## Because a document that lives in its own link is a first, and rough planning needs a distraction-free space ### Productivity inspiration Tiny Little Office is a free online office suite. Nothing is saved unless you choose to save it. The documents you create are easy to share, and the link to each document _is the document itself_. Yeah, I find that hard to wrap my head around, too! From their GitHub page: * A letter, a spreadsheet, a presentation or a calendar is held in the address of its page * Copy the link and you have copied the document * Whoever has the link has the document. * There is no account. I’m pleased to see you can download the documents in various formats, including plain text, Markdown, PDF, and even iCalendar (ICS). It’s super cute and has been fun to play with. I appreciate the concept. It would be good for the quick sharing of documents and ideas without accounts or downloads. Absolutely not meant for collaboration, and only designed for small and simple things. Let me know if you find a practical use for it in your own digital world. ### Adventures in plain text, and a little paper This week I’ve been thinking about planning. The initial ideas you write down when looking at the week ahead, or when a project comes to mind and you want to brain dump it before setting structures and deadlines in place. Question: Where is the best place for rough planning? Paper, or digital? Some people, like Carl Pullein, whose courses I am going through at the moment, strongly recommend using a physical notebook. Other people in the productivity sphere use their notes app of choice, or a simple text file. I’ve had paper phases and plain text phases for planning, and continue to enjoy cycling between them. The argument for paper cites the (unavoidable, they say) distraction potential of digital devices. Those in favour of devices talk of convenience, efficiency, and Airplane Mode. This kind of “which is best?” question appears to be solely applicable to those who have the visual and motor capabilities to choose between the two. But as I’ve written previously, it’s possible to approximate the benefits of analog on digital devices when dealing with accessibility issues. The answer is therefore to make your initial plans using whatever media you can comfortably use, that best gives you a distraction and interruption-free space to get all your thoughts down. Use your intuition, along with what you have observed about yourself and your propensity for distraction around particular tools and environments. I’ll be using paper for rough plans and text files to make sense of them. This is what I’m contemplating as the new year approaches: * Are plain text files sufficient for all kinds of planning, including brain dump style initial thoughts? * 1-P, separate notebook, or keep everything in one universal book with all my other notes? * Is an A4 page necessary, or is A6 spread (A5 equivalent) big enough for rough planning without feeling restrictive? * * * **_This post was written on a computer, not by one. Read about how I do (and don’t) use AI_**. *💬 I love to hear from readers! email hello at ellanew dot com, or message me on Mastodon. Follow my RSS feed https://ellanew.com/feed.rss, or sign up to receive a (mostly) weekly plain text themed email.* Follow my 2026 Inktober posts _If you’ve found value here, I invite you to share this post with someone you think will appreciate it or make a contribution to my support jar._ You might also like my plain text productivity resources.

## Also, image reduction, online graffiti, and a Blot.im update ## Productivity inspiration ### Paper notebook mods I drew a ruler in the front of my A6 notebook after seeing this video from Lilla Björn Stationery. It’s quick to draw up months the way Lilla shows, which is also Ryder Carroll’s method, but I strongly prefer standard calendar-style boxes on the page. Watch this space for piccies of next year’s notebook once it’s drawn up. Lilla also made a pocket for the back of her little notebook. If you decide to add an elastic closure band, I recommend modifying Lilla’s instructions. Don’t cut the band once you’ve poked in through the back cover; thread a paper clip through it instead. This will lie a lot flatter than the knot she shows in the video. ### Image reduction, and online graffiti Here’s a no-cost online image size reducer from Utilvance. It handles JPG, PNG, and WebP. Privacy looks good, and you can specify the target file size. Brett Terpstra’s public graffiti wall is a fun way to leave your mark. It’s terminal-friendly, but you don’t need to know anything about the command line interface to write on the wall. ## Adventures in plain text ### Markdown calendar I’m loving my plain text outline calendar. Like, really loving it! It gets out the way and is a nice blend of simplicity and functionality. Past experience tells me this kind of enthusiasm can’t be expected to last more than 3 months, but I suspect the simplicity of a simple outline (shown in last week’s post will be my friend for a long time yet. This week I removed all the blank lines from my calendar file to simplify the quick, keyboard shortcut-activated moving of events up and down the file. While I love the look of neatly placed blank lines in a Markdown document, I don’t love having to re-sort them into place when things inevitably get moved around. I’ve learned a lot about fully manual, plain text calendars since the first experiment over a year ago. Plans are in the works to write up all this geekish wisdom into a more easily digestible form. ### Blot.im now supports embedded text For those of you who don’t know, my personal website is simply a collection of text files inside an Obsidian vault. Everything in the _Posts_ folder is automatically published. While I would one day like to learn how to code my own static site, for now I’m very happy with Blot.im. Good news: Blot now recognises embedded text! `![[document.md]]` and `![[image.jpg]]` render online the same way they do in Obsidian preview mode. * * * **_This post was written on a computer, not by one. Read about how I do (and don’t) use AI_**. *💬 I love to hear from readers! email hello at ellanew dot com, or message me on Mastodon. Follow my RSS feed https://ellanew.com/feed.rss, or sign up to receive a (mostly) weekly plain text themed email.* Follow my 2026 Inktober posts _If you’ve found value here, I invite you to share this post with someone you think will appreciate it or make a contribution to my support jar._ You might also like my plain text productivity resources.

