Hi.
I think about replacing my time and task-management system (Outlook calendar plus spreadsheet for todos) by one app that I can use on Windows and my iPhone/iPad.
I looked into almost every tool out there and narrowed my options down to Lunatask (there is finally a mobile app) and Timestripe.

Has anyone here experience with either?

Thanks
Franz

Hi, Franz,

I've tried both and think they are both pretty good. My experience of Timestripe was a couple of years ago. Lunatask has more features -- maybe replaces a few more apps. For instance it does daily notes, which Timestripe doesn't (unless a more recent edition). Also, I wasn't taken with Timestripe's focus on long-term goals, though you can ignore that. You probably already checked it out, but if you didn't Superlist has some similarities with these two apps. Primarily, that you can mix notes and tasks.

Will be interested to know what you pick and how it goes.

Steve

Franz Grieser wrote:

I looked into almost every tool out there and narrowed my options down
to Lunatask (there is finally a mobile app) and Timestripe.

I'd be interested to know which alternatives you considered and why you rejected them

Dormouse wrote:

I'd be interested to know which alternatives you considered and why you
rejected them

I looked at most of the apps available over the last years. Most of them didn't click, I cannot remember the exact reason for each app
More or less the only app I found interesting (apart from Lunatask and Timestripe) is Superlist - but it's Mac- and browser-only, but I work mainly on Windows machines.

At the moment, I have a tendency to Lunatask because I found I do not use the Horizons and planning features in Timestripe and because I like the relationship part in Lunatask.

Franz Grieser wrote:

At the moment, I have a tendency to Lunatask because I found I do not
use the Horizons and planning features in Timestripe and because I like
the relationship part in Lunatask.

I'm having a look at it right now - prompted by your question. But from an entirely different point of view.

Most of my note-taking and writing is comfortably settling down in writing. Being local rather than web, it's pretty secure. And historically I've relied on local and direct encryption for private documents etc - most of which I've kept in .md and .pdf. But I'm becoming less happy with that: firstly, for many uses It's becoming very inconvenient not to have better accessibility via mobile; and, secondly, because I'm becoming less comfortable with unencrypted local and relying on remembering to encrypt myself. So, I've been looking at secure notes apps - Notesnook and Standard Notes in particular - and found them pretty unimpressive atm. And, though I don't really need a ToDo/Diary app, I have noticed that many private notes relate to actions and dates.

Lunatask is encrypted in transit and can be set to require a pin at rest. And possibly I would use the journal part. Maybe. It still seems a little weird, but I know that a more traditional todo app isn't what I need. I find quite a few little irritating differences to other apps (like it not picking up typed #tags). The notes are very barebones and can't, yet at least, be easily associated with tasks; NotesNook and its reminders might even be better at that.

I'll have a look at Superlist. I don't have a Mac, but I am slightly mulling over the possibility of a Mac 4 Mini base model + KNM switch - plenty of room under the monitor for it to join my Geekom mini. I know I'd like to look at Vellum (and always expected to buy a Mac, if I decided I wanted to use it), and I'm also looking at any other Mac programs that might interest me.

Personally, I’ve now pivoted to and am very happy with Obsidian, over multiple platforms, synced using their own service (Obsidian Sync).

Thing is, I can configure Obsidian in any one of hundreds of different ways, with or without plugins. The combination I use at the moment, using a mixture of kanban boards and calendars, is perfect for my needs, while giving me the ability to link to any number of other documents stored within Obsidian (or elsewhere). In this sense, Obsidian is a CRIMPer’s dream!

There are other ways to sync Obsidian, but unless you’re totally committed to the AppleSphere (in which case you can use iCloud, which works perfectly well), the alternatives are relatively complex and not always reliable. I increasingly use Android devices, which is why Obsidian does the job so well (both on tablet and mobile).

Well. Looks like I am still a crimper.

I am now test-driving Lunatask and will start testing Noteplan (the web edition and the iOS app) in a few days.

Unfortunately, Noteplan is Apple-only plus the web app. I contacted Eduard and asked him about the Windows app. He replied that he focuses on the Apple and the web apps and does not want to spread too thin with a Windows app.

Why then my interest in Noteplan (as I am using Windows machines)?

I found out that Noteplan stores notes as MD files in the file system and that it can be used in parallel to or as an alternative to Obsidian. I never fully adopted Obsidian though I have most of my notes for a new project (might become the big project of the rest of my life) as MD files in Obsidian. But I do not fully trust Obsidian: Twice, it refused to open my big vault because of problems with one or more plugins (I had to start it with a second vault and disable community plugins to be able to open my big vault).

