My Ultimate Productivity Tool & An Updated Workflow for 2024: Plan with Me in NotePlan
Summary
TLDRThis video offers an in-depth tutorial on utilizing the NotePlan app for comprehensive life organization. The speaker shares their experience using NotePlan for daily and project notes, calendar integration, and syncing with Apple reminders. They demonstrate core features like templates, drag-and-drop organization, and time blocking, while also showcasing the app's flexibility in handling to-do lists and habit trackers. The video emphasizes NotePlan's ability to serve as an 'everything app,' streamlining daily planning and task management with a user-friendly interface.
Takeaways
- 📝 NotePlan is used as an all-in-one organizational tool for daily and project notes, calendar integration, and reminders.
- 📆 The app allows for free-form note-taking, combining to-do items, paragraph text, and time blocking within a daily note.
- 🔍 NotePlan includes a revision history feature, enabling users to view and restore previous versions of their notes.
- 🔄 Users can quickly capture ideas and tasks using shortcuts like 'Quick Open to Today' and 'Quick Capture' for efficient note entry.
- 📑 Templates are supported in NotePlan, allowing users to create and save custom templates for daily or meeting notes.
- 📊 The app differentiates between to-dos and checklist items, with to-dos being prioritized and automatically checked off when completed.
- 🗓️ NotePlan offers a calendar view with options to view one to seven days at a time, enhancing daily and weekly planning.
- 🔗 The app syncs with Apple Reminders and Google Calendar, integrating reminders and calendar events within the notes.
- 📐 Drag-and-drop functionality allows for easy organization and movement of tasks between different days or sections.
- 📈 Synced lines can be used to reference tasks across daily and project notes, keeping information organized and up-to-date.
- ⏰ Time blocking is a feature that helps users schedule specific time slots for tasks directly within the app, which also syncs with Google Calendar.
Q & A
What is the main purpose of the video?
-The main purpose of the video is to provide an updated guide on how the speaker uses NotePlan to organize their life, including daily and project notes, calendar integration, and reminders.
How long has the speaker been using NotePlan?
-The speaker has been using NotePlan for years, indicating a long-term reliance on the app for organization.
What are the core features of NotePlan that the speaker focuses on in the video?
-The speaker focuses on core features such as daily notes, project notes, calendar integration, Apple reminders, free-form note-taking, and the ability to search within the app.
What is a 'daily note' in the context of NotePlan?
-A 'daily note' in NotePlan is a free-form note that the speaker uses to jot down tasks, ideas, and to-do items for each day. It can also include time blocking and different level headings.
How does NotePlan handle accidental deletions of notes?
-NotePlan allows users to view revisions, showing modifications of the past at certain intervals, enabling the restoration of accidentally deleted notes.
What is the speaker's approach to capturing tasks and ideas quickly?
-The speaker uses multiple desktops and Apple shortcuts to quickly open NotePlan, jot down tasks or ideas, and then close it to keep it out of sight while working on other tasks.
How does NotePlan support templates?
-NotePlan supports templates, allowing users to create their own templates for daily notes, meeting notes, and more, which can be saved and reused.
What is the difference between a to-do and a checklist item in NotePlan?
-A to-do in NotePlan is something that needs to be checked off daily, while a checklist item is more like a habit list where not everything needs to be checked off every day.
How does the speaker use NotePlan's calendar view?
-The speaker uses the calendar view to focus on one day at a time or to view up to seven days at once, helping with planning and organization.
What is the benefit of using 'synced lines' in NotePlan?
-Synced lines in NotePlan allow users to link items across different notes, ensuring that changes made in one note are reflected in the linked notes, which is useful for referencing across daily and project notes.
How does the speaker manage time blocking within NotePlan?
-The speaker uses time blocking to schedule specific tasks during certain times of the day, which can be dragged and dropped onto the calendar, and will sync with Google Calendar.
What is the speaker's strategy for dealing with unfinished tasks at the end of the day?
-The speaker either moves unfinished tasks to the next day or checks them off if completed, ensuring that they do not leave anything undone at the end of the day.
