I've tried a bunch of those apps/sites too and honestly I've found that none of them have a perfect one-size-fits-all solution because there are different kinds of information that I need to remember.
If it's something important that I need to remember but am unsure when, like a code or name or number or something, I'll probably just email it to myself. That way if/when I need if in the future I can just search for it in my email very easily.
If it's something I'm sorta maybe interested in but not too fussed over if I remember to check it out or not, maybe I'll just leave a browser tab open for a few days/weeks until I decide that I actually want to read it or not (often times I'll just close it after a few days because I'm not that interested any more).
If it's a webpage that I know I'd like to come back to, I'll just bookmark it into an appropriate bookmark folder.
If it's a lot of text that I need to save, like a list of stuff to do or notes from a phone conversation, I'll just use the default notes app on my phone, or maybe a google doc/sheet if I'd like to share it with my wife.
If I need to be reminded at a specific date or time, then I'll just use the reminders app on my phone, or a basic alarm if its within the next 24 hours or so.
Seems like a messy system, but it mostly works fine for me. Despite there being like 5-10 different apps and programs, I find that it works well because each program or app serves a specific role rather than trying to remind me of everything.
For little projects I'm working on or longform notetaking/journaling, I have an Obsidian notebook that works across all my devices (Windows, Mac, iPhone).
For time-sensitive reminders, I've found Apple's Reminders app to work best for me. It has the most reliable notification system and cleanest interface I've seen. Combined with Apple's default Calendar app and widgets on iOS, I've been fairly pleased.
I keep a little notebook. Write the date at the top, the topic and a very brief note of what needs to be done and potential issues
I used to keep it in my head, and I was far happier for it because you don’t remember what you forgot about, so you feel like 100% success rate lol. But after I started working I just had to externalise it somewhere for proof if anything else, then kept it going because writing things down gave my brain time to compartmentalise the issue
I bought a physical notebook (dotted, so I can draw my own lines) and a pen that I keep on my desk, or in my purse when I go out. I number the pages, and reserve the last few for an index. Before the notebook I had a bad habit of making notes in random Google docs. In contrast the notebook makes it easy to have everything I want to remember in one place. It feels very hygienic if that makes sense. And it means I'm not uploading my random thoughts -- my grocery lists, blocking for parties, stray ideas about books and games, research references for writing -- into the cloud.
if it's IRL stuff like a grocery list, I'll use Keep
For anything I find in a browser I now use self-hosted Karakeep with self-hosted AI tagging
I rarely find myself going back into Karakeep, since the stuff that's really important I will remember enough so it pops up in my address bar, but for everything else it's nice to know it's in Karakeep somewhere
I note things down across a variety of mediums nowadays. It's certainly messy but the places I save things are places I often spend time at for other reasons so I'm never too far from what I've saved.
At work, I keep everything in a solo Notion instance. My company recently gave employees access to Notion so I've got things noted down there. When I need to share things with co-workers, I'll create a document in our wiki and share it with them that way.
For personal things, it's a mess haha. For emails I receive that I need to action on, I will pin and flag them within my email client. That way, every time I open my email client, they're at the top and highlighted to grab my attention. For clipping things like screenshotting confirmations or saving plans, I use a personal Discord server. I spend a lot of time on Discord chatting with friends so it's easy to just forward things to my personal space and also upload to it. For reminders, I use the Google Tasks app, though I've also been using Apple Reminders recently.
I've used Apple's built-in Reminders app on my iPhone. It syncs to my Mac and when I'm thinking about things I need to do I usually enter them on my Mac because I enjoy using the keyboard more.
I have list for things which repeat on a more or less weekly or daily basis (take out the trash), and a list for things which happen on much longer timescales like quarterly or yearly (pay estimated taxes, change air filters, inspect water heater, change car oil).
I also have a list for things I need to buy the next time I'm at any store. It's a list that has groceries, toiletries, hardware, anything that when I'm in any sort of brick and mortar store I look at briefly before I leave just to make sure I hadn't forgot something.
And then there's just a general list for everything else.
Every reminder can be assigned an alert so it will go off at a specific day or time, or just hang out without notifying you (like all the stuff on my shopping list).
It's gotten to the point where anytime I think of anything, I reflexively pull out my phone and add it to the list (you can also do via voice, but often I don't like saying my thoughts in public).
The main benefit for me is I never spend any time worrying about whether I'm forgetting something. If it was ever important to me, it's on a list. Maybe once every few days I go through all of the lists and remove anything that is no longer relevant, like a fleeting idea I thought was a great idea that I've already taken care of. In general before this my brain was constantly spinning thinking of all the things I may have forgotten to do - that's no longer the case for me and it's incredibly freeing.
I found GTD great when I was in university, but I always found it hard to keep using regularly post graduation.
