
Ask HN: What do you use to take notes? - somecallitblues
I use Notational Velocity for my notes and I love the ease of use but I&#x27;d like something that will allow me to share a note with a client and also has code highlighting. And image uploads. I want to be able to upload screenshots. I looked around but can&#x27;t find anything that&#x27;s a mix of Evernote, Wunderlist and GitHub Gists. What do you HN people recommend?
======
vidarh
Paper in big binder.

I've tried for very long to find a good electronic solution. Up to and
including writing my own wiki with various extensions customised to my diting
style, and hunting around for every note taking app under the sun.

The problem, I find, is that nothing beats the flexibility of being able to
take out multiple sheets of paper and move them around, annotate them, put
them back in. It creates a flexibility in workflow no tool I've tried have
managed to match.

The physical presence of the paper also makes it much easier to avoid
forgetting a page exists.

I'm not happy with it, but I keep coming back to it after each desperate
attempt at making something else work better.

~~~
proaralyst
I do all my thinking on paper, but I have a large blocker at the moment:
indexing my notes. Have you found a good solution for this?

~~~
falcolas
My non-novel solution - number every other page, and keep a few pages up in
the front as an index. Topic on the left, and a list of page numbers on the
right. Requires some effort to maintain, but it seems to work pretty well for
me. Familiarity with the index pages counters the need for any sorting.

~~~
Jtsummers
Rather than leaving pages blank up front (a guestimate), I fill my index up
from the back. Literally the last page is the first page of the index and I
work towards the front from there. No risk of running out of room in the
index, or finding that I didn't need 5 pages when 2 would have done.

------
throwanem
Somebody's going to mention org-mode and it may as well be me. HTML export
with syntax highlighting is a nice thing to have, and images linked to the
document work like they should. Having code blocks be executable is a bonus,
especially for showing technically minded clients or higher-ups exactly how
their intentions were translated into reality.

Evernote it is not: The sharing story is pretty BYOB, in that what you get out
is an HTML (or whatever other format) document, and sharing it, whether
readonly or not, is on you. There's document publishing functionality, but it
requires some setup and an upstream host that can take files via FTP/SFTP/etc.
Same goes for syncing, if that's something you want; Dropbox works for me, and
there are many alternatives.

Your use case sounds like it would require some tooling around org-mode to
achieve. If you want something that does what you need straight out of the
box, it probably won't make you happy. But you asked what we use to take
notes, and for me that's org-mode; the things it does well are many, some of
them unique in my experience, and that makes it worth my while to invest
effort in adding the occasional capability I want which doesn't exist by
default.

(And for meetings where people are touchy about laptops, or realtime capture
on a call, I have a clipboard and a paper tablet. But it's ephemeral; anything
needing kept goes straight into an org file at the earliest opportunity.)

~~~
magwa101
Org mode enables you to "program" a document which is really amazing. It's
closer to python notebooks than a note taking device. You need real discipline
to keep it readable.

Long term Org mode needs a rethink to more fully realized programming +
writing.

Short term it needs some work on document sharing, mobile editing, all that.

I use Org mode for large docs, google docs for quick notes, google sheets for
TODOs, pad/pen google photos for quick notes and recording of those notes.

This is a mess really.

~~~
throwanem
> It's closer to python notebooks than a note taking device.

It's both, and not limited to Python. What mix of capabilities you use in a
given document is up to you.

------
davidhunter
Workflowy. It's the lowest-friction tool I have used for notes and ideas.
Using tags, it can be used as a great hierarchical project/task management
system.

I still use Evernote for quick storage and access of images, pdfs and long-
form notes as the search is great. However, their tag/notebook organisation
system has annoying redundencies and is clunky in places. I would love to bin
it but can't find a suitable alternative. Bear is promising but not quite
there. Apple notes doesn't allow linking between notes.