## Because water won’t wash away pencil, and top down chronological order feels right _Read this story on Medium_ ### Productivity inspiration Michael Stevens has stopped writing his analog notes with a fountain pen, in favour of pencil. Because pencil on paper won’t bleed away into oblivion should the pages get soaked, as his did. Even if the pencil gets smudged, you usually have an impression of the letters on the fibres of the paper that can still be read. Unless you’re using a waterproof ink, you might want to consider Michael’s new approach for the analog notes you’d hate to lose. I have a couple of completed 5-year diaries written in water-soluble fountain pen ink and am seriously considering writing in pencil for the next one; not least because the Stálogy books bought for the purpose are nowhere near as fountain pen friendly as I’d hoped. If the other inky books are one day destroyed, I wouldn’t be too upset. ### Adventures in plain text, and a little paper After my daily note shakeup in Obsidian two weeks ago, I’ve gone back to appending my one note capture file, or 1-N. This file is my scratchpad for the year. I’ve switched from appending to prepending before; both make sense depending on how you look at things. Now that I carry an A6 notebook everywhere and use it as an additional capture point, I want my 1-N to mirror that structure. It’s loosely based on Bullet Journaling in that there is an index, a future log, monthly pages, spreads for collections of information, and daily notes appearing as notes on the next available page. I use letter codes to classify entries rather than bullets, loosely following Vlad Campos’ approach. To make the switch from prepending to appending the text file this late in the year, I archived a copy as a backup _before_ asking Claude to re-order each prepended entry in the reverse order.1 As of this moment I’m up to line 7466 in that document, with well over 58 thousand words. The document itself is only 338 KB — super tiny! That kind of efficiency is one of the many reasons I love plain text files. At the top of my 1-N is a list of the tags I use to classify entries. These are things that have naturally surfaced as repeating themes. For example: people, things, money, blog, travel, church, quotes, spiritual thoughts, French, recipes. Hashtags for things, @ tags for specific people. The most important feature of both the text file and my notebook is that, other than the initial information at the start, notes are written in chronological order. This lets my mind focus on what I’m thinking about, not on where to put it. Final word: appending in both digital and analog spaces matches the way my brain thinks about time. There’s a sense of weight in what has gone before sitting “on top” of the next entry, and it’s the closest to traditional Bullet Journal-style note making I’m likely to get. * * * **_This post was written on a computer, not by one._** *💬 I love to hear from readers! email hello at ellanew dot com, or message me on Mastodon. Follow my RSS feed https://ellanew.com/feed.rss, or sign up to receive a (mostly) weekly plain text themed email.* Follow my 2026 Inktober posts _If you’ve found value here, I invite you to share this post with someone you think will appreciate it or make a contribution to my support jar._ You might also like my plain text productivity resources. * * * 1. See: How I do - and don’t - use AI↩︎

## How another go at keeping a plain text calendar is helping me clarify what goes where Making and using calendars is viscerally satisfying to me. I love the sense of stability and preparedness I get from seeing dates laid out in neat rows! Along with that comes the irresistible idea of writing notes to my future self. This could mean recording tasks that need to be done on or by on specific dates, but it’s much more that that. In as real a sense as I can muster, my calendar is an attempt to communicate ideas that I believe future me will need to see. The simpler and more hands-on, the better. ### Why, hello again, plain text calendar! That’s why Marjon’s calendar in a Google Sheet has inspired me to return to the world of plain text calendars. Unlike last time, I’m not trying to replace my digital calendar. Just provide a supplementary, intentional, _optional_ layer that brings my plans into sharper focus. My latest plain text calendar is a simple outline of the current year in one document, with events indented underneath each date. Like this: # Quarter 4, 2026 ## October ### week 42 - [ ] 10/12 MON - [ ] 1100 Westpac meeting - [ ] 10/13 TUE - [ ] 1030 Cleaning job - [ ] 1230 Visit Y - 10/14 WED - 10/15 THU - 10/16 FRI - 10/17 SAT - 10/18 SUN I turn the next few days into checkboxes, and use search or an Obsidian plugin (like Simple Checkboxes) to show just those days and events in my side bar. ### Why not just use regular apps? Someone somewhere is scratching their head and asking why I don’t just use a regular task manager designed to surface tasks to an agenda according to the date assigned to it. Or why I don’t use Emacs for both calendar and tasks. The answer is simple: I feel more settled when my tasks live in text files that only need an ordinary search box to work. That means they are completely portable between platforms and devices and do not require software (FOSS or not) to work, or exporting to be in an open format. I’ve proven to myself that it’s possible to bend an app like Obsidian to surface tasks in much the same way as a dedicated task manager, but right now I prefer to remain as app-independent as I can. ### Notifications are a safety net Plain text lists house my tasks, some of which are on project pages. It’s lovely and quiet there, no dates or reminders or push notifications of any kind! Just the way I like it. Hence, anything that simply _must_ grab my attention on a specific date needs to be in my calendar. If it’s super important and terrible things will happen if I forget, I’ll set a repeating reminder to nag me until I turn it off (which I won’t do, until the thing has been done). This kind of push notification is a safety net, not the trapeze itself. Lesson: tasks that need doing on or by a specific date are no longer tasks, but events. And as such, they belong on the calendar. If you feel too busy to copy and paste a task-with-a-deadline from a project page to your calendar, then you are right: you _are_ too busy! It doesn’t take long to do and is a good way to make sure you are on top of what is on your — not too full — plate. I’m not saying everyone should track their tasks and time the way I do, just that the too-busy excuse isn’t a good one. ### On (secret) thoughts and shared calendars When I have a shared digital calendar and there’s something I’d like to remember about an event on it that I don’t want the other collaborators to read, I use my personal calendar to create a parallel event. This puts my secret thoughts where I can see them, while keeping them away from the eyes of the group. Anything super confidential can be put into an encrypted note and linked to from the calendar. ### Remember: tasks and events do not mix Tasks are like steps in a recipe, while events tell you when to get the dish out of the oven. Keeping individual tasks into your calendar is a sure path to overwhelm. Each of my tasks belongs to a category, and yours do, too. I don’t need a database-type field to set my categories; a simple number or tag does very well for this. Johnny Decimal’s Life Admin system helped me define my categories. So while tasks don’t go into your calendar, categories do! You can’t control how long a task will take to do, but you can budget a set amount of time for each category. You’ll then work on the tasks that belong to it for that duration. I first read about doing this from Carl Pullein, but have since seen the idea in other places, too. So on Monday morning I have a _Writing_ event in my calendar. When that time comes, I look at my writing related tasks and start working on the one that is next in line. To summarise: * Use whatever calendar you will look at every day * Only time-related events go into your calendar * Create events for categories of tasks, and work through that category’s list in order * Keep private notes about a shared event in a parallel event on your personal calendar, or in an encrypted note linked from it * A plain text calendar can be an optional focus-promoting layer on top of your usual calendar, rather than a replacement * * * **_This post was written on a computer, not by one._** *💬 I love to hear from readers! email hello at ellanew dot com, or message me on Mastodon. Follow my RSS feed https://ellanew.com/feed.rss, or sign up to receive a (mostly) weekly plain text themed email.* Follow my 2026 Inktober posts _If you’ve found value here, I invite you to share this post with someone you think will appreciate it or make a contribution to my support jar._ You might also like my plain text productivity resources.

