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Ask HN: What is your favorite way of taking notes?

• na85 8y ago
  I find I retain information better if I hand-write it on paper. I carry a little Leuchtterm1917 notebook around, and I use the bullet journal method which, if you remove all the washi-taping, watercoloring pinterest/livejournal hype, is actually a good system for productivity. That said, orgzly is org-mode for android and works pretty well. It's FLOSS.
• privong 8y ago
  It depends a bit on my mood, but I generally switch between a zim[0] wiki and plain text / markdown files written in vim. [0] http://zim-wiki.org/ http://zim-wiki.org/
  • jcelerier 8y ago
    been using Zim for my ph.d, it was absolutely great.
  • fiveFeet 8y ago
    Zim is awesome on a local machine. For remote work, I stick to vim. All the notes are stored in a gitlab repository which makes it easy when switching across machines.
• some_account 8y ago
  Bear is great on a Mac. Paste screenshots and create lists is super easy and post tagging works great.
• muzani 8y ago
  For laptop, I usually use Evernote or Sublime, depending on how I want to store them. Sublime has some nice plugins that make it really sweet for notes. For phone, I use Evernote or Jotterpad. Evernote is only when I really want to store the notes for the future. If they're disposable, I just care about how fast I can write. BTW, you should also look into being able to type quickly. I find a critical weakness in taking notes on my phone was that I couldn't write as fast as I think, and I would drop a lot of thoughts. I recommend getting enough practice to hit 50 WPM at 100% accuracy.
  • hnrodey 8y ago
    Care to expand on the Sublime plugins? I use Sublime for notes but store them as plain text files. My other favorite Sublime feature is it persists unsaved tabs through app restarts and system restarts thereby giving me the effect of holding on to my notes until I'm ready to actually save. A lot of stuff I just need temporarily.
    • lou1306 8y ago
      Not the parent comment's author, but personally I'm quite content with PlainNotes (https://github.com/aziz/PlainNotes https://github.com/aziz/PlainNotes). I also rely a lot on ST temporary buffers, and only use said plugin for mid-to-long-term stuff.
    • muzani 8y ago
      I use PlainTasks a lot. PlainNotes is another option but most of the things I write look just great in plaintext. Writing stuff in markdown helps too.
• ColinWright 8y ago
  Same question asked 4 days ago, with some suggestions there: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17239554 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17239554
• ready2operate 8y ago
  Notability on iPad with Apple Pencil.
  • notimetorelax 8y ago
    I usually add to the mix OneNote, especially when I’m on the go and have only the iPhone.
• deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
• Philipp__ 8y ago
  Org-mode. I won’t be wasting any words at it since I think it is well known thing here. Besides that I use Apple Notes. They sync and work flawlessly between iOS and Mac devices. And lastly, pen and paper. I like writing things down.
  • palmy 8y ago
    Then I will! I've always preferred taking notes on a computer due to how much easier it is to - edit - organize (heck, you can even search!) But I'm a maths student and I never came across anything where I can efficiently write equations and formulas, before Emacs + Org-mode. I have now been using Emacs + Org-mode + Yasnippet for a year, and it's bloody amazing. When it comes to efficiently including latex-expressions in my org-notes, Yasnippet is an absolute must. And because this is Org-mode, I can export all my notes to HTML, PDF, etc. Adding a bit of customization, you get something like this http://www.retiredparkingguard.com/notes/ http://www.retiredparkingguard.com/notes/. If you go to one of the note-pages with a bit of maths on it, e.g. mathematics/geometry.html, you should see a bar on the right displaying the notation used in each section. This requires javascript. I also make heavy use of customized named blocks in my note-taking, e.g. #+name: def:schrodinger-equation #+begin_definition ... #+end_definition And then, using org-ref, I can do a `M-x org-ref-insert-ref-link` anywhere in the document and I can search through all these definitions, theorems, etc. These blocks, when exported to HTML, are also given CSS classes, hence you can easily give these styling, making the reading experience into whatever you want. Finally, I would also suggest org-ref by John Kitchin (https://github.com/jkitchin/org-ref); https://github.com/jkitchin/org-ref); it makes organizing papers and the corresponding notes so incredibly easy. All together this makes note-taking such a breeze and lowers the barrier for me to re-read and edit my notes significantly, compared to handwritten notes.
    • wodenokoto 8y ago
      My main reason for preferring paper over keyboard is that I like to draw example graphs of everything. These don't need to be exact just give a visual idea of how a function acts. I also heavily annotate equations (color code, add description, etc) How do you get around this?
• albertgoeswoof 8y ago
  WorkFlowy is incredible But it’s not open source
  • uallo 8y ago
    I fully agree. Recently, they also released radically improved mobile apps (finally!).
  • NickBusey 8y ago
    Shameless plug for my open source alternative: https://BulletNotes.io/ https://BulletNotes.io/
    • ovi256 8y ago
      This kind of thread is the perfect place for these plugs. If not here, where ? So thanks, and good luck with the project.
    • albertgoeswoof 8y ago
      Looks great but I could never use it with the warning message on the home page Will look out for your Show HN when you launch a 1.0 :)
• maelito 8y ago
  notion.so is perfect for me, like a more complete Workflowy. They just released an android app, and a better free plan.