~~~
danr4
Workflowy has organized my life and brought some order to my brain in a way
that is invaluable to me. If only the put a bit more effort into the
product... literally nothing has changed in the past 3 years. not a single
feature! I could excuse them if the mobile apps were good enough, but that is
not the case at all.

~~~
bdillahu
Check out Dynalist - [https://dynalist.io/](https://dynalist.io/)

It's "Workflowy that hasn't stalled out"

------
ooqr
To answer the question in the title, much as I love computers, nothing beats
the flexibility and carefree nature of paper. I can draw diagrams, block out
pseudocode, etc.

I've thought about maybe a Surface would be nice for that, but haven't really
tried it.

I think you'll have best luck with multiple tools like you're doing now.

~~~
roryisok
I've tried the surface for note taking. It was a lovely experience, especially
the pen in OneNote, but nothing beats paper. Lighter, thinner, more flexible,
cheap, no lag, doesn't need batteries etc. No vendor lock in.

Surface / pen only had the edge in that you can mark up a doc and send it to
someone a lot faster than printing, marking and scanning

However, I'm often faster at writing with a keyboard, and I use onenote in
text only mode every day

~~~
ooqr
Also, the only reasons I'd need backups for paper documents are disasters that
would also ruin my drives

------
pimterry
I recently built a ultra-simple tool for exactly this:
[https://github.com/pimterry/notes](https://github.com/pimterry/notes)

Keeps notes as markdown organised by folder on disk, delegates syncing to
whatever you're already using for everything else (Dropbox, Seafile), and just
provides a minimal flexible command-line interface over the top to search
them, explore through them, and edit them with any editor you like.

The tool itself is tiny, but with this I get everything that EverNote used to
give me, none of the lock-in or painful web UI, and I can get at it from any
other device too (by just editing them in Dropbox from anywhere).

Note sharing: Dropbox already does that. Code highlighting: your editor
(probably) already does that. Image uploads = putting an image in a folder.
Keep it simple.

------
louisstow
Disclaimer: I'm the creator but I use Wall of Text:
[http://walloftext.co](http://walloftext.co)

It's an infinite blank space of text in 2D. Also see the beta:
[https://beta.walloftext.co](https://beta.walloftext.co)

~~~
godelski
Do you support tex? Because if so it'd be great.

------
jnbiche
I use Google Keep. It's simple and has an acceptable Android app and web
interface. It also accomodates image notes.

I don't think you'll find a notes application that has code highlighting, but
perhaps I'm wrong...

~~~
illuminated
Google Keep user here as well. It has few things that makes it perfectly fit
into what I need:

\- simple to do lists

\- create notes with the phone's camera (I usually do this when taking a photo
of a whiteboard)

\- audio recording and transcribing: I can just say my note and Google Keep
will make a text out of it with an attached audio recording

\- sharing: this makes my life sooo much easier. I have one note taking app I
can use for business, for sharing shopping lists with my wife, house chores
with my kids, etc. When Google Keep came out first it was way too simple, but
I can hardly imagine my life these days without it.

~~~
Chris2048
I'd recommend ZimWiki [http://www.zim-wiki.org/](http://www.zim-wiki.org/) \-
a desktop app. Keep can't keep up with lots of notes :-)

ZW is speedy, portable, and extendable.

~~~
jnbiche
I actually use ZimWiki as well, but more as a personal blog for technical
stuff to refer back to, not as a day-to-day notes app.

------
TobbenTM
I've been a fan of the concept of Quiver
([http://happenapps.com/#quiver](http://happenapps.com/#quiver)) for a long
time, but unable to use it daily as it is Mac only.

I love the idea of having different notebooks, being able to easily merge
text, code, mathematics and images into one note, and make 'cookbooks' out of
them.

Someone make it for Windows please.

~~~
mercer
I've been considering building my own Quiver-inspired tool, in part because
I'm a bit concerned at the lack of updates, in part because there are a few
itches I would like scratched, and in part because of the Mac-only situation.

I might at some point, in which case I'll look up your comment, but the main
reason I'm holding off is that it's quite a bit of work in a market that
strikes me as rather oversaturated...

Then again sometimes the best reason to start a project is to scratch an itch,
and always thinking in terms of 'useful' is a surefire way to suck all the fun
out of life. Hmm...