I'm trying to get back in to the habit of it with my wife for us to put things in to a shared system that need done so we can both keep track of stuff, and also using our calendar more for blocking things out and reminding each other of what is happening. It hasn't really stuck yet, but I know we need a better system since we've had a few things get dropped, or we forget to do till the last minute in the last year, and I'd rather not do that again.
I keep tabs open when I need to do something urgently otherwise I save them to a sqlite database. Every week I see if any cruft has stayed open and force myself to get things done or push them to the sqlite database.
Why sqlite over simple text files? The main reason is that I can add columns like page title and time_created to keep track of when pages are saved and marked as completed. But I've used simple text files for a long time too and it's easier to start with that.
Gmail snoozing emails to myself or adding calendar events is also helpful for one-off tasks--but for recurring tasks I run a program to open tabs from a special sqlite database that helps me keep track of all the sites that I want to visit without visiting them too frequently or forgetting one.
I think my number one magic trick is just to do things that are needed immediately when they are needed--even if it takes a lot longer than 5 minutes.
I like to use an Obsidian-style set of markdown files for anything I need to remember long-term. (I use an nvim plugin because I already use nvim frequently but same diff) Otherwise I use browser bookmarks for things I find interesting or want to check out but haven't had the time. For everything else I have a TUL notebook with the little rings and the custom hole puncher to go with it. That lets me take physical notes or draw diagrams/doodles.
I've gone down the rabbit hole of "perfect" knowledge system storage and have settled on those three methods as good enough for me. Markdown/Obsidian is great for just dumping things with keywords and being able to search and find them later, bookmarks for online stuff that's not so important but I want to remember, and then the physical notebook with pages I can re-arrange for anything that I don't want to type.
For work, I do similar to a lot of other folk here.
For my personal life it's kinda more complicated...
I think I have some kind of ADHD and I forget important stuff all the time. I tried notes apps, physical paper, calendars and whatever and nothing stuck.
My uh, workaround? Is I just do as much as I can immediately lol. As soon as I have a new item to put on the list, I just do it. If I do have something to do, it's normally like 1 or 2 things and I can actually remember them.
Like, terrible advise I know, don't do this. It's gonna get me. But thought I'd share.
Does keeping browser tabs open work for well for you some or most of the time?
Edit: Oops, I forgot to answer the question. I use Google Docs/Sheets for big things (desktop & mobile app), calendar mobile app for time blocking + long term task reminders, and whatever mobile reminder app for short term recurring tasks. I also refer to medium/small things in Google Keep (mobile app), only because I had legacy sticky notes in there and didn't want to branch out. I think this works for me because I am typically glued to my phone.
Good question. I think I'm a serial "tryer-outerer" and have some kind of fear of committing to a single solution. Notion is the closest thing I have right now to what I think I'm looking for and I do use it for work stuff fairly successfully (plus about 45 open Chrome tabs). I probably don't really need a different tool but I thought it would be interesting to see how others have solved similar problems.
I use Obsidian. I used to use Google Keep for pretty much everything, and before that I tried (and tried, and tried) notebooks.
I really want to be the notebook guy. But it never works out for long enough, I get sick of writing everything and it's so slow to find stuff.
So, I switched to Keep, and made todos for each week and manually copied them for each new week to keep a rolling chain of thought. Plus I used it for random grocery lists and notes, but it always felt so disorganized, like a big pile of paper notes.
So, I tried Obsidian. It's been amazing! I have an automatically-generated daily note, and with a press of a menu item it checks yesterday's note and brings forward anything I didn't complete the day before. I have a dedicated note for long term stuff, and a reminder to take a look at it daily. When I finally get a solid due date for something long term, I assign it one. One the day the item comes due, my daily note automatically brings that item in with the rest of that day's todos.
It gives me so much flexibility to make random notes or fully fleshed-out work documents or anything between. The backlink system and nested folder system makes it feel really organized, and it's just automatic enough to keep me from feeling too much friction.
I'm a completionist, so seeing the same item not checked off every day really motivates me to get stuff done. And if I can't get it done, I can move it to long term, or give it a due date, or mark it cancelled and have a record of when I finally made that decision.
It just works well for me.
Beware the customization, it can be a bottomless rabbit hole if you let it. I use a couple plugins and try not to spend time optimizing anymore.
fefellama | 8 hours ago
I've tried a bunch of those apps/sites too and honestly I've found that none of them have a perfect one-size-fits-all solution because there are different kinds of information that I need to remember.
If it's something important that I need to remember but am unsure when, like a code or name or number or something, I'll probably just email it to myself. That way if/when I need if in the future I can just search for it in my email very easily.