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## Simple or not, what works for others might be a distraction for you I’ve been using one big text file (OBTF, or 1-N) as a capture point and scratchpad, for more than two years now. I love it! But this week I considered going back to using separate files for my daily notes. Again. They look so cute, sitting there all in a row! And they’re baked into Obsidian, so what’s the problem? Lots of people have used them for years and swear by them. And change is as good as a holiday, right? So I set up a daily note workflow. Capture from all my devices via Drafts, check. A page in Obsidian that shows all daily notes on one page as if they were one continuous file (ersatz OBTF), check. But half an hour in I stopped. It didn’t matter how sweet or OBTF-like the setup was, something wasn’t feeling right. Shifting to one big text file felt freeing. Many people do well with daily notes; I find them a gateway to distraction and unnecessary complexity. The principle here is to do what feels right to you, no matter how enthusiastic others are about the alternatives. ### Find your simple, hold it close And so I am going to leave daily notes (in separate files) alone. I’ll continue throwing every random thought and note into a single text file, because that’s what feels most natural. I’m not trying to recreate a digital bullet journal, and I’m no longer dividing groups of dated entries with Markdown headers. I have a set of basic tags for common themes, but other than that my text file is like a paper notebook. When I want to find where I wrote that thing last week, I flick back through the pages and look for it. To do the same thing in a text file I scroll, or enter key words into the search bar. Here’s what I’ve learned from my separate daily notes experiment. A practice may make a lot of sense and be widely used by many people, but if it distracts you or makes your life more complicated, you will be better off without it. A practice may appear ‘simple’ and still have the effect of complicating your life. Your system should be no simpler than is needed to get your work done. You can try and dissect the whys and wherefores of the productivity practices that do and do not work for you, but you don’t need to do that before getting on with life. Don’t let an incomplete analysis stop you from getting on with your most important work. * * * **_This post was written on a computer, not by one._** _💬 I love to hear from readers! email hello at ellanew dot com or message me on Mastodon. Follow my RSS feed https://ellanew.com/feed.rss, or sign up to receive a (mostly) weekly plain text themed email._ Follow my 2026 Inktober posts _If you’ve found value here, I invite you to share this post with someone you think will appreciate it or make a contribution to my support jar._ You might also like my plain text productivity resources.

## Knowing what you really value, what you really want, is the foundation on which your success is built It’s springtime here in Australia. The last quarter of the year is about to begin. I’m planning our new handmade family calendar, designing an A6 version for the front of my Hobonichi graph notebook, printing next year’s Teacher Planners, looking after grandchildren, and working on Christmas gifts. And thinking about participating in Inktober again. There’s a lot going on, and I love it! My blog even has a Christmas countdown all year round, at the bottom of the home page. It’s never too early to prepare for the end of the year (but I do wish they wouldn’t go all tinselly in the shops before November). ### Too busy? Check your foundation As lovely as all this is, sometimes things can feel a bit _too_ busy. What do you do when life feels like a water hose aimed full blast at your face, and all you have is a little bucket to catch it in? You stop. _Just for a moment, if a moment is all you can spare, you stop and check in with the foundation you are standing on. Remind yourself why you are doing what you are doing. Re-read your list of core values. Cull tasks that don’t support them._ Does that sound like I know what I’m doing? Don’t be fooled! I’m not that great at keeping everything in balance. I tend to focus on one thing and drop everything else, which usually leaves a lot of pieces to pick up once the crisis is past. But I’m determined to get better at this. After checking in with my values, I write down whatever is pressing upon me in a notebook or a text file. Seeing it as something external to my brain helps me think things through calmly. Having things recorded in a trusted location reassures me that important things won’t get overlooked. ### Courses for organised horses Carl Pullein’s planning courses have caught my eye the past year or so and this week I finally jumped in. Over the next couple of months I’ll be going through his Time and Life Mastery (TLM) Course, followed by Quiet Productivity. Lesson one of TLM is about looking ahead, and seriously considering what you want to achieve in the next 5–10 years. I’ll be writing my answers to 10 specific questions as I travel interstate next week. I won’t share specifics of the curriculum as this is a paid course, but you can brainstorm what you want each area of your life to look like without them. If you’re looking for a free taste of Carl’s approach, COD is the place to start. He has courses on other productivity topics, too, including hybrid digital analog systems, using Apple’s stock apps to organise your life, and how to design the perfect retirement. I got a great early bird price, and he usually has discounts around the end of November, too. No affiliates or referral codes here, I’m just a happy customer. I’ve implemented some of Carl’s ideas before, in my plain text systems. These days I do my initial planning on paper using a variety of approaches, but those faithful, uncomplicated text files still have a major role to play. They’re the best way I know to gather information, and make sense of and organise it so I can find it when needed. Johnny Decimal continues to be the backbone of the static information in my files. I’ll be looking for the principles behind these courses. Things that can be implemented with words on a (device or paper) page, no