Aquaminds Notetaker

Posted by Hugh
Sep 17, 2019 at 08:20 AM

To me, what we’re seeing here is the distinction between different categories of work, and the requirements they have for different types of digital tools. I suspect that the main distinction is between “deep work” and what the author Cal Newport rather disparagingly calls “shallow work” (although, for example, getting meetings to work successfully, before, during and after, which Newport tends to categorise as shallow work, often seems to me to require deep thought and careful planning).

But ignoring such quibbles, in my experience the broad distinction does generally hold true. For example, I do a lot of long-form writing. Theorising that I’d be able to do even more if I used those odd moments in the day when I’m not at my desk, I bought an iPad Pro. It’s a very nice tool, and I use it for other purposes, but long-form writing? Not much. Mobile versions of Scrivener and Ulysses aren’t much use to me. Nor would a mobile version of Notetaker be. When I’m not at my desk, I have the wrong mindset. But I can see that they’d be useful for other kinds of work, in other circumstances.