------
diggan
Tried many different ways, usually falling back to using pen and paper.
However, it limited me in the way that I couldn't search and sometimes I
forgot my notebook, leading to me not finding what I wanted.

So in the end I wrote my own static wiki generator (QuickWiki:
[https://github.com/VictorBjelkholm/quickwiki](https://github.com/VictorBjelkholm/quickwiki)).
It basically takes a folder full of markdown files, automatic links to other
pages and generates a static website (that looks something like this:
[https://victorbjelkholm.github.io/quickwiki/home/](https://victorbjelkholm.github.io/quickwiki/home/)
)

------
circlefavshape
I have an action point from a meeting I'll borrow a scrap of paper and a pen
off someone else, do it as soon as I'm out of the meeting, then bin it.

Apart from that I haven't taken a note for the last 3 or 4 years. I had stacks
of unsearchable notebooks with near-unintelligible scrawl in them, and rather
than improving/indexing my note-taking I just gave up on it, reasoning that if
I had gotten away with bad note-taking for 15 years then I could probably get
away with none at all.

Turned out I was right. Without having notes as a crutch I end up
concentrating harder on understanding and remembering on what people are
saying. YMMV but it works well for me

------
belvoran
PAPER!!! I have tried lots of electronic things, and programs. And there is
still one unbeatable: paper. With pen, pencils, and fountain pens.

Bullet journal is also worth checking,however I don't feel like we love each
other.

------
throwaway4737
Vimwiki + your fav' git hosting with markdown/html-pages support.

Git + Vimwiki setup:

[https://jarvistmoorefrost.wordpress.com/2014/06/25/snippet-c...](https://jarvistmoorefrost.wordpress.com/2014/06/25/snippet-
console-diary-vimwiki-now-with-more-git-autohooks/amp/)

~~~
godelski
I've been trying vim wiki but I keep getting weird errors with tex and it
seems there is no support on github.

------
nickjj
Google Keep matches most of your requirements and it's what I use personally.

It makes it really easy to tag, organize, share and with the archive feature
you can get todo list functionality.

~~~
mdekkers
Google's nasty habit of dropping projects that are not core keeps me from
trying and using a lot of their stuff.

~~~
nickjj
I thought the same way, but luckily Keep has a way to export everything to
HTML.

In the worst case scenario you could export all of your notes to an easy to
read format and start importing it to a new system.

------
Vinkekatten
Meetings and information I will need to reference: One Note backed up to a
network drive. It's got a nice integration with Outlook meetings, lets me
start a note with info about time, date, subject of meeting, location of
meeting and participants present. I also keep a password-protected file with
non critical passwords here, but don't tell anyone.

Day-to-day sketches and TODO's and little note lists: I keep a spiral note
book next to my keyboard. I'm a leftie so it's upside down. I use the blue
Pilot Drawing pens in various thicknesses. They dry instantly, so no ink
smudges. Nice.

In addition to these I keep a day-to-day diary in .txt documents on my
computer, I just open them in Sublime text or vim and make a new one every
month. I try to just write four or five lines about what I've done every day
as well as what I need to do tomorrow.

~~~
bastage
This is just about as close to how I handle most note taking currently.

You can't beat computers for quick searching and Onenote is both "GUI" enough
to be friendly to people I have to share with and also does all those other
things you mention. (Plus a lot of other cool stuff.)

I also use Sublime/vim in a similar way you mention, although I tend to use
that as "RAM" in the sense that I don't save my snippets -- if they're not
important enough to document elsewhere then if something really bad were to
happen where (at least in Sublime) if a non-saved tab didn't show up at start
automatically "oh well". (I've never had that happen though.)

Where I'm failing lately is any kind of physical pen/paper note taking since
just the feel of that is great so I've added that into my TODO's of 2017. :)

------
t27
I've started using Laverna([http://Laverna.cc](http://Laverna.cc)) recently.
Its a note management app built completely in Javascript and is
serverless(except for storage, which is via your own dropbox), so I can host
it on github pages/ AWS S3.