special apps required. Stay tuned. As you make your way through the remainder of this year, you might like to consider revising your core values / areas of focus, or revisiting Steph Ango’s 40 questions. October — which is nearly upon us — is a great time to start preparing for the end of year wrap-up. And if you have a go at Inktober this year, give me a shout! * * * **_This post was written on a computer, not by one._** _💬 I love to hear from readers! email hello at ellanew dot com or message me on Mastodon. Follow my RSS feed https://ellanew.com/feed.rss, or sign up to receive a (mostly) weekly plain text themed email._ Join us on the DFOS plain text space! It’s a sweet, quiet haven away from the tainted world of algorithmic social media. Just right for sharing and discussing the kinds of nerdy things that fit well with the PTPL philosophy. _If you’ve found value here, I invite you to share this post with someone you think will appreciate it or make a contribution to my support jar._ You might also like my plain text productivity resources.

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## Thoughts on notes, tasks, and life _Photo of the envelope in question. Digital painting done with my index finger on my iPhone in the photos app._ * * * Today a registered letter arrived at my place. It was a conspicuously passport-sized envelope, addressed to my baby grandson. I signed for it, and immediately sent a photo of the envelope with his mother to announce its anticipated arrival. _Hooray_! she exclaimed. _Open it, and show me his dear little face!_ Done. We bathed in the cuteness. Then she said, _It’s his first ever letter, I’ll have to keep the envelope._ Oh. Oh dear. In my haste, I had torn the envelope open to get to what was inside! I pressed it back together as best I could, took a photo of the damage and sent it to the proud Mama with my apologies. Her response? _Perfect!_ A grandma’s eagerness to see her tiny grandbaby had apparently become a “perfect” expression of love, shaped by the moment. Now that’s what I call a good attitude! ### Perfection comes in moments, once your feet are moving So — perfection. What is it? And is it worth pursuing? The 11th Century old French word _parfit_ referred to something that was finished or completed. Something that was ready. The notion of flawlessness, with nothing wanted by way of improvement, emerged later.1 In my mind, the problem with the word, especially when applied to note making, PKM, or task management is that it seems to imply a static state. Something encased in marble, inflexible in its loveliness. Can you see the paradox? Something that is “complete”, will become the very definition of imperfect when applied to a situation that doesn’t fit the original design. The complete becomes incomplete. The right becomes wrong. Perhaps perfection is a path, or a direction, rather than an achievable destination. In this life, at least! That’s a pretty good case for starting rough and refining as you go. Because starting rough is infinitely better than not starting at all. Having an incomplete, imperfect system is something to be proud of. Buffeted by life, it will change shape until it fits you as well as any system can. And tomorrow, when things change (you know they will), you’ll make adjustments and keep going. ### Yeah, but _how_ ?? Stop asking how, and just begin! Write that task, write that idea. The perfect structure doesn’t need to be in place first. Keep notes on what feels good, and what you’d like to see happen that’s currently lacking. Keep your eyes open for the simplest possible solutions to the issues you identify. That’s pretty much it. Perhaps you were hoping for a bit more specific guidance? Maybe another time. The one thing I will strongly suggest here is this: **Keep the raw information you are working with in its own independent sphere**. Fully portable, and readable by any device from any era. Ideally, as plain text files that multiple apps can work on _without changing the core information_. And, of course, back it up. Then back it up again. Oh, and don’t trust anything to an app that has no exit! Export everything you have stored in a closed app (one you cannot access your information without) to a format most apps can read, like `.txt`, `.md`, `.pdf`. Do this daily. Multiple times a day, if you’re writing up a storm. If a specialised app seems a bit complex but it’s been working for you, keep using it! No need to chase someone else’s idea of simplicity. Your intuition is going to serve you much better than anyone else’s self-proclaimed good ideas. Now go have some delightfully imperfect fun! No expectations. Just write down whatever is in your head and shape it the best way you can. Let go of perfectionism, which I define as the unrealistic expectation of flawlessness, and see what happens! Pursue excellence, by all means! But don’t fall prey to the kind of perfectionism that makes you afraid to make mistakes. Try celebrating the tiny moments that feel like perfection even when they are messy. * * * * * * **_This post was written on a computer, not by one._** _💬 I love to hear from readers! email hello at ellanew dot com or message me on Mastodon. Follow my RSS feed https://ellanew.com/feed.rss, or sign up to receive a (mostly) weekly plain text themed email._ Join us on the DFOS plain text space! It’s a sweet, quiet haven away from the tainted world of algorithmic social media. Just right for sharing and discussing the kinds of nerdy things that fit well with the PTPL philosophy. _If you’ve found value here, I invite you to share this post with someone you think will appreciate it or make a contribution to my support jar._ You might also like my plain text productivity resources. * * * 1. https://www.etymonline.com/word/perfect#etymonline_v_12682↩︎

