There are a few tools I can recommend for productivity. First and foremost, Todoist for task planning and Obsidian for note management, although Obsidian can also be used for tasks. As an alternative to Obsidian, I’d also like to throw UpNote into the ring. These are the three tools I’ve been most satisfied with so far, and they do their job very well. But they are also the three tools that have shown me that a fully digital system doesn’t work for me.
On the other hand, I tried using a Bullet Journal to organize my tasks and notes for a year. But that turned out to be too inflexible for me. It’s good for daily planning, but for simple notes and minutes, a Bullet Journal is too rigid. Plus, you flip through pages like crazy when you’re looking for something. It just wasn’t for me; anything more than a few pages away was practically non-existent to me.
On a whim, I bought a Kindle Scribe a year ago. Not really seeing it as a daily planner, but mainly for quick notes and, of course, for reading. The large format is much better suited for PDFs than a smaller Kindle Paperwhite. Plus, you can write in documents very well with the pen, at least with fixed PDFs. With Kindle books and converted documents, this wasn’t well-implemented before. You would highlight a piece of text and could then attach a kind of sticky note to that highlight. But writing directly in the document wasn’t possible. The past tense gives it away: that has changed with the latest update. With the so-called Canvas, you can now flexibly insert writing areas into the text, which I find to be a really well-designed solution.
So, the device is now really great for documents. But the notebooks are still impractical if you want to use them like a planner or a Bullet Journal. The reason is the same as with paper notebooks: you can’t find anything and have to flip through pages forever. The search function helps a bit, but it’s not a good workflow. Then, on Reddit, I stumbled upon planners for the Kindle Scribe. These are basically just planners as PDF files that you load onto your Kindle Scribe. But thanks to hyperlinks within the planner, you can quickly jump to different sections and between different days. The planners provide a proper and well-thought-out navigation system, which largely eliminates my problem with flipping through pages.
I’ve been using the Kindle Scribe with a planner for a few weeks now, and I like the system. I can enter appointments, tasks, and information in advance and then just jump back. Every morning, I go through the current day, add appointments and tasks, and every evening, I review the day. Thanks to the navigation, I can quickly jump to the monthly and weekly overviews, and just as quickly back again. At the same time, I enjoy writing by hand, even though I’m a nerd. I wouldn’t want to write longer texts by hand anymore, but I really like capturing bullet points and short notes manually without having to switch programs. I no longer switch from the Teams conversation to the note-taking app and back again; I just write on my Scribe.
And what if I need a note on my PC? Then I send it to myself, optionally with text recognition. This also transfers drawings, sketches, and other scribbles. I don’t need Miro or a similar whiteboard tool to just sketch out a process or create a quick mind map. I draw it on the Kindle, send it to the PC, and either continue working with the PDF or a screenshot from it. What I would love, but consider unlikely with the current generation, would be a live view of the Kindle Scribe screen on the PC. It would be cool to be able to directly share what you’re writing and scribbling on the device.
In terms of build quality, I am completely satisfied with the Kindle Scribe. It has no sharp edges and looks quite neutral. The quality of the e-ink display is outstanding, as you’d expect from Kindle devices. However, I will not be upgrading to the new 2024 version. Technically, the current version is identical to mine, and the software is too. The only differences are the white frame and the optional green stripe, although according to some reports on Reddit, the backlight of the display apparently shines through the white frame. That’s not the case with my model. Regardless, the appearance isn’t worth the investment in a new device to me.
How do you capture your notes and plan your day? Completely digital or still fully analog? A mix of both, perhaps?