The Tools We Use

This old thread has resurfaced. And Looking back my list hasn't changed. I still use Omnifocus for my list manager, Apple Mail for email even managing my gmail account as a POP account, DEVONThink and regular files are my digital reference systems and I still use iPhone, iPad and a paper notepad as mobile devices.

I have upgraded my phone since then. June of 2013 I was using an iPhone 4s, upgraded to a 5s in December 2013 and upgraded to my current device, an iPhone 8 in December 2017.

My iPad has gone from a first generation iPad, to an iPad Air 5th generation I got in 2017, to my new iPad Pro I got in march of this year.

My overall operating system on my Macs has moved from Sierra, to High Sierra to Catalina. (I skipped Mojave entirely). I'm running Omnifocus 3 now and still running both rev 2 and rev 3 of DEVONThink.

My David Co. notetaker wallet has been replaced by one of my own design.
 
This is an interesting read. Glad it came up again.

Outlook - email inbox, calendar & actions
TaskTask app - capturing & using the Errands context (not so great for actually working from)
OneNote - Projects list/resource folders, reference, checklists.
Jr & full-sized notebooks for capturing in in-person meetings - Scanned & processed during morning In To Empty routine.
 
I've been on Notes (Lotus, then IBM, now HCL) for years. When the eProductivity upgrade to the standard email, calendar, and tasks became available, I switched to that. It's the best GTD solution if you live in Notes. Now we as a company are leaning into a switch to Microsoft 365.
 
What an interesting read, looking all the way back to 2013!

Recent months have moved me to do a full system audit and reconsider my toolkit. My current set includes:

List manager: Apple Reminders (simple, clean, easy to maintain and offers nearly everything I need and nothing don’t - namely, lists).
Calendar: Apple calendar synced with iCloud (personal), Exchange (work) and Google (family shared).
Digital Reference: Apple notes & iCloud Drive (personal), OneNote & OneDrive (work) for general reference & project support; Safari Reading List for non-essential ‘read later.’
Dotted Moleskine journal: monthly habit tracking, daily ‘activity log,’ travel log, reading log...
Field Notes: on the go capture tool when going phone-free
 
Oogiem said:
If you like Moleskin you might also like Leuchtturm1917 notebooks. They are very similar to Moleskin but have 2 place mark ribbons and I like their paper a lot better. I use them for my Daily Journal and my Books Read Journal. They have all the normal paper options, blank, lined, grid and dot. I like that all paper options are available in all sizes.
Click to expand...
@Oogiem thanks for the suggestion. I’ve seen these at B&N and Blick. Seems like such an insignificant feature but having two place markers is something I sorely miss with the Moleskine!

While on the topic of paper journals - is everyone aware of Ryder Carroll’s “pen trick?” It’s kind of life changing:
bulletjournal.com

The Pen Trick

You know that terrible feeling as a great idea slips away because you couldn't find a pen in time? Here's a quick trick that will help you avoid that from happening again.
bulletjournal.com bulletjournal.com
 
mbusillo said:
While on the topic of paper journals - is everyone aware of Ryder Carroll’s “pen trick?” It’s kind of life changing:
bulletjournal.com

The Pen Trick

You know that terrible feeling as a great idea slips away because you couldn't find a pen in time? Here's a quick trick that will help you avoid that from happening again.
bulletjournal.com bulletjournal.com
Click to expand...
That's a cool one. My wallet has an elastic loop in it so I use that/ I also have a duplicate spacepen on a lanyard I can put around my neck if I need to.
 
Oogiem said:
If you like Moleskin you might also like Leuchtturm1917 notebooks. They are very similar to Moleskin but have 2 place mark ribbons and I like their paper a lot better. I use them for my Daily Journal and my Books Read Journal. They have all the normal paper options, blank, lined, grid and dot. I like that all paper options are available in all sizes.
Click to expand...
I use Leuchtturm1917 ExLibris preformatted notebook as a "Books Read Journal". But it seems it's not available anymore.
 
List Manager: Nirvanahq (considering going back to Omnifocus and miss Wunderlist)
Email: Gmail
Calendar: iCal
Digital Reference: Evernote, Drive, Dropbox
Mobile Device: Iphone 8
 
I know this thread is from 2013 but why not play along! Here is my 2020 “tech stack” (a term I learned from Michael Hyatt’s team).

List Manager - Omnifocus
Calendar - BusyCal on iOS and Mac (using both iCloud and Google calendar engines)
Email - Gmail in browser (sometimes thru Airmail for Mac)
Digital Reference - Dropbox, Evernote, Ulysses, MindManager, 1Password (Google Drive for Work)
Mobile Devices - iPhone

Some other fun tools…
  • Time Timer
  • Dymo label printer
  • Pocket notebooks (Field Notes, Rite in the Rain, Mead, etc)
  • Mid-sized notebooks (Cambridge, Black n Red, Moleskine, MUJI)
  • Pens/Pencils (Muji 0.38, Unibal Signo, Pilot, Rotring, Pentel, Blackwing, Skilcraft, Zebra)
  • Acrimet Desk Trays (until I can find 4 DAC Fedon trays)
  • TextExpander
  • Clean My Mac X
  • Affinity Product Suite (Designer, Publisher, Photo)
  • Pages, Keynote, Numbers
  • ToothFairy
  • Trip Mode
  • Backblaze
  • Audio Hijack
  • Carbon Copy Cloner
  • OmniOutliner
  • Mind Node
  • Experimenting with Snagit
 