## Setapp is incredible value, but the alternatives are pretty good, too My Setapp subscription ran out last week; I am officially a former Setapp subscriber. After 6 years of happily paying one fee for access to more than 200 apps, it’s time for a break. Not because I’m unhappy with the value (what you get is insanely good for the money), but because right now I need a little less in my life. Less choices, less distraction, less bills. I still heartily recommend Setapp to Mac users who want a cost effective way to try out new apps, or who might need a way (as I did) to short circuit their app addiction. I’ve written before about the Setapp apps that work well with plain text. I’ve also explored preparing to leave Setapp, and researching alternatives to the apps I used most. * 2022-11-18 These Setapp Tools Alone Make the Subscription Worth It * 2023-06-10 6 Setapp Apps That Can Simplify Your Plain Text Life, And Work Alongside an Obsidian Vault * 2023-08-17 How Setapp Saves Me Hundreds of Dollars Every Year * 2026-03-23 PTPL 200 - Setapp saved me from myself, but now it’s time to re-evaluate * 2026-04-06 PTPL 202 - Replacing setapp - 7 down, 2 to go I have to admit this whole replacing-Setapp thing kind of snuck up on me. I had cancelled my subscription several months ago so as not to miss the deadline before another year’s fee was taken from my account, but didn’t seriously start putting alternatives in place until the old ones stopped working. It’s time to live without renting an app catalog! I’ll only be talking in any detail about the Setapp apps I used often. Those that doing without cause friction I’m not willing to live with. Replacements will be free or one-time purchases wherever possible. Prices are in USD and are current as of September 2026. Here’s the full list of apps I had installed before my Setapp subscription expired. Apps in bold are those I’ve bought outright or replaced. The rest are those I wasn’t using at that time. * Antinote * **CleanMyMac** * **Cleanshot** * Downie * **Due** * **Hookmark** * Image2icon * Marked * MindNode Classic * Numi * One Switch * **Paste** * **PDF Squeezer** * PopChar * **Popclip** * SideNotes * **Squash** * Taskpaper * **TextSniper** * **Typeface** ### CleanMyMac _Cost: $9.95/month ($3.33 if paid yearly), $119.95 one-time_ _Replacement: Mole (free)_ CleanMyMac is a beautifully designed disk cleaning app. I don’t understand what it does or if it’s necessary, and I don’t know if it’s necessary to replace all its functions. So yeah, I’m completely ignorant and you should probably disregard everything I say about the technical side of keeping a Mac running well! Anyway, I’ve replaced it with Mole, an open source Terminal app. I confess I’ve only done dry runs with it so far. Wondering if the people who call disk cleaning apps “placebos” are right. ### Cleanshot _Cost: $35.00_ _Replacement: Shottr (free to try, $12 to buy)_ I loved Cleanshot, but Shottr is doing exactly what I need it to. No regrets with moving to a free tool for nice screenshots with a transparent background. ### Due _Cost: $14.99 one-time_ _Replacement: Due on iOS, Reminders (free)_ I bought the iOS Due app years ago, so I don’t need it on my Mac. Generally speaking I’ve found Reminders does very well at nagging if you set a reminder to repeat every hour. Or every 5 minutes, if it’s really important. ### Hookmark _Cost: Free / Standard $29.99 / Pro $69.99_ _Replacement: Free_ Hookmark, a utility that lets you link anything with anything, is the missing link turning Apple devices into what they always should have been. I’ve written about it before. My most common use case for Hookmark is for pasting links to graphics and files directly onto plain text project pages. It’s both cool and convenient to be able to create a Markdown table of resources for a project and fill the fields with deep links to PDFs, Affinity files, and folder locations. There is no alternative to Hookmark that I’m aware of. I’ll be using the free version for now, upgrading to either Standard or Pro when the need arises. There’s an iOS version, too, that I have yet to explore. ### Paste _Cost: $29.99/year, $89.99/lifetime_ _Replacement: Raycast (free)_ Paste is a visual clipboard manager. I’d never taken advantage of all its bells and whistles but I did use the basic functions many times a day. Raycast’s clipboard history has been a good, though greatly simplified, replacement. I’ve mollified the ol’ muscle memory by setting the same hotkey I used with Paste. The free version of Raycast only lets you save 3 months worth though, and there’s none of Paste’s persistent collections. When I’m ready for something more than Raycast (free version) provides I’ll probably go with PastePal ($14.99 for Pro), simply because it is so much cheaper than Paste to buy outright. ### PopClip _Cost: $16.99_ _Replacement: PopClip $16.99_ PopClip performs actions on the text you select. For me this was an instant one-time purchase of a utility that feels like an extension of my mind. I use it so often I forget it’s an add-on. Most used functions: * changing case * pop-up translation (mine is set to French) * thesaurus * character count * open link There are nearly 250 extensions to choose from, neatly divided into categories like Text Editing/Case/Transformation, Language and Translation, Utilities, Notes and Knowledge Management, and more. ### Typeface _Cost: $49.99_ _Replacement: FontBase (free)_ Typeface is a capable font manager that is pleasant to use. The free version of FontBase is a very good replacement, for now. The grid view that I appreciated in the Setapp version of Typeface is a paid feature of FontBase. I miss it, but not enough to pay for it! So far FontBase is doing what I need it to. Typeface has some nice additional design features, like font pairing and body text previews. I appreciated their existence but rarely used them. If I were to buy the full version of either of these apps, there’s no question that my money would go to Typeface. ### Squash _Cost: $70/year_ _Replacement: Squoosh (free)_ Squash does a good job but has a hefty price tag for a compression app. I’m replacing it with the open source Squoosh. ImageOptim is on my radar as well, because you can point it at a folder (like the image folder for my Blot.im hosted blog) and have it automatically optimise image sizes. ## Adding up the cost Total replacement cost: less than $30. I’ll give it a few months and report back how it’s going, and if I’m noticing any friction. I’ll be especially interested to learn how my app-switching appetite handles this. In the past I’ve found Setapp quieted my app-shopping compulsion; hopefully that won’t reignite now that I