm 1917 “Some Lines A Day” 5 year book.
   
   
   
   Also, the Bullet Journal will continue to feature heavily next year. There’s a bit of friction between Daily Scrum stuff in Obsidian and my BuJo but I’m working on it. I’ve also tried a wide range of pens (gel, standard, fountain) as well as notebooks from Rhodia, Dingbats, and Moleskine. I like them all – and I’m not sure which I’ll go with next year, but I’ll definitely need a “Scribble” book for jotting down notes and ideas which I can use, then either reformat in digital or analogue formats.
   
   
5. Todoist – yup, it’s still there! I find it so useful for repeating tasks. It’s so easy to set stuff up and the natural language makes it dead easy and fast to get tasks in with deadlines, assigned to myself or my wife, with priorities and project links. Awesome product.
   
   
6. Nirvana. Yup, Nirvan is still there for all my project work. I still very much love the GTD framework, even if I’m adapting it further to become my own. Nirvana is to my mind the best list manager that embraces the soul of what GTD is about. I do wish they would produce more blog articles and features, but it’s a complete and highly useful app. I did try and forego it to put everything in Todoist but it just didn’t sit right. “Next actions” are a bit of a pain to implement in Todoist despite trying things out with labels.
   

I’m sure i’ll talk more about the individual tools in future posts, but I’m in a pretty good spot right now, and things are starting to come together!

I used Evernote for 11 years and was even pleased with the Home dashboard when that was introduced a few years ago. And the guys at Bending Spoons are working hard to make Evernote a great product (less so with Tasks or Calendar IMHO – it’s a note-taking app). However, the inability of me to use this at work (blocked), and the frankly crazy pricing overhaul has caused me to look elsewhere. I guess there’s fairly elastic demand with existing Evernote die-hards so they’ll make their money…. but not from me. I should perhaps be using OneNote at work (we’re a Microsoft shop) but there’s just a je ne sais quoi bit of friction going on there. It just doesn’t feel right to how my brain is wired.

With Notesnook, all notes are E2EE (end-to-end encrypted), and there’s a range of security and privacy features that can be tweaked to keep those Big Brothers eyes from a-snooping.

Notesnook is sensibly priced, in fact I can claim a considerable discount as a (mature, somewhat decrepit) student – a tenner a year. I basically get all the features you’d expect to see in Evernote (notebook-based) but with block-style functionality a la Notion, and bi-direction linking a la Obsidian.

I’m absolutely loving it. I don’t think it will replace Obsidian as my PKM but all my personal note-taking requirements are covered.

In the image above you’ll notice a very Notion-like block-based creation tool. I also love the Callout facility as well just to emphasis quotes or other useful bits of information in your note. It also has (under the Notebooks tab) an Evernote-esque layout (something I’m really used to) but whereas Evernote has “stacks” of notebooks, they can instead by layered in Notesnook. Suits me better.

I did consider Standard Notes with its security/privacy features, but the inability to use Markdown and “super note” functionality without forking out $90 for the year sort of put me off. Still cheaper than Evernote, mind.

I’d definitely encourage digital note-takers to give Notesnook a look. As an organisation they seem well positioned to have an excellent future (the roadmap looks particularly encouraging – encrypted workspaces sounds great) and even if you’re not a student, the annual fee is sensibly priced at around £50 for the year to get all the pro features. For great functionality and privacy in a note-taking application.

For now, I’ll continue to play and see what my final use case will be.

Here’s some links to the other mentioned apps:

• Notesnook
• Evernote
• Notion
• Obsidian
• OneNote

I’ve been dabbling with paper things again. And I’m really enjoying them! I’ve been trialling the Bullet Journal Method for the last 8 weeks, and doing some personal journaling, while still keeping my digital apps on the go.

It works. My new mantra is “Paper Planning, Digital Presentation“.

It really is the best of both worlds. I’m loving the screen-free, tactile sensation of throwing thoughts and ideas on to paper. I’m equally loving the idea of presenting those thoughts digitally. Mainly as I have the handwriting legibility of a 2-year old, and it helps to read what I’ve thunk.

If I’ve learned anything through trying to find a system that works for me, it’s that no one size fits all. It is, after all, personal productivity. To get me to where I am, I’ve pinched from many sources to find what works for me.

Here’s the digital and analogue tools I’m using:

Digital

• Gmail – email
• Google Calendar – calendar
• Google Keep – for quickie notes. Great on the phone to call up stuff quickly
• Todoist – for all recurring home tasks (take out the bins, wash kitchen floor etc.) – I also use this with my wife for errands, monthly plans, and gift lists.
• Nirvana – for all my non-recurring tasks, especially those associated with work.
• Obsidian – for digital presentation of my “learning” projects.

Paper

• Leuchtturm 1917 A5 hard-cover notebooks – one (a 411 notebook) that follows the Bullet Journal Method pretty closely. One that is just a freehand personal journal. I love Leuchtturm stuff. I’ve got the ballpoint and gel pens too. They’re great. The simplicity of having numbered pages too. That’s a big win for me.
• Leuchtturm 1917 A6 Jot pad – this is a great little tool that I take out and about with me to make some quick paper notes. It’s mainly used as a “snag” catcher, which ultimately ends up as a task in Nirvana or Todoist.
• RHODIA 118769C rigid notebook – dot-grid, a “sort of” bullet journal style for everything at work, using slightly different spreads and templates than those offered in the official Bujo book. I really like the “feel” of this notebook.
• Moleskine Classic expanded notebook – a ruled book that will contain al my notes for an “ultralearning” project I’m working on.

My process is broadly based around GTD, with bits of Bujo, “Make Time”, “Ultralearning” and “Deep Work” thrown in!

Here’s what I’ll do on a daily basis:

1. Capture any items/thoughts on my Jotpad.
2. Evaluate and organise those captured items as projects, tasks or notes into either Nirvana (non-recurring tasks), Todoist (recurring tasks), or my bullet journal for notes.
3. Move notes into Obsidian when appropriate (end of day, or end of week)
4. Do a daily review in my bullet journal, and set up the next day’s bullet journal day – with at most 3 tasks (one of which is the day’s “highlight”)
5. Do the work – typically using The Pomodoro Technique as I’m a terrible procrastinator
6. Do an end of day longhand journal entry.
7. Do a GTD-like Weekly Review (often on a Sunday morning)
8. Set up a Monthly review/spread set up on the last day of every month for the following month in the Bullet Journal. (I love this ritual!)
9. Review/revise any Quarterly Themes or goals

I’ll no doubt refine this going forward, but for now – it works for me!