It has a convenient Markdown editor with live previews, sorting notes by
notebooks, and has web and mobile versions. The notes are stored in dropbox
and your browser's local storage, also they have imports and exports for
backup.

Also its completely opensource and I can be sure that theres no snooping on my
notes.

~~~
unnikked
I tried laverna some years ago (early development stage) but it was very
unstable.

What about now ? It is reliable ?

~~~
anaxag0ras
Unfortunately, no. Tried it few days ago, after Evernote privacy policy
change. Still very unstable. I switched to SimpleNote instead.

------
ohstopitu
When I used to use Windows, I used OneNote[0] a lot! (I had over 20 notebooks
with multiple sections and pages in each section).

I loved it!

However, recently I've moved to linux for my daily computing needs and I have
yet to find something to fill a void.

I'm using notion.so[1] for most notes and paper for hand written stuff.

It's sad that in 2016, there's no nexus type tablet running android (with
updates) that has pen support :/

[0] - [https://www.onenote.com/](https://www.onenote.com/)

[1] - [https://www.notion.so/](https://www.notion.so/)

------
mcshicks
For formal meetings I use pen and paper. For some specific activities I do
where I can't take notes during the activity I use a voice recorder to take
notes immediately afterwords. If I'm sitting at my computer (like on a phone
call) I use org-capture. If I'm out and about and I just need to jot something
down I use the google inbox reminder on my phone. I did have a livescribe (a
pen that records audio while writing, synchronized to the place in your paper
notes), it was really neat, especially if I was both conducting a meeting and
taking action items. The downside was it was a little awkward to tell people
every time the meeting ran that you were recording it. But it did that job
well. I have used One Note for a while, it's pretty neat but the lack of a
clean way to archive notes like org mode has was really a show stopper for me.
For me at least having a couple of different ways works best. The small hand
held voice recorder is surprisingly handy. The pain is transcribing them
although recently I simply copy the files to my computer and link to them in
org-mode. For group meetings I also liked used to use a white board and the
camera on my phone, although I don't have need for this myself anymore. I
would really recommend not getting stuck on one technique for all situations,
but use different things that work better in different situations. The key is
having one system to put it all together, and for me at least that's org mode.

------
swingbridge
I'm quite a techno geek but when it comes to notes I've never given up good
old paper and pen.

------
jason_slack
Good old pen and paper!

I keep a paper based day planner and a notebook with my ideas, thoughts, etc
in it. Recently I have been also trying to keep track using an iPad Pro and
Apple Pencil using an app called Nebo. I'm not ready to switch yet. (And for
that matter I have never been able to switch in 40 years).

Paper to me is long lasting. I can start something in a notebook, shelve it
and then pick it up again. No need to update the OS or the app I used to
create it (if it still exists).

------
brute
Zim - A Desktop Wiki

[http://www.zim-wiki.org/](http://www.zim-wiki.org/)

Mostly because it just creates a bunch of .txt files, which are easy to handle
(sync, backup, read via ssh, ...), and by placing them in subdirs you get a
hierarchy. It is mostly for text, but it supports links, links between notes,
links to files, pictures, code, lists, checkboxes, latex, gnuplot, ... and if
you really need something you can create your own tool.

------
samuell
In addition to a simple binder with blank papers and a good pen for when I'm
in "thinking mode", I have actually been happy with the following solution,
for text note-taking on the computer (which I use almost daily as a journal,
for meetings etc etc):

Simple markdown files, with a script to create a new date-stamped document for
each day [1], opens it in vim, and then commits the change and pushes to a
bitbucket private repo for backup, after I close vim [2].

It also includes a script for converting all documents to a nice epub ebook,
for offline reading, browsing, searching etc in calibre e-reader.

Some benefits that made me go this direction, instead of, say evernote or the
like:

\- Offline storage

\- Syncable via git (I'm keeping a backup in a private bitbucket repo)

\- Easily convert to any format via pandoc

\- Can edit effortlessly in my terminal-based environment (bash, tmux, vim)

\- Really automateable

\- ...