If it's something I'm sorta maybe interested in but not too fussed over if I remember to check it out or not, maybe I'll just leave a browser tab open for a few days/weeks until I decide that I actually want to read it or not (often times I'll just close it after a few days because I'm not that interested any more).
If it's a webpage that I know I'd like to come back to, I'll just bookmark it into an appropriate bookmark folder.
If it's a lot of text that I need to save, like a list of stuff to do or notes from a phone conversation, I'll just use the default notes app on my phone, or maybe a google doc/sheet if I'd like to share it with my wife.
If I need to be reminded at a specific date or time, then I'll just use the reminders app on my phone, or a basic alarm if its within the next 24 hours or so.
Seems like a messy system, but it mostly works fine for me. Despite there being like 5-10 different apps and programs, I find that it works well because each program or app serves a specific role rather than trying to remind me of everything.
qwed113 | 7 hours ago
For little projects I'm working on or longform notetaking/journaling, I have an Obsidian notebook that works across all my devices (Windows, Mac, iPhone).
For time-sensitive reminders, I've found Apple's Reminders app to work best for me. It has the most reliable notification system and cleanest interface I've seen. Combined with Apple's default Calendar app and widgets on iOS, I've been fairly pleased.
xRyo | 8 hours ago
I keep a little notebook. Write the date at the top, the topic and a very brief note of what needs to be done and potential issues
I used to keep it in my head, and I was far happier for it because you don’t remember what you forgot about, so you feel like 100% success rate lol. But after I started working I just had to externalise it somewhere for proof if anything else, then kept it going because writing things down gave my brain time to compartmentalise the issue
Evie | 6 hours ago
I bought a physical notebook (dotted, so I can draw my own lines) and a pen that I keep on my desk, or in my purse when I go out. I number the pages, and reserve the last few for an index. Before the notebook I had a bad habit of making notes in random Google docs. In contrast the notebook makes it easy to have everything I want to remember in one place. It feels very hygienic if that makes sense. And it means I'm not uploading my random thoughts -- my grocery lists, blocking for parties, stray ideas about books and games, research references for writing -- into the cloud.
thenetnetofthenet | 8 hours ago
if it's IRL stuff like a grocery list, I'll use Keep
For anything I find in a browser I now use self-hosted Karakeep with self-hosted AI tagging
I rarely find myself going back into Karakeep, since the stuff that's really important I will remember enough so it pops up in my address bar, but for everything else it's nice to know it's in Karakeep somewhere
artvandelay | 8 hours ago
I note things down across a variety of mediums nowadays. It's certainly messy but the places I save things are places I often spend time at for other reasons so I'm never too far from what I've saved.
At work, I keep everything in a solo Notion instance. My company recently gave employees access to Notion so I've got things noted down there. When I need to share things with co-workers, I'll create a document in our wiki and share it with them that way.
For personal things, it's a mess haha. For emails I receive that I need to action on, I will pin and flag them within my email client. That way, every time I open my email client, they're at the top and highlighted to grab my attention. For clipping things like screenshotting confirmations or saving plans, I use a personal Discord server. I spend a lot of time on Discord chatting with friends so it's easy to just forward things to my personal space and also upload to it. For reminders, I use the Google Tasks app, though I've also been using Apple Reminders recently.
cinnamontrout | 8 hours ago
I've used Apple's built-in Reminders app on my iPhone. It syncs to my Mac and when I'm thinking about things I need to do I usually enter them on my Mac because I enjoy using the keyboard more.
I have list for things which repeat on a more or less weekly or daily basis (take out the trash), and a list for things which happen on much longer timescales like quarterly or yearly (pay estimated taxes, change air filters, inspect water heater, change car oil).
I also have a list for things I need to buy the next time I'm at any store. It's a list that has groceries, toiletries, hardware, anything that when I'm in any sort of brick and mortar store I look at briefly before I leave just to make sure I hadn't forgot something.
And then there's just a general list for everything else.
Every reminder can be assigned an alert so it will go off at a specific day or time, or just hang out without notifying you (like all the stuff on my shopping list).
It's gotten to the point where anytime I think of anything, I reflexively pull out my phone and add it to the list (you can also do via voice, but often I don't like saying my thoughts in public).
The main benefit for me is I never spend any time worrying about whether I'm forgetting something. If it was ever important to me, it's on a list. Maybe once every few days I go through all of the lists and remove anything that is no longer relevant, like a fleeting idea I thought was a great idea that I've already taken care of. In general before this my brain was constantly spinning thinking of all the things I may have forgotten to do - that's no longer the case for me and it's incredibly freeing.
fxgn | an hour ago
Tasks.org with the GTD system for reminders and tasks, Anki for everything I need to really remember
pekt | an hour ago
I found GTD great when I was in university, but I always found it hard to keep using regularly post graduation.
