I find the Things.app very convenient (and worth the one time cost for macOS and iOS since I use it 10-100 times per day).
The key part of using inbox-oriented task apps is to have a process to review the inbox and fold it into some shallow hierarchy of “folders” or “projects” etc. I didn’t realize this was the key part of all systems like bullet journaling or GTD (or the different org mode flows or NV as I understand them).
It’s basic data structures. But after a certain point it’s not efficient to access things linearly, so you need to introduce some sort of tree.
Recently I took the time to go through my almost 1000 inbox notes and fold them into ‘promo notes’ or ‘startup ideas’ or ‘startup resources’. All of which can be usually grouped into one more level for even faster access (‘no code resources’, ‘design resources’, etc).
It all comes down to caches being fast for writing and reading but then there needs to be maintenance to preserve access speed.
It took me three years (and 1000 unfinished notes) to realize this. But you just need that process to organize periodically and then the structure in place is there (now I daily just move things to the right project/area; and assess whether to create new projects / refactor maybe once a month).
The key part of using inbox-oriented task apps is to have a process to review the inbox and fold it into some shallow hierarchy of “folders” or “projects” etc. I didn’t realize this was the key part of all systems like bullet journaling or GTD (or the different org mode flows or NV as I understand them).
It’s basic data structures. But after a certain point it’s not efficient to access things linearly, so you need to introduce some sort of tree.
Recently I took the time to go through my almost 1000 inbox notes and fold them into ‘promo notes’ or ‘startup ideas’ or ‘startup resources’. All of which can be usually grouped into one more level for even faster access (‘no code resources’, ‘design resources’, etc).
It all comes down to caches being fast for writing and reading but then there needs to be maintenance to preserve access speed.
It took me three years (and 1000 unfinished notes) to realize this. But you just need that process to organize periodically and then the structure in place is there (now I daily just move things to the right project/area; and assess whether to create new projects / refactor maybe once a month).