Ok basically what the title ask. There are so many note taking apps available and also the good old notepad, but, how do you take notes? What do you actually take-keep notes on? Is it like complicated things or simple ones?
All time times that I started using an app or a pen and paper intended up just using a simple reminder for things. Others I just remember.
Am I weird for just using a pen and paper? I recently upgraded my setup by buying a binder and ~1000 pages so I won't have to burn through notebooks or money.
One thing that I know for sure is weird is that I use a fountain pen for it all...
I use a 20+ year old PDA for notes and other general productivity/organization needs. Distraction free, keeps me off my phone, and a fun conversation piece. Handy for staying on top of my ADHD.
Notesnook at the moment. Excited that they're started supporting self-hosting. It seems immature but working well for people. I'll get round to hosting my own sync server when I have the time and maybe once self-hosting is more mature.
Obsidian sync'd with my desktop PC, usually. Though also experimenting with doing the same with Orgro. Both on my phone. If I happen to be in front of my PC, just org-mode in emacs.
Notesnook
FOSS and free tier is sufficient for me. I'll subscribe if I can't find a donate option.
Moved away from Joplin because it wasn't a good fit for me. The Notesnook devs seem to fit my communication style better and the Notesnook app is beautiful and the fancy features don't get in the way too much for me. Exports also make sense.
I use obsidian for just text stuff I need to remember later. If I need to do math or need a diagram temporarily I prefer pencil and paper. If I want to save diagrams for later I have a drawing tablet that I use like a whiteboard so that I can save and use layers. If you don't have a drawing tablet Autodesk sketchbook is a decent substitute that can be used on your phone.
If by transclusion you mean hyperlinks & copypasta, then yes. I’m looking at using Zotero as well. I still haven’t really gotten the hang of Emacs, never mind org-mode or org-roam. It’s a lot. Too bad I didn’t pick up Emacs decades ago instead of vi.
Complex stuff (talks, projects, brainstorming, etc): The notes get taken on paper. Some things stay there, because the act of writing them down is enough. Some things then move to my "second brain;" for personal stuff, that's currently on Notion (I'm contemplating migrating it to Obsidian or something similar). For work stuff, that's a Slack thread, or (if it's really important) Confluence.
Todos go into Google Tasks. I used to use Todoist, but I got frustrated by how inflexible the notification system was.
Shopping lists (and a few other similar lists that need to be shared) go into Google Keep.
I use notally for things I read on my tablet or phone, it loads quick on older devices which is the main goal. Otherwise I just get out a document for more important notes.
For digital notes I’m a big fan of plaintext in the basic notes app. Anything more and I get distracted trying to beautify it and my actual notes suffer for it :(
I used to keep a text file in each project, with todo items at the top and a 'done' section at the bottom. File gets too big, start a new file.
Now I use a note taking program that stores markdown notes with links in between them. Kind of the same idea, mostly, some notes are to-do items and others are lists. I have about 10000 notes in there.
I have an entire Second Brain on OneNote organized into sections pertaining to many things. There is no tagging system. I have recently gotten into Obsidian. It is fully free and there are ways to get around the subscription to sync feature. It has tagging, uses primally markdown which I am now learning more of and so many free plugins like kanban style boards and spreadsheets. I had previously used links in OneNote to link to Google Sheets but now I will move some important info to Obsidian. Where you can link within and externally plus so many more features, and for all platforms.
Currently, Noto (a FLOSS app, available at F-droid). I tried other note-taking apps, such as Joplin and Notesnook, but so far Noto has been better for my writing purposes.
An event or something I need to do on a specific time? Calendar app.
Something I need to do when I have time? The Simple Notes app has a handy widget which I havenon the phone homescreen to have it on my sight constantly to remember I have stuff that needs doing.