Amplenote is the Superior Capture App

We are Living Machines

As “living machines” who take inputs, process them, and communicate outputs, Amplenote is proven to be an ideal place to capture inputs and process them to completion. ✔

Using the #daily-jots as our day-to-day companion, we can trust that it’ll hold onto anything we give it. Usually, we can even organize it, right on the spot!

• Use an “inline tag” in a header to seamlessly log your stuff. For example, writing # <span title='There is no note that matches this link.' class='invalid-link'> <span class='invalid-link-brackets'>[[</span> Journal <span class='invalid-link-brackets'>]]</span></span> above a journal entry will include the note in the Backlinks of that “Journal” note, conveniently with the date it was written! (Add a --- line break to separate contents)

Amplenote is perfect for any kind of logging. Brainstorms, journaling, work logs; it’s really easy to use. Stack them all in the same jot!

Whole notes are tagged with “ADE”, which stands for Atlas, Daily-Jots, and Efforts. Atlas is the hub, helping us navigate the system. This holds all of our maps and logs like the “Journal” note. More on this later…

Efforts is where we plan things and coordinate our efforts! Projects are more specific, like SMART goals while “Efforts” includes our motives, ambitions and intentions. There is one sub-tag in here, #effort/statusand just 4 notes in there: “Active, Ongoing, Idle, Off”.

Organizing efforts in tiers can help ease the guilt of having a lot to do at once. Keeping only the current, active projects and tasks in Active directs our attention toward these efforts while anything that still needs to happen, just not right now can stay in Idle. Anything we’re not doing can be Off and all of the recurring events are Ongoing.

Amplenote’s Task Mode let’s us simply click and drag tasks between these notes so we can easily organize our efforts as our priorities change.

• Just select the #effort/status tag and it’ll reduce the results to just those 4 notes.

If an effort involves more than one task to coordinate, then make a new note and <span title='There is no note that matches this link.' class='invalid-link'> <span class='invalid-link-brackets'>[[</span> backlink <span class='invalid-link-brackets'>]]</span></span> it in the main task. Tag it with #effort too. For example, [ ] <span title='There is no note that matches this link.' class='invalid-link'> <span class='invalid-link-brackets'>[[</span> Remodeling the home office <span class='invalid-link-brackets'>]]</span></span> takes many detailed steps, so keeping sub-tasks in that note keeps our Tasks View nice and clean.

Speaking of backlinks, that’s how we can organize our efforts even further. Adding an “inline tag” as a <span title='There is no note that matches this link.' class='invalid-link'> <span class='invalid-link-brackets'>[[</span> backlink <span class='invalid-link-brackets'>]]</span></span> will give us the chance to filter tasks by those tags!

For example, I may have a few different Ongoing efforts. I can tag them like this,

[ ] water the garden <span title='There is no note that matches this link.' class='invalid-link'>  <span class='invalid-link-brackets'>[[</span>  @home  <span class='invalid-link-brackets'>]]</span></span>
[ ] clear inbox <span title='There is no note that matches this link.' class='invalid-link'>  <span class='invalid-link-brackets'>[[</span>  @work  <span class='invalid-link-brackets'>]]</span></span> 
[ ] clean windows and curtains <span title='There is no note that matches this link.' class='invalid-link'>  <span class='invalid-link-brackets'>[[</span>  @home  <span class='invalid-link-brackets'>]]</span></span>

And then Filter Tasks by Note Reference to what I’m looking for in a moment. It’s really easy to Shortcut these results by clicking the Star at the top too.

The Calendar Mode is configured under the Account Settings and then Task Calendar. We can add our “Active” and “Ongoing” notes in one of the calendars and see only what’s important and recurring on the schedule.

Now, we’re all set up to Capture and Get Things Done! Let’s make it easy to navigate.

This all depends on what kind of info you’ll be capturing, but the way to do it is mostly the same: making Maps.

After writing a set of notes, we can make a “Map of Content” to connect everything together with <span title='There is no note that matches this link.' class='invalid-link'> <span class='invalid-link-brackets'>[[</span> backlinks <span class='invalid-link-brackets'>]]</span></span>. (This is steering toward Personal Knowledge Management, which I think is for anyone but not for everyone.)

For now, it’s always great to have a place to call “Home”. Add <span title='There is no note that matches this link.' class='invalid-link'> <span class='invalid-link-brackets'>[[</span> backlinks <span class='invalid-link-brackets'>]]</span></span> of the effort status notes, domains like @work, and any log tags to a “Home Dashboard” to start and make it easy to reference. Then, Add Note to Shortcuts from that Note Settings and then, in the sidebar, click the star next to it to set it as the default. Now, it’ll open first thing every time Amplenote is opened! Great for staying centered with your ambitions, intentions, motives, and goals, which I highly recommend writing down and linking to Home too.

I do think everyone could benefit from Capturing and Coordinating things in their lives, and Amplenote is easily the perfect tool for this. It’s also incredibly powerful and can seem overwhelming with potential, so following these guidelines can help get started with this wonderful Integrated Thinking Environment!