I’ve been looking into all sorts of them recently: logseq, appflowy, vikunja, etc. What tools do you use? Why? What problems did you run into with the previous set of tools you used for this job?
Right now I’m primarily interested in finding a “zero-knowledge” (cloud provider doesn’t have access to my data) system for task management. Needs to be able to have recurring tasks and tasks organized in some interesting/useful ways (by projects/labels/something, maybe a kanban and table view). Deadlines and time tracking/planning interesting but not required.
After many years of Org-mode, I’ve settled on Emacs Denote with a git repo of markdown files, paired with a paper bullet journal.
I’m curious why markdown works better for you?
I just switched to denote - liking the simple elegance.
I stopped using the task management features of Org mode and I wanted to use Apache mod_markdown to view my notes when on a mobile device. I like how simple markdown is. It’s all I need for notes. Denote is great for keeping organized.
Not who you asked but I’m a big fan of markdown because it lets me create notes that are:
- Fast
- Useful
- Pretty
Usually you can only pick two of these things in a paper notebook or other file types. I personally use Obsidian right now, which allows me to create notes even faster with hotkeys and JavaScript templates, but any markdown editor with a preview mode is plenty
I would ascribe the same virtues to org mode, but to give one answer to my own question, markdown is entirely editor independent which is generally a plus, though least so for personal notes where org can export to many formats (including markdown).
With org and Emacs there are other benefits like integrated personal to-do and agenda management which is why I have favored it over markdown. But even though I’m a committed Emacs user, being primarily an Emacs format is a philosophical negative if not a practical one for me in this case.
Obsidian thankfully has many of the same features that you’re describing, albeit some of them rely on community plugins. The cross platform accessibility of markdown is definitely the biggest factor for a lot of people - but for me, the fact that I can instantly make an aesthetically pleasing note; one that is not just easy to read and gather information from but is also nice to look at: is the biggest plus. Other editors have plenty of templates and most people probably don’t care about how their notes look as long as it’s notes, but I love the look and feel of a good markdown note
None. I’m used to Notion and unfortunately there’s no OSS even getting close to that. I would like to move away, but even if I considered to lose my current base or move everything manually, there’s nothing feature-rich enough to meet my use cases.
I use the app opentask. Based on your criteria, it’s exactly what you’re looking for. It’s all stored locally on your phone, it has the ability to set recurring tasks, and you can create categories of preset and custom tasks. Deadlines can be set as far into the future as you need, down to the minute. It’s available on F-Droid.
I’ve never found a use for any of this. I only utilise a calendar. How complicated are your people’s lives?
I’ll take the bait if no one else will.
A calendar is useful for one thing: pinning events that will happen at a known time and being reminded of when they are about to start.
If you need to keep extensive notes on projects, understand how late or accelerated tasks will impact other dates, break down work into steps, track progress on a project or individual task, create lists, map ideas, inventory items, archive knowledge, or sketch workflows, a calendar is worthless.
Zim Wiki https://zim-wiki.org/
Desktop wiki, saving to .md text files, can commit to git repo and has basic task handling.
Perfect for me.
Zim can be used to:
Keep an archive of notes Keep a daily or weekly journal Take notes during meetings or lectures Organize task lists Draft blog entries and emails Do brainstormingdeleted by creator
I just use Zettlr (a markdown editor optimized for writing research papers). I wish it wasn’t an electron app, as it’s paggy as hell sometimes on Linux, but it’s the best balance I’ve found between features, ease of use, and stability.
I’ve been using todo.txt for tasks for about a month now—it’s dead simple, supports all the bells and whistles you mentioned; and, with the topydo CLI, you can very easily make yourself a kanban interface using its columns UI. I sync the files with my iPhone and use Todooo on iOS, which works beautifully.
As for notes, I just write simple text files with my favorite editor. Maintaining complex systems of interconnected notes, I’ve found, most often does not pay off for the enormous time investment required (some specific use cases aside); tags, links, etc. I have all found to be superfluous—any kind of
grepintegration in the editor is all that’s needed for finding things. I write in either markdown or Typst, because basic Typst is essentially the same as markdown anyway, and because I’ve found it very useful to keep notes in the same format I write longer-form documents in.Foam is pretty good https://foambubble.github.io/foam/
Org mode on my laptop, don’t see any need for anything else.
Taskwarrior
@makeasnek emacs + denote and org mode
Edit: Neat project.
Original:
Original: This is a plugin for a closed source application. While the plugin may be OSS, the main application Obsidian is not.
Well I don’t use obsidian as all. But as a matter of opening and linking notes, I use this tool because I like it, and it allows me to reference two separate vaults without issue.
You can use the plugin without obsidian.
I think I have a good one for you. You are probably familiar with Linear, a JIRA alternative. Well here’s pretty much a FOSS clone: https://github.com/makeplane/plane
I self-host, and since the one thing I dont like is it’s document library, I pair it with self-hosted Outline: https://github.com/outline/outline
Combined it’s a really solid setup.
I’ve loved Obsidian since I started using it.
If I moved to OSS, it looks like Logseq would be closest.
There’s Trilium-Next too, I’ve been trying it for a day or so and it floats my boat better than logseq so far. My notebook is on QOwnNotes right now, it’s fantastic but on the simpler side
Up-doot