• shivamyadav2512 8y ago
  Keep. It has no ads and you can access it from phone or laptop. It's not open source though.
• john00088876 8y ago
  Sublime or VS code, as markdown in Dropbox for constant backup and easy roll-back for up to a week or something. I had used Ulysses on the Mac but an iCloud sync bug caused me to lose 8 hours of notes from customer meetings so that was the end of that. VS code has a lot of nice markdown plugins and I also use the “highlight” plugin for arbitrary colour based on regex for custom things like tags I include.
• GlenTheMachine 8y ago
  Trunk Notes on an iPad. Self-hosted iOS wiki that supports markdown. My major wish is that it had support for mathematical notation. You might check out TiddlyWiki. Open source, and will run almost anywhere.
• deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
• timwis 8y ago
  Oh boy have I tried just about everything. I've settled on a pretty nice solution: markdown files in my Dropbox directory. To edit them I use iA Writer (paid but worth it) for a very nice markdown exciting experience without any special serialization format like all the others (just plain markdown files). I also use their Android app but for both platforms I could switch to any other app that edits markdown files. Total portability. Syncing is Dropbox's job.
• sabarasaba 8y ago
  vim-wiki has been my go to tool for the past 5 years, cant recommend enough https://github.com/vimwiki/vimwiki https://github.com/vimwiki/vimwiki
• konraditurbe 8y ago
  Simplenote. I have the app on my phone and this vim plugin: https://github.com/mrtazz/simplenote.vim https://github.com/mrtazz/simplenote.vim
• awake 8y ago
  [Typora](https://www.typora.io/ https://www.typora.io/) is cross platform for mac, windows and linux. It's a markdown editor which has live preview except on the line you are currently typing on. It's by far the most seamless markdown experience I've had to date, and I'd love to see a non-electron solution with a similar UI. For storing notes you can just use a DropBox folder or a GoogleDrive folder.
• baby 8y ago
  I’ve tried a lot of things and I still don’t have the perfect solution, but markdown in sublime text works well enough
• 7952 8y ago
  OneNote. I like how it can support multiple users by just saving data in normal files on a network folder. No special server setup or cloud needed.
• twblalock 8y ago
  Apple Notes. OneNote before that, but it started being very buggy about synchronizing. I need something that syncs with my phone.
• oneplane 8y ago
  Apple Notes, Sublime Text, Pen & Paper (and all in that order depending on context). Taking notes digitally without syncing, I'd say stick to your current favored plain text editor. For syncing, there isn't a lot of good stuff out there. You'll be stuck with closed source (like Apple Notes) or using a generic syncing or versioning system like Git, Dropbox, GDrive, S3 etc.
• kaiby 8y ago
  I use standardnotes. I just use the webapp pinned in a safari tab on the Mac, and the iOS app on my phone. Syncs between the two well. It's encrypted, too. It has minimal features, namely tagging/folders for organization. Makes navigating between my notes fast and easy, and the minimal amount of text formatting allows me to jot thoughts down without being overwhelmed by the desire to format things the right way, which is counterproductive to me. I found it to be worthwhile enough that I actually pay for it to take advantage of its additional plugins (markdown, dark theme)
• mxschumacher 8y ago
  For many years I have been taking notes in https://workflowy.com/ https://workflowy.com/ . The extreme simplicity of the tool coupled with the way that nesting brings structure to my thoughts is ideal for me.
  • NickBusey 8y ago
    I’d love some feedback from a longtime Workflowy user on my open source alternative if you would be so inclined https://BulletNotes.io/ https://BulletNotes.io/
  • dailymorn 8y ago
    I used to be a long-time user of Workflowy (since 2012), but I've recently switched to Dynalist (https://dynalist.io https://dynalist.io). It's more actively developed and deviates a bit from the extreme simplicity of Workflowy. I haven't looked back though. :)
    • mxschumacher 8y ago
      I've tried Dynalist and had numerous performance issues. Talked to developers a bit and switched back to Workflowy.
• FahadUddin92 8y ago
  Write it down on paper and Google Drive.
• stewbrew 8y ago
  It depends on the kind of notes: For information you want to retrieve easily later on: markdown files (avoid any wiki-like format that isn't widely used) + some way to sync those files (e.g. unison, synching, Dropbox etc.). The app doesn't really matter but I use vim on my workstation, notebook, phone, tablet etc. For overviews, outlines, mind maps, notes in a meeting: a white sheet of paper. You can scan it, put keywords in the filename etc. I avoid tech in meetings. For sketches: a small notebook (A6 format) I always carry with me. At my age, it's more natural for me to think with a pen in my hand than with a keyboard below my fingers.
