Miscellaneous

My digital note-taking journey

Created: 06/02/2025

Evernote, Notion, Obsidian, Anytype

It has been quite a journey…

It all started about eight years ago when I saw the benefit of digital note-taking. I felt an electric vibe on me as if I was upgrading myself with superpowers. Evernote it was, the popular one at that time. Clean interface, easy to use. I just needed to take some text notes and have them organized in a simple way. Evernote was more than enough for that.

Then it came Notion, this new dynamic multi-tool toy that was getting popular at that time. Now, I could spend hours designing a productivity system instead of actually studying! I don't regret it though. It allowed me to test what was possible with Notion.

At that time I was following the advice of Tiago Forte - using the note-taking app that was compatible with my style of note-taking. But this is difficult to define. So, I decided instead to choose the note-taking app(s) that allowed me to satisfy my needs because needs are much more objective.

I had two clear needs:

And Notion was not serving neither of those needs. Even though it is very practical and easy to create a dashboard to organize my life, it is cloud-based. Because of that, it's not as snappier as it could be and their servers store my VERY sensitive information. Somebody could do me much harm if they got their hands on my notes.

As I got more conscious about my digital privacy and the threats around it, I decided to move from Windows to a Linux-based operating system, which means I had to find a Linux-based note-taking app. Anytype seems the obvious candidate but I didn't know about it at the time (it was still in the alpha phase in 2022).

Instead, a shiny mineral caught my attention. It was Obsidian. It was getting popular in the digital note-taking community because it allowed for a different sort of note-taking based on a very simple idea - it doesn't matter in which folder each note is, every note can be connected with each other. Differently from most other apps, the structure of the set of notes is flexible.

This solves the conundrum I had - I wanted to take notes of content I've been reading and watching, but then what? The notes stay there, never to be touched again. But what if all the notes had some sort of relationship. A note about knowledge management relates in a way with the note about note-taking, which relates with the note about writing. If I wanted to take a note about the Zettelksaten method, now there is some context to consider. I would be led to recall what I've written about knowledge management, note-taking and writing, so I could place this interesting note-taking method contextually. A bit like how our mind works. You're reading about my journey in note-taking, perhaps you became interested in an app you didn't know about or you remembered a time you've went through the same. These ideas connect to you in an unique way. That's the connection I want to take note of, not just the other's perspective. That way each note is harmoniously placed with the other notes, so that its space ends up representing, in a way, my thinking. Also, it makes recalling ideas much easier because the ideas are connected.

However, that wasn't what made me switch to Obsidian. The first appeal was that the notes are basically plain text files in a local folder. That would give me the peace of mind I needed to write my very personal notes as well the space to write my learning notes. With a canvas and plugins, I was hopeful that I would be able to make the transition. But I wasn't able to. For personal management, I needed more stability and a more practical way to place content.

That's when I found out about Anytype. It feels a bit like a mix of Notion and Obsidian, while not being as stable as each of those (at the present time, it is still at beta phase). It could have been an opportunity to move everything to this app but I was already settled in Obsidian for my learning notes. Also, I needed a practical way to publish my notes to the web and Obsidian offers that, while Anytype at the present moment doesn't have that feature (although it is on the roadmap).

Anytype felt like a bit of a downgrade compared with Notion, in terms of Notion-like features and in terms of the design and user experience, even though it offers other unique features. But if I wanted privacy and a good level of organization, this was the tool. It is open-source and local first, not local only. It allows you to sync P2P on the same network and offers 1 GB of free storage which allows you to sync devices across networks, which is a bonus for me.

It took some time for me to understand some essential components like types, sets and collections, but after that, I got very used to it and finally settled in with my note-taking apps.

So, this is my current setup:

Also, shoutout to Logseq. I tried a couple of times since it seemed like a possible alternative to Obsidian. It is open-source (unlike Obsidian) and it allows you not only to connect notes, but also to connect blocks. However, it doesn't feel as clean as Obsidian (which is important because I intend to publish my notes) and there's not as much community support as in Obsidian. There are so many more amazing plugins in Obsidian that can allow you to adapt Obsidian to your note-taking style and needs.

To conclude, a reminder for my future self: "Find the tools for your needs, not the needs for your tools."