[1] [https://github.com/samuell/mdnote](https://github.com/samuell/mdnote)

[2]
[https://github.com/samuell/mdnote/blob/master/edit.sh](https://github.com/samuell/mdnote/blob/master/edit.sh)

------
gumby
This sounds absurd, but hear me out: I start with paper, and then type them
in.

I've tried almost everything to automate paper->computer (typing rather than
writing, Livescribe pen, iPad pro + apple pencil, many many devices that are
now dead) and none have been as good as just a decent (not super special) pen
and a notepad. I prefer an engineering pad or quadrille or in a pinch dot-
grid, but really anything works as long as you don't lose it.

The trick I learned was every day or so to move them into the computer, which
I do by typing them in (and simply taking a photo of drawings). I usually type
in Emacs or right into Evernote. I try to do it every evening as one of my
last tasks, as part of reviewing my day & looking at the next day. If it's a
multi-day sketch-it-out effort I wait until the few days are over. Dictation
has become good enough that I can actually read aloud the relevant parts of a
bunch of sheets of paper (in the order I care about) and then quickly fix them
up. This is actually the only use case for dictation I've found on my
computer.

The benefits: First of all, typing them over forces you to review them,
organize them slightly, and skip over the irrelevant stuff. This is really
important after a design effort since you throw away what you think are truly
dead paths, and all your cross-out go away. If I need one, this typing is
often the base of my design document. Second: I've seen meeting notes I've
taken that don't justify being typed in. In which case, why did I even go to
that meeting?

Interestingly, when I was a kid my mum told me she used this technique both in
school and in work, which I dismissed as a ludicrous waste of time. Only
decades later when I evolved the same approach did I remember her advice.

------
jordz
I tend to switch between Field Notes and Moleskine books, I use a Japenese
Kuru Toga pencil (mechanical pencil that sharpens itself while you write) and
a Uni JetStream Prime 0.7mm.

On the digital side I use OneNote.

If anyone is interested, this guys instagram says it all:
[https://www.instagram.com/desk_of_jules/](https://www.instagram.com/desk_of_jules/)

------
zhte415
Pen, paper. Hopefully there's an agenda, for a conference or meeting, so take
notes on that.

Take photo with phone. Send to whoever else needs to know, e.g. meeting
minutes.

My notepad is A4 paper cut in half (yeah, A5, but company only stocks A4) with
a big bull-clip in the top. When notes are no longer needed, just shred them.

------
gotrythis
For those who use paper, I strongly recommend the LiveScribe pen. It records
what you write and the audio. Then you can click text and it plays what was
being said when the text you clicked on was written. Makes for fast, stress
free note taking.

------
yabatopia
Like others already mentioned, Quiver
([http://happenapps.com/#quiver](http://happenapps.com/#quiver)), but it is
Mac-only. Your a Mac-user, but I don't know how often you work with clients
using another platform. That could be a problem.

For Windows and Linux, there's Cherrytree
([http://www.giuspen.com/cherrytree/](http://www.giuspen.com/cherrytree/)).
I'm not using it myself, it's just something that I found when looking for
Evernote alternatives. It has syntax highlighting and can handle images.

Good luck with finding a solution.

------
brennen
0\. Leuchtturm (or Moleskine if I can't get a Leuchtturm) notebook, blank
pages, the middle size.

1\. vimwiki in a tmux session in an XMonad scratch buffer. Pandoc for
occasional PDF output.

2\. Some screenshot / screencast gif scripts around byzanz and scrot.

------
bogle
[Turtl]([https://turtlapp.com/](https://turtlapp.com/)) has been my Evernote
replacement for a few months now. I like having everything encrypted and I
love writing in Markdown.

------
SnacksOnAPlane
SimpleNote for most things. Workflowy for more structured things. And I have a
Huawei Watch that runs Audio Recorder so I can take little notes to myself
when I don't have time or hands to write something down.

------
blakesterz
Has anyone tried Bear yet?