no longer have a nice fat sack of apps to choose from. ### Will I go back to Setapp? Yes, I will probably return to Setapp. One day. When the brain has cleared and my explorer instinct reignites. Right now I’m putting the money I would have spent on that subscription into other areas of life, including using some of it to buy apps outright. I recommend buying apps directly from the developers wherever possible rather than the App Store (which takes a 30% commission). If Setapp sounds like a good fit for where you are at and you’d like to try it for a full 30 days rather than the standard 7, you can see if my referral link (use the code ELLANE) is still working. I wouldn’t say no to a commission that comes at no extra cost to you. Otherwise seek out someone else’s referral and join via that. Final word: Setapp is amazingly good value for the money. If you can afford it (and you’re not going to fall apart if you ever had to leave), I wholeheartedly recommend it. * * * **_This post was written on a computer, not by one._** _💬 I love to hear from readers! email hello at ellanew dot com or message me on Mastodon. Follow my RSS feed https://ellanew.com/feed.rss, or sign up to receive a (mostly) weekly plain text themed email._ Join us on the DFOS plain text space! It’s a sweet, quiet haven away from the tainted world of algorithmic social media. Just right for sharing and discussing the kinds of nerdy things that fit well with the PTPL philosophy. _If you’ve found value here, I invite you to share this post with someone you think will appreciate it or make a contribution to my support jar._ You might also like my plain text productivity resources.

## How two iPhone apps help me harness the difference You are here, your deadline is there. It’s time to cross the space between those two points. How do you visualise that intervening time — as counting down, or counting up? As something that is running out, or something that is being filled? I’d never considered these two ways of viewing time as being significant, but to my grandchildren (and to me) they absolutely are. Here’s how I know. ## The goal: getting to the car on time As the adult in charge I had forty five minutes to help two 9 year-olds and one 6 year-old tidy their rooms, pack their bags, get shoes on, and be in the car by a set time. As independently as possible. Nothing about those tasks was difficult, but the children were in the middle of a game and needed a way to grasp how much time they were dealing with. Without me micro-managing the situation! Yes, they can tell the time. But we needed a _timer_ , not just a clock. And preferably one that showed the passing of time in a visual way. I have two such apps on my phone, each taking a different approach. ### App 1: Time Timer (time is running out) The first is Time Timer, or the “pizza”, as one little boy calls it. It’s a red circle that gradually disappears in the same way a pizza disappears when slices are taken from it. When time is up, no pizza remains. I also have a physical version of this timer stuck magnetically to my oven. It gives at a glance, from anywhere in the room, a pretty good idea of how much cooking time is left. I’ve chosen an applause alarm over the standard beep-beep-beep. This was the aid I thought we needed to get my grandchildren in the car on time, so imagine my surprise when things fell apart! I quickly learned that for these particular children, at this particular time, seeing something run out was stressful. Instant shut down. ### App 3: Liquid Timer (time is filling up) So we tried the other app: Liquid Timer. It begins with a white screen, with what looks like water lapping at the bottom. As time passes, the water slowly fills up the screen until no white remains. The name of the app seems to have changed since I downloaded it a few years ago. Here’s an online version, just for fun. —Success! The children kept playing their game, looking up every now and then to see what the water was doing. When it was about half full they excitedly ran to do their chores, making many trips back to the kitchen to see where the water was up to. I loved that they felt in control of the situation. And I’ve learned that what works for kids, sometimes works for adults too. ## Counting up for low-pressure tasks The other evening I went to clean out the fridge, and decided to help me focus on the task by setting a timer. Liquid Timer (counting up) suited that job perfectly. No pressure, just a fun way to keep on track. I especially like how this timer keeps counting after the screen has filled with water. It’s great feedback for low-pressure tasks. Time Timer still has its place. I reserve it for situations where time running out means something significant, but only when I feel up to that kind of pressure. Because pressure is what you feel as the pizza slowly disappears, slice by slice! And sometimes that is exactly the kick up the butt some of us need. But it didn’t work in the aforementioned case with my grandchildren. Perhaps it will work next time, when the mood has shifted and they are seeing things differently. ## You can’t manage time, just the way you look at it Abundance (time is filling up), or scarcity (time is running out)? Steven Covey’s influence caused me to internalise the notion that the former is good and the latter is bad. But I say that when it comes to the way you see and use time, there’s room for both. It’s not about whether you are a counting-down or counting-up kind of person. Each approach is a tool you can use to serve your current mindset. * * * **_This post was written on a computer, not by one._** _💬 I love to hear from readers! email hello at ellanew dot com or message me on Mastodon. Follow my RSS feed https://ellanew.com/feed.rss, or sign up to receive a (mostly) weekly plain text themed email._ Join us on the DFOS plain text space! It’s a sweet, quiet haven away from the tainted world of algorithmic social media. Just right for sharing and discussing the kinds of nerdy things that fit well with the PTPL philosophy. _If you’ve found value here, I invite you to share this post with someone you think will appreciate it or make a contribution to my support jar._ You might also like my plain text productivity resources.