I'm trying to get back in to the habit of it with my wife for us to put things in to a shared system that need done so we can both keep track of stuff, and also using our calendar more for blocking things out and reminding each other of what is happening. It hasn't really stuck yet, but I know we need a better system since we've had a few things get dropped, or we forget to do till the last minute in the last year, and I'd rather not do that again.
pxl | 6 hours ago
For tasks I use Apple's Reminders. It integrates with the Calendar app, so that's great.
For all sorts of note-taking, including things like grocery lists, I use Bear.
Links are just bookmarked.
xk3 | 6 hours ago
I keep tabs open when I need to do something urgently otherwise I save them to a sqlite database. Every week I see if any cruft has stayed open and force myself to get things done or push them to the sqlite database.
Why sqlite over simple text files? The main reason is that I can add columns like page title and time_created to keep track of when pages are saved and marked as completed. But I've used simple text files for a long time too and it's easier to start with that.
Gmail snoozing emails to myself or adding calendar events is also helpful for one-off tasks--but for recurring tasks I run a program to open tabs from a special sqlite database that helps me keep track of all the sites that I want to visit without visiting them too frequently or forgetting one.
I think my number one magic trick is just to do things that are needed immediately when they are needed--even if it takes a lot longer than 5 minutes.
jayrh | 5 hours ago
I like to use an Obsidian-style set of markdown files for anything I need to remember long-term. (I use an nvim plugin because I already use nvim frequently but same diff) Otherwise I use browser bookmarks for things I find interesting or want to check out but haven't had the time. For everything else I have a TUL notebook with the little rings and the custom hole puncher to go with it. That lets me take physical notes or draw diagrams/doodles.
I've gone down the rabbit hole of "perfect" knowledge system storage and have settled on those three methods as good enough for me. Markdown/Obsidian is great for just dumping things with keywords and being able to search and find them later, bookmarks for online stuff that's not so important but I want to remember, and then the physical notebook with pages I can re-arrange for anything that I don't want to type.
kaffo | 4 hours ago
For work, I do similar to a lot of other folk here.
For my personal life it's kinda more complicated...
I think I have some kind of ADHD and I forget important stuff all the time. I tried notes apps, physical paper, calendars and whatever and nothing stuck.
My uh, workaround? Is I just do as much as I can immediately lol. As soon as I have a new item to put on the list, I just do it. If I do have something to do, it's normally like 1 or 2 things and I can actually remember them.
Like, terrible advise I know, don't do this. It's gonna get me. But thought I'd share.
chizcurl | 4 hours ago
Why didn't Notion, Keep, and Evernote work out?
Does keeping browser tabs open work for well for you some or most of the time?
Edit: Oops, I forgot to answer the question. I use Google Docs/Sheets for big things (desktop & mobile app), calendar mobile app for time blocking + long term task reminders, and whatever mobile reminder app for short term recurring tasks. I also refer to medium/small things in Google Keep (mobile app), only because I had legacy sticky notes in there and didn't want to branch out. I think this works for me because I am typically glued to my phone.
[OP] BrewBit | 2 hours ago
Good question. I think I'm a serial "tryer-outerer" and have some kind of fear of committing to a single solution. Notion is the closest thing I have right now to what I think I'm looking for and I do use it for work stuff fairly successfully (plus about 45 open Chrome tabs). I probably don't really need a different tool but I thought it would be interesting to see how others have solved similar problems.
doors_cannot_stop_me | 3 hours ago
I use Obsidian. I used to use Google Keep for pretty much everything, and before that I tried (and tried, and tried) notebooks.
I really want to be the notebook guy. But it never works out for long enough, I get sick of writing everything and it's so slow to find stuff.
So, I switched to Keep, and made todos for each week and manually copied them for each new week to keep a rolling chain of thought. Plus I used it for random grocery lists and notes, but it always felt so disorganized, like a big pile of paper notes.
So, I tried Obsidian. It's been amazing! I have an automatically-generated daily note, and with a press of a menu item it checks yesterday's note and brings forward anything I didn't complete the day before. I have a dedicated note for long term stuff, and a reminder to take a look at it daily. When I finally get a solid due date for something long term, I assign it one. One the day the item comes due, my daily note automatically brings that item in with the rest of that day's todos.
It gives me so much flexibility to make random notes or fully fleshed-out work documents or anything between. The backlink system and nested folder system makes it feel really organized, and it's just automatic enough to keep me from feeling too much friction.
I'm a completionist, so seeing the same item not checked off every day really motivates me to get stuff done. And if I can't get it done, I can move it to long term, or give it a due date, or mark it cancelled and have a record of when I finally made that decision.
It just works well for me.
Beware the customization, it can be a bottomless rabbit hole if you let it. I use a couple plugins and try not to spend time optimizing anymore.