How does NotePlan help with planning on different time scales?
-NotePlan allows for daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly planning, with the ability to see references to higher-level plans (like monthly tasks in the weekly note) and to filter tasks based on different criteria.
Outlines
📓 Introduction to Note Plan and Daily Note Workflow
The speaker introduces their long-term use of Note Plan as an all-encompassing tool for organizing life, including daily and project notes, calendar integration, and Apple reminders. They emphasize the app's core features over plugins and set the stage for a demonstration of a simple daily note from December 30th. The speaker highlights the app's free-form note structure, which allows combining to-do items, paragraph text, and time blocking. They also mention the app's revision feature, which recovers unintentionally deleted content, and their use of daily notes as a 'scratch pad' for jotting down ideas and organizing them later.
🔄 Daily Note Process and Note Plan Improvements
The speaker details their daily process with Note Plan, starting with the use of templates for daily notes and discussing the new template support feature. They explain the difference between to-do items and checklist items, with the former being prioritized by the app. The speaker also covers the app's drag-and-drop functionality, which has been improved to handle subtasks along with main tasks. They demonstrate how to navigate daily notes and how to sync events with Google Calendar and Apple Reminders, showcasing the app's integration capabilities. The calendar view feature is highlighted, allowing users to focus on one to seven days at a time.
📅 Advanced Note Management and Syncing Techniques
The speaker advances to more complex note management strategies, such as using the Option key to open notes side by side and drag-and-drop tasks between days. They introduce the concept of 'synced lines' which allow for real-time synchronization between daily and project notes. The speaker also discusses project note setup for meetings, with tips on associating dates and deliverables. They demonstrate how to use command-drag to create synced lines between daily and project notes, which is a key feature for keeping information organized and up-to-date across different note types.
📝 Customization and Time Management in Note Plan
The speaker talks about customization options in Note Plan, such as creating headings for line breaks to prevent them from being swallowed in the interface. They also discuss time blocking, showing how to create and manage time blocks for different activities throughout the day, and how these blocks can be easily moved and rescheduled if needed. The speaker shares personal preferences for manual task management, such as copying and pasting tasks to be intentional about daily planning, and mentions the app's filters for managing overdue tasks and creating custom filters for different planning needs.
🗓️ Comprehensive Planning with Note Plan
The speaker concludes by discussing comprehensive planning in Note Plan, including the use of weekly and monthly notes for broader planning. They demonstrate how to reference higher-level planning within daily notes and how to navigate between different levels of planning. The speaker emphasizes the importance of ending the day with a green check mark, indicating all tasks are completed, and mentions the app's filters for managing tasks. They wrap up by expressing their satisfaction with the workflow in Note Plan and invite questions from viewers.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡NotePlan
💡Daily Notes
💡Project Notes
💡Templates
💡Time Blocking
💡Syncing
💡Drag and Drop
💡Checklists
💡Revisions
💡Apple Shortcuts
💡Filters
Highlights
Introduction to NotePlan as an all-in-one organization app for daily and project notes, calendar, and reminders.
Demonstration of a sample daily note and workflow basics.
NotePlan's free-form note feature allowing combination of to-do items with text.
Time blocking capabilities within the app.
Revision history feature to restore accidentally deleted notes.
Use of daily notes as a scratch pad for quick jotting and later organization.
Utilization of project notes for specific projects starting from daily notes.
Shortcuts for quick note capture, such as opening today's note and capturing memos.
NotePlan's template support for daily and meeting notes.
Drag and drop improvements for task management within the app.
Differentiation between to-dos and checklist items for habit tracking.
Calendar view options for focusing on one to seven days ahead.
Syncing capabilities with Apple Reminders and Google Calendar.
Side by side note comparison for planning and organization.
Use of synced lines for referencing between daily and project notes.
Creating and managing project notes for meetings and deliverables.
Using URL to heading for direct access to specific note sections.
Line break techniques to create visual separation in notes.
Time blocking integration with Google Calendar for scheduling.
Manual process of copying and pasting for intentional task scheduling.
