I’m still thinking about ownership and simplicity so here are some tips on Emacs from others, some talk about the importance of physical ownership, and a thought from an upcoming short book on choosing a note tool.

Owning tasks in Emacs

I’ve been using Emacs with Org mode for a few weeks now and enjoying it. The biggest issue I’ve found is that the beorg mobile client is okay, but it’s not Emacs. I much prefer simply using Emacs, which means I often take a note in my pocket notebook and then process it later at my computer. This has the added benefit of reducing phone usage because I don’t slip from my task manager to the siren song of random surfing the web for stuff I don’t really need and don’t care about.

While I think beorg is only okay, Ellane uses it along with EasyOrg to handle her plain text tasks. As always, take what anyone says and keep the parts that work for you. Skip the stuff that doesn’t. Just because someone else was very productive with their system, doesn’t mean it will work for you.

Skoove also wrote about Emacs this week, but got even nerdier as she wrote about how she sets up her configuration using NixOS. I’ve dabbled in Nix for a while, using their nix-shell for a few years now to manage environments without polluting my whole system and home manager to handle installation and configuration of my machine. Ultimately, Skoove recommends a bunch of Emacs tools that make usage easier, plus some things she doesn’t like about it. This post does tend towards the nerdy.

Finally on the Emacs front, Beardy Guy wrote about his Emacs usage. I’ve enjoyed many of his posts for a few years now, but his recent move away from Apple into Linux and owning his tech stack has been great for giving me more ideas about how to take ownership over my own digital tools.

Yeah but you don’t own it dude

Two years ago I wrote about the importance of owning books and the video above looks at the same idea…do you really own anything or are just prove that you still have money in your bank account? Are you getting new features that are meaningful to you for that consistent cash outlay?

Don’t Optimise for Complexity

Your note tool needs to be able to handle the different types of extra material that comes along with your tasks, like PDFs. For most people simple text based notes will do, but having something like Apple Notes or OneNote that can hold PDFs or images can also be a good idea.

You also need to be sure that you can find the information when you need it. While some tools have great search I find it much better to be able to get a link directly to the information you need. Many tools offer this type of functionality, but it’s not required. Using the PARA method to file extra materials can also mean you know exactly where to look for a file without needing to rely on a feature that’s specific to a piece of software or operating system.

Some people will also have some more advanced note needs and will want to look at tools like Roam Research, Obsidian, or Craft. These all offer the ability to link different notes together. Unless you’re doing some type of research, taking notes on books, planning to produce content, then these tools may be overkill. It’s far too easy to look at some complex tool and fall into the cult of hard mode, equating increased complexity with increased usefulness.

In my house I use Obsidian for my notes, Doom Emacs and [Org mode](https://Org mode.org/) for my tasks. Then when a kid is sick my wife and I have a shared note for each child where either of us can update what time medication was given and note and temperature readings that may be needed later.