It seems there are infinite tools/apps/approaches for note taking and todo lists but nothing seems to work for me. Is it just me? Do people require customized approaches to fit their brain or do most workflows just not capture all the nuances of a busy person's daily life?
For example, here is what I've tried over the years:
- I started with a Palm Pilot 😆
- Went to a 📘✏️ notebook with a fancy pencil. (fun but no structure, not searchable/expandable)
- Went to Microsoft OneNote (not exactly sure why I left)
- Went to 📒 Apple Notes (syncs everywhere but no structure)
- Went to 📱🖊️iPad with Pencil *(so much fun, but no structure and I'm much quicker with keyboard)
- Went to Workflowy (love the structure, but not great for complex todo lists)
- Went back to Apple Notes
- 🤯
Here are my pain points and things I need:
- Structure: This is big for me. I need structure. Client A, Client B, Billing, Marketing, Exercise Program. Of all apps, I've liked Workflowy the most because my brain thinks hierarchically and it's great to have a tree structure to zoom in/out.
- Device Sync: I seem to use the computer the most but if I don't have access to my notes/todos all the time, the data gets fragmented (e.g. piece of paper, different app, text file) and the process breaks.
- Todo List: I think that todos are a subset of notes. I take notes in every meeting and some of the notes wind up being todos for me or others. I need to be able to extract those todos and management them holistically across all the things. Sometimes dog walking is more important than work email, other times it's not. But I need to prioritize both and don't want to make life and work on two separate lists.
Does anyone else have a similar problem to me? Or am I uniquely troubled person? 🥺
Anyway, as I build out my prototype, I'd love to chat with people who share my sentiments. I'll buy ya a virtual coffee too. ☕
Sometimes people don't know what they need until someone else shows it to them. This approach sounds like that. Would you be happy if the only person who uses this is you? If yes, do it. Anything more would be icing on the cake.
You are saying that it's hard to figure out what people need until you put them in the seat to test it out, right? I guess an example would be if BMW asked you what tension you wanted on the driving wheel, most wouldn't know until they felt it.
I don't agree with you.
If a specific problem that he wants to solve is pinpointed, he can ask if people have such a problem in common. For example, he can ask people how they structure their notes or todos, which may help people elaborate their problems. Once the problem is identified and repeated observed, then he can start thinking about a solution -- a better todoapp or note app.
By the way, I think the point of the Henry Ford quote is that you should ask people what's inconvenient when they ride horses.
Yeah something like that.
"If I'd asked customers what they wanted, they would have said 'a faster horse.'" Henry Ford.
Counter-point: http://web.archive.org/web/20161104163644/http://onproductmanagement.net/2010/06/29/why-i-hate-that-henry-ford-quote/
The top comment is worthwhile also.
If I was the CEO of a multi-million/billion company then maybe my advise would be worth something. I'm not, so it's up to you to decide how much value you wanna put on it. :) It very well may be zero, and I'm OK with that.
This comment was deleted 5 months ago.