Short but sweet tips:
# 1 When I use tags, I prefix them with the “@” symbol. It’s annoying to use on iOS so I use this TextExpander snippet:
I also have one for project tags, which are prefixed with an underscore. Even though this duplicates some of the functionality of my Markdown collection it’s easy to remember when I am thinking about a “tttag”.
# 2 I don’t delete many snippets.
If you don’t know Rob Trew (@complexpoint) then let me introduce you to some of his work. He creates gorgeous scripts for making the data in OmniFocus, and many other apps, portable. For example, his latest work allows for export of OmniFocus data to iThoughts HD, indented text, Markdown and more.
He’s now setting his sights on FoldingText and magic is starting to happen.
Two voyeuristic questions I think about:
What’s in other people’s day bags. What are their OmniFocus contexts. Rob writes about his contexts.
A quarterly task worth thinking about.
I use Due on iOS and Mac as my reminder system. It’s not for tasks, it’s for something I really have to get done at a specific time, no matter what. Sven has a nice Keyboard Maestro macro for converting an OmniFocus task to a Due reminder. This is great.
I’ve been using Checkvist for the past week and I love it. Checkvist is a web app for outlining and working with lists. It’s been designed for the plain text nerds and sports powerful keyboard navigation.
Checkvist isn’t a replacement for Markdown. It embraces it. Any text in an outline can be formatted with Markdown. Already have an outline written in Markdown? Just paste it right in through the import popup.
Rob Trew is a rain maker when it comes to OmniFocus scripting. His latest miracle can convert a Folding Text markdown outline into a nested folder, projects and tasks in OmniFocus.
When I plan a project, I almost always start with an outline and then manually convert it to an OmniFocus project. This is wonderful.
For a bonus, look at his script and marvel at the beauty of the code. What a master.
Jeff Atwood:
For the things in my life that actually mattered, I’ve never needed any to-do list to tell me to do them. If I did, then that’d be awfully strong evidence that I have some serious life problems to face before considering the rather trivial matter of which to-do lifehack fits my personality best. As for the things that didn’t matter in my life, well, those just tended to pile up endlessly in the old to-do list.
Yes, I’m fascinated with the idea of taking notes by hand but keeping them as digitized files.
Here’s a nice example of how Evernote can even do OCR on handwritten notes. I’d love it if Evernote exposed the OCR text so I could generate a plain text output file too.
MakeUseOf has a nice review of Whitelines notebooks and iOS apps. It’s similar to the latest Evernote and Moleskine collaboration.
The paper is subtly marked to allow the scanner app to auto orient and correct image layout and color. It’s a nice idea and I’m sure it works great. I’d still prefer a better sketching and handwritten notes app on iOS. I’d really love to see an industry standard that can be adopted by paper manufacturers.