Filters for viewing overdue tasks and custom filters for specific needs.
Yearly, monthly, and weekly planning features for comprehensive organization.
Final thoughts on the NotePlan workflow and its effectiveness over years of use.
Transcripts
hello everyone it is 2024 so I thought
it was time for me to make an updated
video about how I use not plan to
organize pretty much my life it is my
everything app I've continued to use it
for years now I use it to organize my
daily notes my project notes it
integrates with my calendar with my
Apple reminders everything is housed in
note plan it's all searchable there and
today I want to start by showing you a
sample of a simple daily note and then a
bit of my workflow and I am going to do
my best to keep this video down to more
or less the basics there are some power
features in notep plan if you want to
get into the plugins I do use some
plugins that have been created by
various developers they're wonderful but
I want to keep this video const
concentrated on the core features that
are built into note plan so let's get
started by just looking at a sample day
from December 30th where I didn't have a
lot of projects going on but I still had
things that I wanted to do things I
wanted to reply to so let's get started
there note plan continues to be my
everything app for my daily notes my
project notes having my calendar my
reminders everything in one spot before
diving into the content the video itself
let me start by showing you what a
sample day for me kind of looks like
what I love so much about not plan is
that it's really a free form note so I
can combine to-do items with paragraph
text that I might want to jot out I can
also time block my time which I'll talk
about later I didn't on this specific
day you can see that I can make
different level headings I can create
whatever section I need for that
particular day I'm not conf to A system
that only lets me do check or only lets
me use the titles that I've used in the
past every day I have this free form
note that I can just pull up and when I
want to jot down things quickly during
the day as I'm thinking I just jot it
down in my daily note and then I'll
organize it later maybe I'll need to put
it into a project note or maybe it was
just a note on the spot and I can delete
it something else that's really nice
speaking of deleting sometimes you might
be tidying up your note a bit too much
and you delete something unintentionally
you can actually view revisions here and
that will show you all your
modifications of the past it saves it in
certain intervals so that you can pull
up an old version of the note in case
you need to go back and restore
something that you accidentally deleted
and you can choose the new note or in
this case I'm just going to cancel out
of that so again I really use my daily
note as a scratch Pad it's not just
about tasks I can draft out email ideas
as brainstorm list or just use my daily
note as a catch all for whatever is on
my brain and then I can organize that
content later and I do use project notes
to keep track of specific projects but a
lot of times I just start it in my daily
note to get it off my mind and into the
system in the moment so I don't have to
think too much about where this should
go speaking of quickly capturing what's
on my mind I typically use multiple
desktops so on my desktop one I tend to
have note plan open and my calendar app
on desktop 2 is typically where I'm
working my workspace and then desktop 3
is like slack for example so while I'm
working on my main desktop I'm not
looking at note plan I don't like to
look at it all day I'm working on a
specific task but sometimes you need to
jot something down or you're in a
meeting you need to jot something down
and so I have some shortcuts which I
actually got from the note plan
community and I'll leave a link in the
video description to a bunch of
community contributed Apple shortcuts so
I have one that's quick open to today
and sorry I didn't want to show you my
today note so I navigated to a different
day but it pretty much just opens up I
can jot down whatever I need and then I
can quickly close it so all I have to do
is quick open to today and then that
just shows me my today note and I can
quickly get that out of mind into note
plan or I can quickly reference
something there's also this quick
capture and I can either clip a memo to
my daily note if I have something in my
clipboard I can dictate I can share a
memo or I can type a memo directly to
the Daily note so let's type the memo
and then you can just add in a note that
you need to take done and that would
then add that to your daily note so if I
click open to today that added right to
the top of my list there okay now that I
gave you that quick preview of how I get
some of my stuff from my head into not
plan let me take you through my process
on a daily basis and share a little bit
more about why I continue to love note
plan and some of the improvements I've
seen in the past year to get started not
plan supports templates now and you can
create your own templates and save them
you'll see that you can have a template
note and meeting notes because there's
two different things in note plan there
are the calendar notes which are daily
weekly monthly there's quarterly which I