[http://www.bear-writer.com/](http://www.bear-writer.com/)

I _just_ recently started using it, finding it rather nice, though it still
feels rather 'beta'.

------
twistybark1
i'm a mess but i use gmail. primarily because i can easily open it on any
device, any time, any where. i make use of labels and also add keywords while
i write so i can easily search. google gets my complete trust here.

------
dadelantado
Simplenote!! Works on everything: Desktop app, browser, android or iphone

------
We2soRae
I use [https://www.notebooksapp.com/](https://www.notebooksapp.com/). It works
with plain files, txt, markdown and WYSIWYG (HTML). It also allows you to
write your own stylesheet and JS. So I have a custom template (CSS) and I
write almost everything in WYSIWYG (ie HTML). Works really well for code too,
as I get syntax highlighting.

Other apps I have tried and used over the years:

\- [http://www.mweb.im/](http://www.mweb.im/) (markdown) \-
[https://ulyssesapp.com/](https://ulyssesapp.com/) (markdown) \-
[http://lightpaper.42squares.in/](http://lightpaper.42squares.in/) (markdown)
\- [http://alternoteapp.com/](http://alternoteapp.com/) (Evernote GUI) \-
Many, many others

Notebooks really stands out because it has a great iOS app, syncs via Dropbox
(plain files), and handles TXT/MD/HTML + Custom CSS&JS.

The Mac app is not great, but it's adequate. I frequently talk to the author
and they are rewriting it to be more "Mac friendly", but that's a bit away (1
year maybe?).

For the longest time, I tried to stay true to Markdown, but as I get older, I
just want things to be easier, and to look nicer, and I now prefer writing
everything in WYSIWYG. Since I have custom styles, I can stick to standard
structure (ie H1, p, ul, ..), which is in spirit close to Markdown (ie
structure only). And I can still customize when I want complicated things (I
wrote a couple special classes for some use cases).

Plus, it works with the filesystem, so you get folders, which I personally
prefer to all this tagging BS. It makes it easier to have everything in one
place: work stuff and personal stuff, and to keep it all neat and tidy. Also,
because it's files, it's always available offline (iOS app too).

The iOS app is like a small file manager, so I also keep pictures, PDFs, and
some other docs. So I always have all my important stuff on hand, no matter
where I am.

Overall, I think it's a great app, which still has room to grow (better GUI on
desktop, encryption, ...)

------
molx
Sublime Text. I find taking notes for me to be more about slowing my thought
process down in order to zero in on issues I'm thinking through. At work we
use Teamwork to organize our projects, so usually if there's something I'm
working on for a client or a coworker, I'll transcribe parts of my notes into
our teamwork project. Teamwork also lets you add tasks, notes, files, links,
etc. We can one off people to each project, so that they can review anything
we've added for their review.

------
vidarh
I'd like to mention Ideaflip, btw: [http://ideaflip.com](http://ideaflip.com)

It's intended for collaboration rather than specifically for note-taking, but
it looks like it addresses some of my issues with respect to flexibility for
note-taking. I'm not convinced they've got the pricing and market fit perfect
yet, but it looks quite interesting.

(Disclaimer: I'm having some conversations with the founder, but we've not
done business)

------
bjoernm
We're building Nuclino ([https://www.nuclino.com/](https://www.nuclino.com/)),
which is inspired by Notational Velocity / nvALT. You can upload images via
drag and drop and embed code blocks. Syntax highlighting for the code blocks
is on the roadmap. You can either share individual pages with a client (via a
public URL) or invite someone to share several pages and collaborate on them
in real-time.

------
eskimobloood
Paper

Quiver[1]: suports markdown and syncs via Dropbox

Mindful[2]: chrome extension

[1][http://happenapps.com/#quiver](http://happenapps.com/#quiver)
[2][https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/mindful-
beta/cieek...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/mindful-
beta/cieekmjjdkckhpidgaffphlaljdfhhab)

------
jagermo
I have horrible handwriting. It is really bad.

