When I capture something, it generally is in one the following camps:

  • ideas
  • tasks
  • notes
  • memories
  • pictures

Each of these things need to go to a place with similar things for future recall… but first, what is each thing?

  • Ideas - something that is not fully thought through… may be a task, a project, a note, anything
  • Tasks - a to-do of sorts, something that needs to be done
  • Notes - a reference or how-to for my later self
  • Memories - milestones in my life and of the people/landscape around me
  • Pictures - day-to-day photos, could be associated with any of the above

Typically, the initial thing if it’s text will be captured to Drafts and if it’s a picture, will be stored in Photos. From there, it’ll get sent to where it belongs.

The remaining things normally go to one of the following places:

  • Tasks - OmniFocus
  • Notes - plain text files stored in Dropbox
  • Memories - Day One

Here is where things get a bit messy. All pictures taken end up in Photos as they’re all stored to the Camera Roll. However, some photos are for a task, some are pieces of reference information, some are sparks of an idea, and some are milestones.

How do the streams cross?

Within 1Writer, I recently learned, you can import photos and then reference them in the text bundle format (markdown reference to images).

Day One can reliably import photos and you can write about them in the journal entry.

I’ve been using this system (with the exception of text bundle) for quite a few years and am pretty happy with it. The one thing I’d like to do is be able to insert photos into my notes/ideas, e.g. Bear… but without the overhead of Bear. Bear feels a bit too pretty and it doesn’t have some of the customizations I look for.