Therefore I looked into Noteplan - and found the organizational parts pretty appealing. If the web app works smoothly with huge amounts of files and if the iOS apps do, too, I am tempted to switch over to Noteplan.

And: Yes, I know there are some PKM apps that also store notes inside MD files.
If Noteplan turns out to be a good and reliable alternative to Obsidian and a good alternative to my Outlook calendar and my XLSX todo list, I can stop looking around and not making a commitment to an app.

I've looked again at Obsidian and I agree. It's very nice and I think certain key plugins, like Dataview, have gotten a lot stronger.

Dataview was nothing but frustration when I first looked at it. Now, it doesn't seem to have the quirks I got mired in before.

I'm kind of hooked on Devonthink, but it's not much use in a Linux environment where I spend considerable time.


MadaboutDana wrote:

Personally, I’ve now pivoted to and am very happy with Obsidian,
over multiple platforms, synced using their own service (Obsidian Sync).

Thing is, I can configure Obsidian in any one of hundreds of different
ways, with or without plugins. The combination I use at the moment,
using a mixture of kanban boards and calendars, is perfect for my needs,
while giving me the ability to link to any number of other documents
stored within Obsidian (or elsewhere). In this sense, Obsidian is a
CRIMPer’s dream!

There are other ways to sync Obsidian, but unless you’re totally
committed to the AppleSphere (in which case you can use iCloud, which
works perfectly well), the alternatives are relatively complex and not
always reliable. I increasingly use Android devices, which is why
Obsidian does the job so well (both on tablet and mobile).

Noteplan is a spectacular piece of software, and I used to love it. But then Eduard increased the price to a level which I simply couldn’t accept, hence my switch to Obsidian (Sync costs less than half what even the Personal version of Noteplan costs; although that could of course change!). Also, Obsidian is cross-platform and much more configurable – the setup I currently use is not unlike my previous Noteplan setup.

But Eduard has done a wonderful job with Noteplan, which is steadily evolving into a very, very powerful tool, with enthusiastic support from a band of very committed users. Eduard is also great at taking and incorporating feedback. If I were limiting myself to Apple platforms, I would probably have returned to Noteplan by now...

Cheers!
Bill

MadaboutDana wrote:

hence my switch to Obsidian (Sync costs less than
half what even the Personal version of Noteplan costs

This is one of those cases where getting a SetApp subscription (which includes NotePlan) is well worth the $10/month (or $12.50 for Mac+iOS). That service does a wonderful job of curating an insane number of best-of-breeed Apple-oriented apps as part of the one subscription price.

https://setapp.com/apps

If I hadn't already purchased a substantial minority of the apps they offer I'd have been a subscriber for years.

But Eduard has done a wonderful job with Noteplan, which is steadily
evolving into a very, very powerful tool, with enthusiastic support from
a band of very committed users. Eduard is also great at taking and
incorporating feedback. If I were limiting myself to Apple platforms, I
would probably have returned to Noteplan by now...

I think a number of notes/writing apps, especially those charging a subscription, are leaving money on the table by not going after part of the journaling-app market to give added value to their products. This is especially accomplishable since Apple is opening up data pipes (images, location data, weather data) to devs that are currently custom-coded in high-end journaling apps.

There's no single Holy Grail app that can well serve planning, tasks, goals, PKM and notes, but considering that Noteplan is built on a calendar interface and on daily notes it's practically a no-brainer to deliver a personal journal section that can be siloed off/encrypted for personal use that increases the value of the app to individual users.

Day One at $35/year is the best journal app I've ever used, and I manage a handful of different journals inside it. I think the market is ripe for writing/notes apps to add this functionality -- not just from NotePlan but also apps like IA Writer, Drafts, and Ulysses. Most of those apps can handle large files (I have 3,000 one-page daily Food journal entries alone in Day One, but inside Ulysses I have dozens of individual 'sheets' that are 20,000-50,000 words in length) so I don't see why this area is not explored by those developers.

Apple has built a really nice and free one-journal iOS Journal app but has purposefully held off, for now, from offering a Mac or iPad version. Once they do a lot of current journaling apps will lose a lot of customers. It has personalized suggestions (based on recent location activity, photos, workouts, and more), reflection prompts, calendar view and a lot more. But Apple likes to keep things simple, and they don't seem interested in either rushing cross-platform versions (which might reduce their app sales commissions) and they especially have shown no interest in their app offering more than a single journal. I've played with Apple's Journal and it's really slick and powerful but since I need to manage multiple journals I'll have to stick to Day One... or a competitor if one shows up offering more for the money.