Reminders on the iPhone. It does everything I need it do. I’ve got my basic reminders, and I’ve got my shopping list. All my interaction with it is verbal.
When I arrive at the store I just say “show me my shopping list”.
But one that is nice, powerful, and still free usable without working with a ‘hello world build a todo application’-app and seems to work for people that actually use todo applications.
Todoist works great for me. I like the recurring tasks feature which lets me clear up a lot of headspace. “Clean XYZ every 11 days #chore” is all the syntax you need to setup a recurring task that’s categorised under the “chore” category.
Not because “app bad” or “return to monke” or anything like that. Mostly because if I stow the note in a dedicated app, that somehow just makes me less inclined to write it down and read it later.
A scrap of papersticking out like a sore thumb on my desk or burning a hole in my pocket? I’m going to be cognizant of that all day long. But an obscure text file chilling in a disused part of my phone, or a txt file lost in the shuffle of random shit on my PC? Outta sight outta mind.
I also find all digital input schemes to be frustratingly less flexible than physical paper. Provided I have a writing utensil on hand that is functional (not always a given, granted) it is trivial to put anything I want on a note. Write anything I want. Draw diagrams. Underline or strike text. Write some things larger or heavier than others. All of these things are possible in note taking apps, but they come with the idiosyncracies of needing to know the selection techniques and menu options to activate them. In this way they’re all death by a thousand tiny annoying cuts for me.
I even had a smart phone with a built-in stylus for a good long while. It definitely extended the things you could do with ease, but it was a far cry from a pencil.
The only thing a note taking app can do in my mind that paper can’t is yell at you with a loud noise at a pre-programmed time. If I need one of those, I just set an alarm in my clock app.
I go around telling people my intentions, and then query them 100 times a day about what I should be doing at any given time. If they stop responding then I spam them with emails demanding updates, and if they block my emails then I go to their houses.
I just use the reminders app on my iPhone, I tried a bunch of other apps. But it was the integration on my watch, Mac, iPad, etc that just made that option the most ideal, despite lacking features of some the otbers
My wife and I use Cozi (free tier) for shared lists and calendar. Now we both will know when we need laundry detergent and that we have to meet up with whoever next week even if it doesn’t come up in conversation. You can notify each other of calendar additions too, so that side of it doesn’t even rely on checking that often.
For simple chores and errands, we just have a white board in the kitchen. We are cute and leave each other notes on it sometimes too.
I use Amazing Marvin - super customizable to make your own workflow, so you can make it as simple or complicated as you’d like. Small team, but responds super quickly to questions and requests.
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