Some Thoughts on Notetaking Tools

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I’ve started running into the same problem as some of my friends and coworkers: my personal notes are all over the place. I’ve got scattered notes in Google Keep, reference documentation and general notes in Dynalist, spreadsheets in Google Sheets, a couple of kanban boards in Trello, and a brief flirtationship with Notion. There’s a list of tools that I have yet to try out: Roam, Todoist, Things, Evernote, Bear, Airtable.

Maybe my requirements are too broad - there’s nothing out there that does everything I want in one place satisfactorily. Maybe I should be satisficing instead of aiming for perfection.

My requirements (followed by their priority ranking on a sliding scale, where 1 is “nice to have” and 10 is “absolutely essential, I won’t use this tool unless it has this feature”):

  • native daily note-taking section, for todos (7)
  • checklists (10)
  • subnotes/pages or nested hierarchies (8)
  • table/spreadsheet functionality (? - I’ve debated the priority of this - Google Sheets works well, it just annoys me to have my notes in different places. There’s probably a reason why so few of the existing apps out there have this functionality.)
  • nice UI/UX - especially mobile experience (10 - It’s hard for me to describe what makes something “feel” nice to use - low latency is definitely part of it. Using the tool should feel intuitive, as quick and easy as thinking a thought.)
    • fast, clean, easy and quick to write new notes (10)
  • “page lock” feature, preventing editing of locked notes/pages (1)
  • media upload support (2)
  • markdown support & formatting functionality (5)
  • organizational features (8)
    • search (10)
    • tagging (5)
  • allows sharing certain notes (5)
  • consistent experience across different platforms (4)
  • encrypted/secure notes (2 - Nice to have, although I usually store anything that actually needs securing in my password manager.)
  • calendar integration (1)
  • reminders (1)
  • kanban board integration (?)

How much am I willing to pay for a notetaking/personal organization app? I strongly prefer one time fees over subscription based pricing models, even though I get why so many companies are switching over to the latter. Untied strings and unclosed loops stress me out, and money dripping from my account month by month via subscription fees gives me the same uneasy feeling.

If I really think about it, subscription fees for software aren’t any different than the monthly fees I pay for water or internet, the two situations just feel qualitatively different and somehow app subscriptions seem less worth it. Like how I have a strong aversion to spending over $30 on any piece of clothing. Maybe this is just a consequence of societal programming: some meme about how much things should cost that I haven’t yet shaken.

At some point I’ll probably use a spreadsheet to track scores for the different requirements for all the notetaking apps I’m considering, and then weigh the options. What I’d really love is some combination of Google Keep and Dynalist/Notion, with simple checklists but also the ability to make full fledged pages with adequate formatting. A daily notes or todo section would be a plus. Maybe such an app would be a mess, since it tries to do too much all at once.