But OneNote and ten-finger-typing makes up for that. If I need to share it, I
can easily copy it in to an email, everyone can receive these without needing
another account.

You might want to look into
[http://www.codefoster.com/codeinonenote/](http://www.codefoster.com/codeinonenote/),
a code highlighter for OneNote

------
rwieruch
In the order from brainstorming to real project it's:

\- piece of paper and pen

\- Clear [https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/clear-tasks-reminders-to-
do/...](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/clear-tasks-reminders-to-
do/id493136154) (not only as Todo App, but also to make outlines for topics)

\- Sublime Editor + Markdown + (private) GitHub repository

------
toban
I've ended up going from applications like Evernote to a simple Dropbox folder
with markdown files for my personal notes. For me, the main draws are easy
access from terminal and using my own text editor. And of course code blocks
with syntax highlighting (and LaTeX with MathJax). I haven't played around
with sharing, but it's easy to render an HTML page.

------
RUG3Y
I like paper and notebooks the best, but I'm using OneNote for work. OneNote
is one of those annoying but "good enough" software products that I don't
really like, but I'm using it because it's free.

------
Chris2048
While I use zimWiki for personal notes, there are some things it lacks, like
interactivity.

I started a blog, using Nikola. Not perfect, but it can support markdown, rst,
ipy etc, plus pretty much anything else the web can.

Not _exactly_ a TODO list, but for publishable things, it's pretty flexible if
the thought isn't private.

------
kek918
I use Todoist for notes that are potential tasks. Some times the line can be
blurry so I have to regularly clean my Todoist tasks.

For the rest I use Google Keep which I've found to be quite handy. Nice UI and
it's available everywhere. I've already sold my soul to Google so why not let
them get my notes as well.

------
DominikSerafin
The good old physical post it notes work best for me if I need to note
something quickly.

If there's something that I need to copy/paste later then I just have
"Clipboard.txt" on my desktop. Not prettiest but it's fastest and easiest.

If I need to plan something bigger then I use Trello.

------
pmontra
Paper during meetings with customers. A5 or even A6. Faster than anything
else. Big bonus for drawing diagrams quickly.

The default notes app on my Samsung until I changed phone, Private Notepad
now. This is for short random notes.

Several markdown files on my laptop especially for work related stuff.

------
Kiro
Evernote. My Evernote is the only valuable digital asset I have. Everything
else is exchangeable.

~~~
wtfishackernews
You may want to read this [https://www.engadget.com/2016/12/14/evernotes-new-
privacy-ru...](https://www.engadget.com/2016/12/14/evernotes-new-privacy-
rules-let-employees-read-notes/)

~~~
jason_slack
They backed out of doing this:
[https://blog.evernote.com/blog/2016/12/15/evernote-
revisits-...](https://blog.evernote.com/blog/2016/12/15/evernote-revisits-
privacy-policy/)

------
hatsunearu
Xournal on my x86 tablet running Ubuntu.

Love having the xournal files go to my personal server that I can browse
through with my laptop or desktop later on, anywhere, anytime, without having
to bring around binders and notebooks.

I also like that you can erase and move blocks of ink around.

~~~
unnikked
Which tablet do you use for Ubuntu ?

~~~
hatsunearu
Late (i was sick :() but [http://www.gearbest.com/tablet-
pcs/pp_227132.html](http://www.gearbest.com/tablet-pcs/pp_227132.html)

------
vincent91
I use Google Keep for short notes and TOTOs. It's handy and you can access on
any device.

------
kybernetyk
Short lived notes? Anything that can take text input. vim, text edit, stickies
(the mac app), pen & paper, whatever is on hand.

Long term notes? Evernote - though I'm not happy with them. Just haven't found
a replacement yet.

------
goerz
[GoodNotes]([http://www.goodnotesapp.com](http://www.goodnotesapp.com)) on an
iPad Pro (12.9 inch) and Apple Pencil. Haven't touched paper since getting it.

------
petetnt
Dropbox Paper currently: syncs automatically with everyone who I want to share
the notes with, saves automatically, has an advanced and simple to use editor,
keeps track of changes, has comments and so on.