I'm glad this thread resurfaced. Here's my 2020 setup, revised for COVID-19. Simplicity is the theme:

List Manager: Filofax
Calendar: iCloud (personal); Office 365 (work)
Email: iCloud (personal); Office 365 (work)
Analogue reference: Manilla folders, Filofax
Digital reference: Apple Notes, iCloud, and OneDrive
Capture: Filofax, Siri on iPhone and Apple Watch
 
Here is my setup:

List manager: Nirvana (thinking about switching to Everdo)
Capture - Braintoss
Project planning - Xmind & Draw.io
References & notes - Notion
Calendar - Gmail & Outlook

A lot of pen and paper :)
 
How fun to see what people are using!

List Manager - MS To Do
Calendar - Google (home) Outlook (work)
Email - Gmail (home) Outlook (work)
Digital Reference - Google Drive (home) One Drive, One Note (work)
Mobile Devices - iPhone, iPad (with cellular - work), Apple Watch
Capture - metal inbox on my desk for papers, mail, etc; Google Keep, Siri (watch) Amazon Alexa -in my car and at home, and paper

During my weekly review, I have a reminder to check Keep,Alexa and Siri for any outstanding items.
 
I love sharing tools - I've already got a few things to investigate, so thanks!

List manager - OmniFocus 3 and OmniFocus for the Web
Calendar - Fantastical 3 (iOS), Outlook (windows)
Email - Spark (iOS), Outlook (windows). Currently looking into Hey.com as a possible replacement for Spark
Digital Reference - Notion, Dropbox
Mobile Devices: iPhone 11, iPad Pro, Apple Watch s5
Capture: Desk A5 sketch / notepad, Koh-I-Noor Versatile clutch pencil, Moleskine Volant XS and Fisher bullet pen in wallet. Siri on Apple Watch / Carplay.
and additionally: Brainstorming - Concepts (ipad app, infinite canvas for sketching and mindmapping)
 
John Forrister said:
I've been on Notes (Lotus, then IBM, now HCL) for years. When the eProductivity upgrade to the standard email, calendar, and tasks became available, I switched to that. It's the best GTD solution if you live in Notes. Now we as a company are leaning into a switch to Microsoft 365.
Click to expand...

Wow. DAC switching away from Notes/eProductivity? Hell freezes over... ;-)

Joking aside- interesting to hear that you have been thinking about this. What are you expecting from Office365 and/or what's missing in Notes, from your point of view?
 
List manager - OneNote
Calendar and Email - Outlook 2016/M365 (work), Gmail (personal)
All reference - OneNote
Mobile devices - iPhone, Apple Watch, Surface Pro
Capture - Power Automate button (phone), Rocketbooks, siri and reminders on phone
Favorite tool - Rocketbooks by far for connecting the analog writing practice with my digital reference world
 
Oogiem said:
My iPad has gone from a first generation iPad, to an iPad Air 5th generation I got in 2017, to my new iPad Pro I got in march of this year.
Click to expand...

What do you think of the iPad Pro? Are you glad you upgraded? Would you recommend getting an Apple Pencil as well?
 
Ger80C said:
Wow. DAC switching away from Notes/eProductivity? Hell freezes over... ;-)
Joking aside- interesting to hear that you have been thinking about this. What are you expecting from Office365 and/or what's missing in Notes, from your point of view?
Click to expand...
Keep joking! I need the laughs on a project of this size.

The Microsoft suite of tools is will replace our current use of Notes, Zoom, Dropbox, and Sametime (Notes chat). We think we'll have a more unified environment.

Despite some recent development efforts, Notes seems out of date. People often say things like, "You're still on that?!" Or, "Is that still around?"

In the early days, Notes stood out as a program that allowed for quick development and deployment of data stores that could easily have workflow and collaboration built into them. Nowadays that's common.

We'll save money by not maintaining the servers we currently have. Back in the mid 90s a company needed its own server(s). Today I could set up G Suite or Office 365 for a group of our size in under an hour and not have to think about a server. I will miss that part a bit, because I like playing at the hardware and operating system level.

Eric Mack, who developed eProductivity, has been working on productivity solutions with Microsoft tools for the last several years. He's going to be helping us with the transition. We're planning to record a couple of discussions about the hows and whys, and our eventual configuration. Stay tuned . . . you'll be hearing more.
 
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John, this looks and sounds very promising. I emphasize with you and can imagine that you may miss the server-side backed work - but maybe only until the first total server breakdown that you have *not* to attend to in the middle of the night, right? :-) Also, I think the modern Office365 infrastructure allows for enough fiddling and experimentation so that there may be plenty of things to try and plenty of projects related to this. As user of the Outlook/Exchange environment I am particularly interested in GTD-related insights into the Microsoft Offfice/365 world - so I will defini
stay tuned!

Best
Sebastian
 
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