Tools I use as a hobbyist developer and a student
TL;DR
- Inkdrop & Logseq for digital project management
- Bullet Journal for personal life management and insights.
A longer version
Some of you may know, I am a big fan of Inkdrop, a markdown-based note-taking app made by Takuya Matsuyama. Inkdrop is basically what I used for writing blogs (like right now!) and also to take notes of all of my programming tasks and more. I also used to use this to note all my classes notes, but have since changed to take note on a Bullet Journal, an analog-driven system invented by Ryder Carroll, and make note (elaborate on what I wrote inside a Bullet Journal) on Logseq. All of this had helped me with school and to keep me going with my personal project(s). Now, none of the product I have written is sponsoring me, it is just what I stumbled on while going on with my days and tried it. I will be explaning in greater details of how I use these products in harmony together.
School/Personal Life (non-tech related)
- I would take a note of anything that comes to my mind onto a Bullet Journal’s daily log. This help me keep track of interesting thought that might be popping up throughout the day. And I would also take a short note of things that I am learning in a class onto the daily log. Which would be elaborate later on a collection or migrated onto digital tools.
- In the evening, I would basically read all the things that has to be done, or what have already been done, and to see the progress of my life as it happened on a Bullet Journal. This is a process of what’s called a reflection. It helped me keep track of only what’s matter to me.
- If there are any notes that I want to elaborate on, like a class note, I will then create/use a collection specific to the class and write down an in-depth details of the note. This help with remembering and learning things.
- If there are a project task, I would migrate it to a digital tools, as I studied stuff related to technology at school, it would be easier for me to manage all my computer classes’ projects on a digital devices. And a project would need to be done on a computer system anyway.
Personal Life (Programming and things)
- For any ideas that comes to my mind at any time, I would first write it to my Bullet Journal first. Because then, when the reflection time arrived, I can have a deep look of what I wanted to do. And see if it would be worth my time or not, if so, then I will migrate it to digital tools for the idea to grow into something big later.
- For pretty much most of the things that need to be done on a computer, I would either use Logseq or Inkdrop to note things up. If I feels like just simply writing things down as a brain dump without it having any connection between anything, I would just use Inkdrop, as it works well for pretty much everything I need. But if what I want to write down have some relation to other things, like an existing project, then that would be put on Logseq. Reason I still use Inkdrop is its features to sync to my phone, and also its customizability.
Why analog tools?
I feels like in these digital world, there are simply too much information to consume all at once, and there are also unlimited amount of distraction, as soon as you open your phone to check something. Research have shown that simply just having a phone in the same room as you could reduce your cognitive capacity. And simply by having pen and paper, you wouldn’t be able to write a whole lecture alone without thinking, right? Your brain will try to shorten a sentence and you will start using your own words in a note so you would be able to write it down in time. Which means you will strategically think for a way to write things down faster. And it also help us with engaging with the information. Sure writing on a digital devices is easier and faster, but because it is “faster” we wouldn’t have time to think about what we were writing down, and it would simply go pass by. And so I used an analog system to help me remember things, and to consider only what matters. My goal is to not eliminate everything digital. But rather to control it, and to still be able to do things when digital stuff fail.
Conclusion
I think it all really depend on your need and preferences to choose a productivity tools, I have also tried Notion myself but it’s just simply not my cup of tea. What matters the most is that the system “works” for you. I prefer having analog and digital system together just because I have to do a lot of stuff digitally anyway. If anyone wants to learn more about how to manage your times better, or to actually live an intentional life, I recommended reading some of the books below (None of the links are affiliated links either):
- Ryder Carroll - The Bullet Journal Method
- Tiago Forte - Building a Second Brain
- Cal Newport - A World Without Email