## You really, really don’t need a new app for this I’ve been tracking tasks in a Forster list for over a month now. This list lives in an A6 squared notebook that goes with me (almost) everywhere. It’s been a wonderful experience, giving me a great balance between structure and freedom during what’s been a rather difficult year. But life continues and there are things to be done. Regular readers might wonder what’s happened to my enthusiasm for todo.txt. It’s still a great system, make no mistake! But right now I need a way to capture tasks without having to make any decisions about how important they are, or when I want to do or review them. I need a system that works with how _ready_ I feel to do each task. Forster lists are that system. If you don’t know what a Forster list is, I’ve summarised the concept below from the original, analog perspective. After reading that I hope you will make yourself familiar with the full method, and the thinking behind it. Ask questions, get answers. Note: I’m aware of Mark Forster’s FVP, but generally find myself following the FV guidelines. _The author’s current Forster list in a Hobonichi A6 notebook_ * * * ## What’s a Forster list, and why would I want a digital version? Let’s start with the basics. A Forster list is one big todo list, to which a series of rules is applied. ### How to create an analog Forster list Begin by writing the first task you think of on the first line of the page. Do not attempt to separate tasks into categories. Add new tasks on the next available line, as they occur to you. Then — 1. Place a dot next to the first task. 2. Look at each subsequent task, stopping when you come to one you want to do more than the first task. Place a dot next to it. 3. Continue down the list in the same manner. 4. When there are no more tasks you want to do more than the last one you marked, you have today’s todo list. Start with the bottom-most dotted task and work your way up to the top. 5. Cross off each task after attempting it, completed or not. Add incomplete tasks to the bottom of the list. ### It’s working great, so of course my brain wants to change it! As is often the case when something seems to be working perfectly, I find myself looking for other ways to do it. It’s a habit (or a compulsion, not sure which) that has dealt me both frustration and joy over the years! I’m not aware of any existing purpose-built ways to run FV or FVP on digital devices, other than this online demo. _Just vibe code an app for it_ , suggested an article I read yesterday. _Get familiar with your AI of choice and create something to make things better, smoother, more efficient_. Why, thank you for pointing out the sceptre of power that is now within my grasp! But there’s no need to swat this particular mosquito with a jackhammer. I mean, why use (or create) a dedicated app when a simple text file can do the job, and do it well? ## Digital Forster lists Now of course there are compelling reasons for wanting a way to manage your tasks on a digital device. Notebooks can be lost or forgotten, devices are always with us _and backed up_ (in at least two different locations, right? Right?!). Devices let you capture tasks via voice, or use apps like Drafts to send them to exactly the right place. ### How to create a Forster list in a text file You will start your digital Forster list in the same manner as the analog version, by writing the first task on the first line of the page. Do not attempt to separate tasks into categories. Add new tasks to the end of the list. Then — 1. Mark the first task in a way that makes sense to you. 2. Look at each subsequent task, stopping when you come to a task you want to do more than the first one. Mark it in the same way as you did the first. 3. Continue down the list in the same manner. 4. When there are no more tasks you want to do more than the last one you marked, you have today’s todo list. Start with the bottom-most marked task and work your way back to the top. 5. Cross off (`- [x]`) any task you worked on, whether or not it was completed. Re-write incomplete tasks at the bottom of the list. ### Tips and tricks I’ve started adding bits and pieces to my analog Forster list to give context and make it easier to scan. The same things can be done with a digital list, albeit slightly differently. The following tips refer to digital Forster lists, and are presented as ideas rather than firm recommendations. Cherry-pick the ones that make sense to you. * Add the current date via a hotkey to each task, or add the current date (or month) as a divider between list items. * Add a category tag to tasks. I use numbers to represent productivity, people, things, money, work/online, travel, church. * All tasks begin as bullet points (`- Task`), marked tasks have square brackets added to turn them into checkboxes (`- [ ] Task`) * Use a hotkey to mark a task as active, or return it to an inactive (unmarked) state. In Obsidian I have assigned ⌘4 to the _Cycle bullet/checkbox_ shortcut. * Regularly go through and delete tasks that are no longer relevant. Weed out someday/maybe tasks into their own list. Anne-Laure Le Cunff puts that kind of thing in a list she calls “Serendipity”. * Start each new week afresh with only current, incomplete tasks. Archive a dated copy of your list at the end of the week, as a record of what you worked on and what you were hoping to do. It would be easy to sort task by varying criteria, but I love the simplicity of retaining them in the order in which they were added to the list. It reflects the sense of the passage of time (ie. “this occurred to me after that”) I get with handwritten lists. ## Bonus analog tips * Number the pages of your notebook and set aside a full spread for your todo list. When the spread is full, re-write the remaining incomplete tasks on the next available spread. Write the page numbers for the previous task page on the left hand side, and the page number of the next task spread on the right. * Draw a modest margin on the left hand side of the page (size determined by the width of your page and how large you write) * Squared pages make it easy to draw a double margin — letting you create checkboxes for tasks by drawing a single line on the baseline of each task * Shade in the checkbox of completed tasks * Draw a large X in the checkbox of cancelled tasks * Shade the checkbox of cancelled tasks you later decide to do ## You already know how to do this Sometimes the simplest solution really is the best, and once you see it you realise you didn’t actually need anyone to show you how. Digital Forster lists are like that. Create a list, then choose what to do based on how ready you feel to do it. Mark the chosen tasks so they stand out from others in the list. Boom! Of course you won’t be putting your must-do-it-by-Wednesday-or-we-all-die tasks on your Forster list. Those belong in your calendar or another app that nags you incessantly until you get the thing done (like Due). I’m currently keeping my digital and analog Forster lists almost in sync. _( NB. I have stopped demanding that my brain justify itself in wanting to do this, and explain to me why it is satisfied with doing it imperfectly. I just do it in a rather ad hoc manner and we’re all happy.)_ A Drafts action adds new tasks to the end of the list in the middle of the night, when my glasses are in the other room, and at any other time it’s hard to write in a paper notebook. ### Follow your nose, and remember that some tasks actually do need an app Forster lists are formalised structured procrastination used as a self-help tool for overcoming task-aversion, and I think that’s brilliant. Now that you know how easy it is to create a digital Forster list, I hope you won’t feel you _have to_ keep it in the digital world. For some people at some times of life (like me, right now), analog is the better, more centering choice. The tool that works best for you today is the one to choose. Tomorrow will be what it will be, so swap from one to the other as you feel drawn to do so. Or bin both of them and go back to your task management app. The only truly important thing is the _doing_ of the tasks designed to get you closer to where you want to be! * * * **_This post was written on a computer, not by one._** _💬 I love to hear from readers! email hello at ellanew dot com or message me on Mastodon. Follow my RSS feed https://ellanew.com/feed.rss, or sign up to receive a (mostly) weekly plain text themed email._ Join us on the DFOS plain text space! It’s a sweet, quiet haven away from the tainted world of algorithmic social media. Just right for sharing and discussing the kinds of nerdy things that fit well with the PTPL philosophy. _If you’ve found value here, I invite you to share this post with someone you think will appreciate it or make a contribution to my support jar._ You might also like my plain text productivity resources.

