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I used to have a zillion todo txt files in the early 2000's, migrated to OneNote around 2005 and have been using the same OneNote notebook for 20 years now. My

I used to have a zillion todo txt files in the early 2000's, migrated to OneNote around 2005 and have been using the same OneNote notebook for 20 years now. My life is in there - 20 years worth of todos, lists, thoughts, ideas, etc.. always evolving, perfectly synchronized across computers and mobile. I'm referencing and updating my OneNote all day as I get things done, have ideas, and think of new things to do, or things to remembers. It's an extension of my brain at this point. I've tried alternatives, but OneNote has been simple and reliable, it just works everywhere. Probably one of the most important apps in my life.

dctoedt 10mo ago
Could you please say more about your day-to-day with OneNote? How is your notebook organized, how do you add to it, how do you review it, etc.?
- bottlepalm 10mo ago
  I have a primary todo that is heavy read/write of the things I need to do in the next couple weeks. OneNote has a nice drag/drop by line so it's easy to move lines from like Monday to Tuesday, etc.. When ever I think of something I need to do, I add it to the list somewhere, and whenever I'm not doing anything, I open the file and pick something to do, when it's done, I delete it from the list. Lower down in the todo I have things I need to keep my mind on, but doesn't have like a specific date. Like I have list of things on want to read/watch/listen to/play in the near term, like 5 items each. I have longer lists of each of those as separate notes with like a hundred items each. Near term health stuff I need to monitor. Some back burner tasks, etc.. I try to not let the todo list overall get too big, and will once in a while go over it, and clean it. The todo is just one note of like a hundred. I have a note of like 'quick references' important addresses, account numbers, identity numbers, vehicle vin/license, insurance numbers, airline mile numbers, etc.. That's a very useful note. So that's like in a Main section, I also have Self, Recreation, Future, Thoughts sections my Personal notebook. The Self section has like health info/logs/history, car info, house, finances, taxes, even like a list of gifts I've given people for holidays as a good reference for next year (15 years of gifts in a single note). Every time I get sick I add to my health log note: got sick on this date, this is what happened, etc.. Recreation section has notes for movies, tv shows, video games, music, friends, places I'd like to travel to, podcasts, even a Halloween costume list of ideas and costumes I've decided on over the years. Future is like future plans for work, housing, life, finances, etc.. Thoughts section is like notes for app ideas, thoughts on people, my jobs, random thoughts, like blog post ideas, etc.. I'm always thinking of some random thing and cataloging it away in a particular thought note by subject. I also have a private section that is password protected with even more personal stuff in it. Each of the programming projects have their own section There's a Projects notebook with sections for each of my work and personal programming projects, and each of those sections have notes like todo, design, operations, etc.. Search is really nice in OneNote as well, I can just hit ctrl+E and get full text search, quickly jump to a particular note file, or line in a note with matching text. So ctrl+e, enter AA, hit return and it'll open my Quick Ref note right on the line with my AA miles number on it.
roncesvalles 10mo ago
Same but with Keep and GDocs. I still use a local neverending txt like TFA though, as a short-term todo list + clipboard. Short thoughts and little factoids like license plate numbers, appointments, and restaurant recommendations go on Keep (although some of those "short thoughts" have ended up busting the character limit). Refined structured notes end up in a GDoc by topic. Some of my GDocs are now the size of small textbooks. I also love Google Takeout so that I can backup it all up periodically. I would say, just as you would about OneNote, Keep is one of the most important apps in my life.
- bottlepalm 10mo ago
  One thing I can't do is the never ending todo list, if my main todo list is too long, it's just too stressful for me. I need to break things out into other notes, or just go over it and clean it up into a manageable state. It's kind of like an inbox, you try to get it to zero, you rarely do, but the point is everything in there is on mind and actionable to some extent. You don't want to lose track of important things in some never ending list. And if they're not important, move them out into a more static list, often it's not even a todo item, but a piece of reference information that's perfect to go into it's own note of related reference information.
quleap 10mo ago
I've also been on OneNote for 20 years. I've been trying out Obsidian. But there is simply too much stuff already in OneNote.

dctoedt 10mo ago

Could you please say more about your day-to-day with OneNote? How is your notebook organized, how do you add to it, how do you review it, etc.?

bottlepalm 10mo ago
I have a primary todo that is heavy read/write of the things I need to do in the next couple weeks. OneNote has a nice drag/drop by line so it's easy to move lines from like Monday to Tuesday, etc.. When ever I think of something I need to do, I add it to the list somewhere, and whenever I'm not doing anything, I open the file and pick something to do, when it's done, I delete it from the list. Lower down in the todo I have things I need to keep my mind on, but doesn't have like a specific date. Like I have list of things on want to read/watch/listen to/play in the near term, like 5 items each. I have longer lists of each of those as separate notes with like a hundred items each. Near term health stuff I need to monitor. Some back burner tasks, etc.. I try to not let the todo list overall get too big, and will once in a while go over it, and clean it. The todo is just one note of like a hundred. I have a note of like 'quick references' important addresses, account numbers, identity numbers, vehicle vin/license, insurance numbers, airline mile numbers, etc.. That's a very useful note. So that's like in a Main section, I also have Self, Recreation, Future, Thoughts sections my Personal notebook. The Self section has like health info/logs/history, car info, house, finances, taxes, even like a list of gifts I've given people for holidays as a good reference for next year (15 years of gifts in a single note). Every time I get sick I add to my health log note: got sick on this date, this is what happened, etc.. Recreation section has notes for movies, tv shows, video games, music, friends, places I'd like to travel to, podcasts, even a Halloween costume list of ideas and costumes I've decided on over the years. Future is like future plans for work, housing, life, finances, etc.. Thoughts section is like notes for app ideas, thoughts on people, my jobs, random thoughts, like blog post ideas, etc.. I'm always thinking of some random thing and cataloging it away in a particular thought note by subject. I also have a private section that is password protected with even more personal stuff in it. Each of the programming projects have their own section There's a Projects notebook with sections for each of my work and personal programming projects, and each of those sections have notes like todo, design, operations, etc.. Search is really nice in OneNote as well, I can just hit ctrl+E and get full text search, quickly jump to a particular note file, or line in a note with matching text. So ctrl+e, enter AA, hit return and it'll open my Quick Ref note right on the line with my AA miles number on it.

roncesvalles 10mo ago

Same but with Keep and GDocs. I still use a local neverending txt like TFA though, as a short-term todo list + clipboard. Short thoughts and little factoids like license plate numbers, appointments, and restaurant recommendations go on Keep (although some of those "short thoughts" have ended up busting the character limit). Refined structured notes end up in a GDoc by topic. Some of my GDocs are now the size of small textbooks. I also love Google Takeout so that I can backup it all up periodically. I would say, just as you would about OneNote, Keep is one of the most important apps in my life.

bottlepalm 10mo ago
One thing I can't do is the never ending todo list, if my main todo list is too long, it's just too stressful for me. I need to break things out into other notes, or just go over it and clean it up into a manageable state. It's kind of like an inbox, you try to get it to zero, you rarely do, but the point is everything in there is on mind and actionable to some extent. You don't want to lose track of important things in some never ending list. And if they're not important, move them out into a more static list, often it's not even a todo item, but a piece of reference information that's perfect to go into it's own note of related reference information.

quleap 10mo ago

I've also been on OneNote for 20 years. I've been trying out Obsidian. But there is simply too much stuff already in OneNote.