have turned off yearly and then there's
a notes section and the notes section is
a blank page where you can keep things
organized by folders whereas daily is
going to obviously create a new note for
each day so you can see that these are
by date I can navigate them with the
calendar or with these arrows here
versus my notes which are all in folders
like like that and I can have Pages
within those folders so on a daily basis
I really run off of a daily note a lot
of times I'll start at the weekly level
and then plan by day but I'm just going
to take you day to day in this example
that I'm going to show so I can start
here by inserting a template and let's
just go with my simple daily note which
is how I usually get started I can just
put in my tasks for the day task one
task two you can tab over to do a
subtask
with a plus sign you can now do
checklist items as well those can also
be indented however you'd like
everything does also work with drag and
drop so I can drag and drop and move and
indent there's been a lot of
improvements with that in the past year
when I move a main task it also now
moves subtasks so I really enjoy the
improved experience there I tend to just
write out whatever I need to do if if
you're wondering the difference between
a to-do and a checklist item a checklist
item is more something like a habit list
where maybe you don't need to check
everything off on a daily basis and not
plan prioritizes your to-dos so when I
check off all my to-dos for today you'll
see on the 22nd right now there's an
open circle right there because I
haven't finished everything as soon as I
check off all of my to-dos that open
circle turns into a check mark it
doesn't account for the check list items
because technically those don't need to
be carried out and done every day again
you can use a checklist more like for
your habit tracker a packing list
something like that where it's fine if
you leave things unchecked you still
finished and completed your day it's
nice to have those two different levels
of to-dos versus checklists okay so let
me just set up a little bit more here
maybe I'll have some reflection prompts
in some of my templates I have some
prompts that I carry over some times I
just copy and paste them between days
again I keep things pretty simple and
then a lot of times I do draft my social
media content and I tend to use if you
do the triple back ticks I tend to put
it in this coding block and the reason
that I do that is because then when I
use at mentions and hashtags it doesn't
get picked up in my mentions and
hashtags list which I want to keep for
search purposes I don't want it to get
cluttered with my social media post tags
I usually keep that or organized by
drafting my social media content in a
code block and again you trigger that
with the triple back tis like that
something else that's really nice is the
calendar view you can choose if you want
to just see one day at a time to focus
on one day or you can do 3 days I find
really nice to use but you can go all
the way up to 7 days so let's go ahead
and leave it at the 3 days like I had it
what you'll see here is this is a
calendar event actually I made it in my
Google calendar a reminder of a birthday
this right here is a reminder so it's
sinking with my Apple reminders here and
this again is a different calendar event
different color because it's on a
different calendar I can use the side
timeline and I can add to any of my
calendars that I have in my Gmail or in
my iCloud or I can add to reminders and
I can add it to any Apple reminder list
that I have so that was something that
Drew me to note plan in the first place
was that sync with apple reminders and
my Google Calendar obviously it works
with your Apple calendar as well when
I'm working on the day I tend to just
look at the one day at a time view like
this but at the end of the day say I'm
at the end of Monday January 22nd I
finished this task I only finished part
of that task let's go ahead and
highlight both of these and press
command D to just check them both off at
the same time let's check this off as
well what I like to do is I press option
and I click on the 23rd and that opens
the two notes side by side when you
click option it opens another note in
another tab the same thing actually
works with your project notes as well so
it doesn't just have to be daily notes
it can be your project notes that open
in another tab I tend to then insert my
same template first and then I can drag
this to tomorrow so so I might just drag
the entire thing maybe I want to
reference the task that's already done
some people are very very particular
about seeing what they did on each day
in that case maybe you want to copy and
paste I don't care as much about that I
just want to know what I need to do so
that's how I might use this and again
you can drag anything from one day to
another day I drag and drop quite a bit
if this subtask you know you wanted to
really leave it on this day just go
ahead and do that drag and drop and now
only what you need to do is there
another thing that you can do with drag
and drop is you can even move it
entirely just drag it onto the calendar
and you can move it you can link it or
you can copy it if I link it let me open
another tab then it just shows up in my
reference area like this versus let me