------
rvpolyak
I use pen and paper. Well actually write everything in a sketch book and keep
an index of themes on the cover and number all the pages so if I need to refer
back I find the theme and page number.

------
dplgk
Quiver is like Evernote if Evernote didn't suck. All it's missing is
encryption. [http://happenapps.com](http://happenapps.com)

~~~
gglitch
And a mobile app. And, at least for me personally, ideally, nested folders.

------
HackyGeeky
One Note : I'm an "avoid mouse" person & one note is the only application that
provides all the features. Plus sharing is a breeze - especially in a company.

------
thecolorblue
OneNote on a surface. I sprung for the office suite which includes a different
version of OneNote with a better UI and more features. It is worth it if you
take a lot of notes.

------
feistypharit
I use the note station app by synology. Granted, you need a synology NAS to
use it, but it works offline, mobile, and desktop. And all your data lives on
your own device.

------
galfarragem
This works for me: [https://github.com/galfarragem/hamster-
gtd](https://github.com/galfarragem/hamster-gtd)

------
vinhnx
In the past, I used Evernote but recently switch to Quiver and Unclutter.

I also have a real notebook in my desk to sketch diagram and flow, I find it
very effective.

------
amerkhalid
Paper. I tried laptops, ultrabooks, iPad, cellphones, for note taking but
nothing beats paper so far.

But I ordered Surface Pro 4 this week. So going to try OneNote on SP4 soon.

------
cher14
You should check out www.breakdown-notes.com. (disclaimer: my project). Only
feature missing is code highlighting.

------
collyw
Pen and notepad. Way faster than farting about typing on a tocuh screen or
desktop and drawing diagrams is orders of magnitude faster and easier.

------
srikz
OneNote on a Surface (for handwritten notes) and Google Keep for quick notes
and reminders on phone. OneNote is quite slow to sync on Phones

------
slantaclaus
I used to use Apple notes but lost so much data I try not to anymore. Evernote
is my main notepad these days but I still use apple notes...

~~~
baddox
How did you lose data with Apple Notes? I've had conflicted copies before, but
I don't think I've ever lost data.

------
jenhsun
As a Mac User, I use nvALT for my notes and monosnap for screenshots and image
uploads plus sharing. ToDo List I use Any.Do for a while.

------
fumar
OneNote. I use it on all my devices, work laptop (ThinkPad), Surface Pro 3,
and Galaxy Note 5. I prefer to take notes using a stylus.

------
kNawade
Atom and Markdown. You can even see real time previews with "Markdown preview
plus" plugin, upload it to git if need be.

------
aembleton
Visual Studio Code and type out notes as Markdown.

This gives me some formatting as I go without being distracting.

Usually though I find a pen and paper works best.

------
88e282102ae2e5b
I use Jupyter notebooks and write in markdown.

~~~
gglitch
It has repeatedly been observed here that Quiver and Jupyter have a lot in
common. One thing I'm missing with Jupyter, though, is a convenient
infrastructure for dealing with a large number of small notes. Are you using
one notebook for each note?

~~~
88e282102ae2e5b
Yes, though I break it up into different (labelled) sections, so I don't have
a large number of files. It may just work for me since I tend to write longish
overviews of things (papers, concepts, experiments, etc.).

------
_hao
I use OneNote and I'm very happy with it.

------
kirankn
Came to know about Remarkable (getremarkable.com) which ships next Aug. Sounds
interesting for paper lovers.

------
ymgch
Simplenote. Use it everyday.

------
rihegher
flat txt file + Gedit for view and edition + Cloudstation for sync with NAS
and other computers or mobiles.

------
grigjd3
Honestly, I keep a spiral notebook.

------
pouta
infinity book it's available on Amazon. Imagine whiteboard + notebook.

------
antonis82
plain text file + dropbox for accessing on multiple devices

------
Zelmor
ZimWiki

------
guilhas
Zim wiki

------
Heliosmaster
Alternote