• ylere 8y ago
  This is a repost of something I commented a few months ago (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14943853 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14943853): I always carry a pocket sized notebook and a pen with me wherever I go. It's still the fastest method to write something down, it always works and it's socially acceptable to use in all situations. Most people whom I meet, even in private, will see me take out my notebook at the beging of the meeting, taking notes occasionally while we interact. I don't think you could do that with a computer or phone and it allows me to remember important details and action points that I (and the person I'm talking to) would forget otherwise. At work I have larger, A4-sized notebooks that I use similarly. One of the features that I appreciate most is that everything I write down is in chronological order and can be accessed very quickly. In seconds, I can go through last weeks notes and check if I forgot to do something, or even go back a year or more to revisit my thoughts on something that happened back then. Using a pen is also much more expressive, allowing me to highlight/format certain points as a discussion/meeting is ongoing and add illustrations, arrows etc. on the fly. I've seen and tried some of the new epaper notepads and they're definitely getting closer, but for now they're still to slow, clumsy & fragile to replace paper for me.
• stephengillie 8y ago
  With laptop or at home: Notepad++ with Auto Save plugin. Whenever you change windows, it saves all open tabs. Also makes it a good IDE - when you click on the terminal, it saves your code, so you can just reload the module. Mobile: Dropbox text files. Also they interoperate well with the above.
• iliaznk 8y ago
  I've been searching for a note-taking solution for years, and I was really going to start using Notion, especially after they lowered the price for personal use, but what still stops me is the inability to control where the notes are stored. That's why I'm using nVALT, I just wish it had some better formatting options.
• blattimwind 8y ago
  Neat paper and a good fountain pen.
  • deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
• fenesiistvan 8y ago
  The "Simplenote" app. Simple as notepad and it does the syncs between my Android phone and PC.
• kazinator 8y ago
  Determine the Wikipedia pages where the presenter cribbed all the information, and write down their names.
• Rjevski 8y ago
  Bear Writer. Native app for macOS and iOS with seamless sync. Not open source but very cheap and worth every penny.
• sampl 8y ago
  Surprised nobody’s said Google Docs yet. It’s up on my laptop in every meeting. It works well on every device, supports simple text notes or fancy formatting, good sharing options, good live multiuser editing, inline comment threads, free to use, works offline, keyboard shortcuts, etc...
• nikivi 8y ago
  I use Sublime Text to take all my notes. I then publish the markdown files I edit with GitBook as an online wiki. wiki: https://wiki.nikitavoloboev.xyz https://wiki.nikitavoloboev.xyz files: https://github.com/nikitavoloboev/knowledge https://github.com/nikitavoloboev/knowledge
• izemmezi 8y ago
  Sublime Text, Google Keep, and I take a lot of screenshots. Sublime Text - I use it to take notes when I can type on the laptop. Usually I write a lot of text (for example during a meeting). It's just text, no markdown or something like that, and no plugins. Google Keep - For when I don't have the laptop with me. Since the data goes to the cloud, I often copy these notes over to a text file on the laptop, especially when I want to add more details. Screenshots - I have noticed that for many things, like watching online courses, I take a screenshot of the part I want to take notes about, and then just organize the screenshots into folders. Works quite well because it saves a lot of time, and I don't have to watch out for typos.
• rffn 8y ago
  I use Joplin (https://joplin.cozic.net/ https://joplin.cozic.net/). Allows me to have Markdown notes and a few embedded pictures synced across multiple platforms. Notes are encrypted and I can self-host them on a Webdav server. Fits my needs perfectly. I tried a few others before and I think git and Typora or TiddlyWiki would do the job as well. Both solutions lack a bit on mobile platforms though.
• bobbydreamer 8y ago
  Well it depends on kind of notes you take. At first I was using Evernote, later in Lumia 920 I was using onenote( still do in my new android ). Currently I wrote a webapp and I am using that now. https://stash.bobbydreamer.com https://stash.bobbydreamer.com
• hprotagonist 8y ago
  i keep my lab/research notebook in org-mode. i take class notes and pdf markup in Notability. during meetings i use paper.
• archagon 8y ago
  A bit unconventional, but I like taking "analog" notes via GoodNotes and an Apple Pencil. Can't search them, but much more conducive to brainstorming—and you get a cute PDF notebook of all your thoughts at the end of a project. More here: http://archagon.net/blog/2016/08/30/goodnotes-and-the-joys-of-digital-note-taking/ http://archagon.net/blog/2016/08/30/goodnotes-and-the-joys-o... If it's knowledge I want to aggregate or reference later, I use OneNote.
• reitanqild 8y ago
  Computer: Boostnote - it is open source and nice. I also use paper to draw things, preferably: whitelines (seriously nice, easy to scan, not expensive IMO)
• 404FoundU 8y ago
  OneNote: Mobile/pc/one note online -Better organization with notebooks->pages->sub-pages->sub-sub-pages -paste screenshots and search text inside images -paste entire website contents with images and hyperlinks -colorful source formatting for text/code snippets like Ms Word -custom template styles for pages like todo, meeting list -attach any file ( like pdf, word, conf) within page or paste the whole file as a page with source formatting -share notebooks online with team for editing
• antonis82 8y ago
  Plain Old Text (I use atom) + your favorite cloud for backup and sync between devices (I prefer Dropbox).
• lcall 8y ago
  After trying many things including org-mode, I wrote the tool at http://onemodel.org http://onemodel.org (AGPL). Keyboard-oriented, very efficient, fast & flexible. Details at the web site and feedback appreciated.