undo that if I copy it then it schedules
it in a different way so that these are
not actually linked and you can add on
but it's in your main note here and the
last option that you had was move which
will obviously move the entire thing
another thing when we're talking about
going from one day to another is synced
lines which are really cool so you can
again just go over here copy synced line
and then if I go to another day and I
paste in that sync line then they are
legitimately synced so if I add on on
one day it's just going to take a couple
of seconds and it will syn anything that
I do so that's that's a really nice way
if you want to reference maybe in a
project note and in your daily note
using those synced lines is a fantastic
way to do that let's go ahead and make a
project note so I can show you how I use
these a lot of times I'll use them for
meeting notes so what I might do is say
that I have a meeting on January 23rd I
might set it up in
advance like that and then I use the
arrow to say that it's going to be on
January 23rd that makes it so that on
January 23rd I'll see the project note
here and I can just quickly open it up
so that's how I kind of Link things then
I might put in the agenda notes for
meeting and then say I have another area
for my to-do items in my to-do items
that's where I would put everything I
need to do and then I can associate
dates with this so let's do this on
January
23rd let's do this on January 24th our
deliverable let's say is January
26 now let's just go ahead and open up
instead of January 22nd let's move over
to January 23rd and January 24th side by
side so that you can see here how it
looks and they would be in my references
area a lot of times when I'm working I
like to actually see that in my project
note my today so let me go ahead and
just put in my template again here I
might actually make another heading and
say that I'm working on you know this
sample project and what I can do is you
can drag and drop if you do that it
actually moves the item I don't like
that because then it removes it from my
project note I never like dragging and
dropping instead what I like to do is
command and drag and then what it does
is it drags drags it in as a synced line
I love that because then if I need to
add on to item
two then it syncs and it stays in my
project note and it's also in my daily
note here I can also option drag and
that creates a copy but that doesn't
sync it and so I personally like command
plus drag from the reference area to
create that sync the reason that you
don't see anymore the arrow with the
date is because it's not in my reference
area on January 24th it's actually in my
note for me that works out just fine
because when you click on the aster here
which it's synced you can see what day
it synced with so you can easily jump to
the day and see what day it's
referencing so I don't need that tag
there again just click on it and you'll
see that same thing if I click here then
I'll see which note it's synced with so
again I think that just works Works
fabulously well that's pretty much how I
handle taking my notes when I take a new
meeting note I usually have like one big
note for the sample project for example
and then if I have another meeting I
just put it on top so then I have
meeting with person name again maybe I
would have that on January 26th so I
just have the most recent always sitting
on the top and that works out really
well for me another thing that I use
very often if I don't want something to
show up in the reference area but like I
want to go directly to my to-do items
like all of these to-do items what I use
here is I copy the URL to this heading
and then I'll say here as my item work
on Sample project too items instead of
option click let me command click
command click opens a whole another
window and you can see it just takes me
to that specific heading so so I love
that again you can copy the URL to The
Heading the difference between copy link
to heading if I do that let's say paste
it here it does nicely show the note
title and the heading that it's on the
problem for me is that then it creates
all these references at the top that
gets really bogged down for me I prefer
not to have it that way so instead I
really rely on like I was showing before
here and then copy URL to heading if you
want it to carry over the name look into
a masterful plugin that is link Creator
but I said I wouldn't talk about plugins
in this video so I want to stay true to
that to create some visual separation a
lot of times I do line braks just triple
Dash and you will get line braks you can
collapse down on the heading level one
hack that I have here because it does
actually swallow the line line bre which
I don't love that it swallows the line
break so you can make the line break a
heading of its own let's make that a
level two heading then it's not going to
get swallowed up anymore so that's how I
tend to do things whenever I make a line
break I make it into a header and then
again it won't get swallowed up just
make sure that you're using the right
heading level the last thing that I want
to show is time blocks I do like to time
block a lot of my days so let's go on
the 23 here I'm going to close out
everything else and let's say here time
blocks decide that I want to do this
from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. you'll see that
it creates a Time block over here and I
can choose what calendar I want my time
blocks to go to so that will actually
show up now in my Google Calendar also
really really nice let's go ahead and do
something else let's draft this
presentation and we are going to block
out the whole afternoon for that I can
also drag and drop onto my calendar I
can add a time block like this and then
I can extend it out so say it's going to
take me the whole afternoon so that's a
way that I can also time block I can
actually just drag and drop onto the
calendar you can also move things around
as time blocks do move during the day
and you can see everything just sinks
seamlessly there let's go ahead and move
it back extend it out when you're done
it will get checked off which is quite
nice and on your Google calendar it will
also show a little check mark so that's
quite nice if you're wondering if you
can move things let's say that I didn't
finish this so let's uncheck it I could
move it to the next day like that if I
move over to the next day now you'll see
that my task to item shows up here
because it's like rescheduling in this
way meaning that it will show up in your
your references area again as you heard
me say before I prefer that things don't
show up in my reference area so I don't
use that method personally if I wanted
to move this event I would either copy
and paste onto the next day or I would
drag it just like this to move it and
that to me works out much better I like
it like that then I would just move it
into whatever header that I need to move
it into again if I was getting into
plugins here there's a way to move to a
specific header but I wanted to just
stick with the simple stuff in not plan
all the buil-in features that's my dayto
day a lot of times instead of inserting
a template I might start with a day if I
have a generic type of day that's kind
of repetitive for the week A lot of
times I'm working on the same type of
things for an entire week it might take
me so I would just select all copy and
then I would option click the next day I
always do the side by side planning like
this sometimes I have multiple days you
can have as many as you want as many as
your screen will hold right you can
close them out just like that command V
and then start with that so say I didn't
finish my task 2 delete it here but it's
still here you know just like that I
find quite easy I do a lot of copying
and pasting I do a lot of manual stuff
the reason that I actually like doing it
so manually like I do it is because it
forces me to be intentional and think
like do I have enough time tomorrow to
finish it it doesn't just automatically
schedule it for me tomorrow when
tomorrow might already be a full day or
I might already have a ton of stuff on
my calendar ton of meetings on my
calendar so don't want to give myself as
many tasks so I really like that manual
process of copying and pasting from
day-to- day personally every day I make
sure that I get my green check mark I do
not like this red leaving anything
opened that's not done yet at the end of
the day I either move things over or
check them off that's how I am
but there are great filters that are
built in here that you can see any items
that are overdue you just click on your
overdue filter and it will show you
everything that hasn't been done you can
create your own type of filters like I
have a this week filter that just shows
me this week what needs to be done I
have a today filter that I can choose to
just have certain projects in you can
create any type of filters that you want
and you can choose the Search terms for
it but this is really just how I use the
daily note not then your weekly notes
that's a planning area for your entire
week so that would be like for my week
four here it would allow me to plan
anything for the week so if I have
something like need to do one need to do
two let's go ahead and option click on
January 22nd if I then show my week
section then you'll see my weekly notes
show up here you only see one level in
advance so if I click on my monthly note
for example you'll see that I do not see
my monthly to do in my daily note but if
I instead click on my weekly note and
then I open up this January area that's
where you're going to see the next level
of things so when you're in the weekly
you'll have a reference to the monthly
when you're in your monthly you'll have
a reference to your yearly there's also
a quarterly I have it turned off in my
preferences so I'll never see that
personally so that's really nice I
definitely do yearly planning monthly
planning sometimes do weekly planning it
depends on what the week looks like all
right hopefully I've kept this pretty
simple that was my goal to show you some
of the updates in note plan and just how
I'm doing a simple day which really
consists of opening multiple notes side
by side and copying and pasting and
moving things around as I need to and
then time blocking on the calendar also
obviously syncing with my calendar and
with my reminders also which I use and
um yeah I love that workflow so this has
continued to work for me for years now I
hope you found this helpful if you have
any questions please do leave them
that'll be it for now bye
5.0 / 5 (0 votes)