## Stop reading now if you aren’t interested in a nuanced take on both of them _Photo and text by the author_ * * * I’m not usually into the _would you rather_ game, but this one on Mastodon caught my attention. We were asked to choose which we preferred: an AI generated poster, or a poster made by hand but set in Comic Sans. Unsurprisingly (given the type of people I follow) 98% of 677 respondents opted for Comic Sans! Some reported that it was a close call. Other comments: * I miss the days where Comic Sans was the problem * Give me a poor font choice made by a real human please * There’s no guarantee the AI-generated one _wouldn’t_ be set in Comic Sans…or something even worse [Ed: scary thought!] For the record, I’m unapologetically okay with the careful, thought-provoking use of AI. Anne-Laure Le Cunff uses it to create illustrative artwork for her newsletter, and Mike Schmitz promotes it as a thinking partner. I use it on occasion for verifiable research and to pose questions to prompt my thinking processes. I never, however, use it to write anything or to create images for my work. That 98%-against poll is telling us that a lot of people consider currently existing generative AI posters to be worse than the worst fast food. They both look edible at first glance, but almost all are over-seasoned to cover the blandness of their passionless souls. Comic Sans might be the equivalent of Great Aunt Martha’s candied-bacon corn syrup marshmallows, but at least she made them with love — and we know what’s in them. I was going to end here and bid you farewell until next week, but on re-reading I felt the need for ### some balance, some nuance on the broader discussion around AI. Elizabeth Tai, a technical writer I follow, put out a call as I was editing this post seeking to connect with other writers on Mastodon who carefully, intentionally use AI in their writing workflows. Despite saying the equivalent of ‘If this doesn’t appeal to you, just walk on by’, one commenter went there anyway. I get that the feelings are strong, polarising, even, on this topic. As I replied to Liz — > I might not be that kind of writer but I support your right to use AI in the ways that work for you. You have already proven you can write under your own steam. > > I strongly prefer that people who have used AI assistance in their writing (beyond grammar fixes) state that up front, however. As you are doing. Liz lives in Malaysia. She knows the Asian perspective on AI from the inside. Without an understanding of how people living in Asia experience the world, one can’t possibly understand — or judge — their choices. Check out Liz’ blog for a window into that world. ### Don’t judge me because I sin differently to you (we can all be better humans) Whether it’s AI or fonts, we’ll make better, happier progress when we focus the bulk of our attention on progressing down our own path. Be an activist if that’s what you feel called to, but focus your attacks on the system, not the individuals convinced it doesn’t need to change. We are, each of us, deeply flawed humans on our own journeys. The sum of your life has led to the choices (choices you are sure are right) that you are making today. This also applies to those who disagree with you. I joked with my son this morning that when I’m gone, he should totally have part of the inscription on my headstone written in Comic Sans! It would be at the bottom and say something like “She may have been a font snob, but at least she could take a joke”. — _Not happening,_ he said. _Do you know how much they’d charge for that??_ (It’s $7 AUD per letter, he tells me.) I still think it would be funny. Maybe I’ll put it in my will. * * * **_This post was written on a computer, not by one._** _💬 I love to hear from readers! email hello at ellanew dot com or message me on Mastodon. Follow my RSS feed https://ellanew.com/feed.rss, or sign up to receive a (mostly) weekly plain text themed email._ Join us on the DFOS plain text space! It’s a sweet, quiet haven away from the tainted world of algorithmic social media. Just right for sharing and discussing the kinds of nerdy things that fit well with the PTPL philosophy. _If you’ve found value here, I invite you to share this post with someone you think will appreciate it or make a contribution to my support jar._ You might also like my plain text productivity resources.

## With 7 principles for keeping your app-data safe I love the idea of embracing the tendency to switch tools as a feature, rather than something to be avoided. Maxim said — > I’ve tried keeping tasks directly in Obsidian, using Todoist heavily, classic GTD (as much as that’s actually possible), and the PARA method. > They’re all good in their own way. > At this point, I should probably just admit that every year or year and a half, I simply enjoy switching tools. There be no shame in app-switching, my friends. If you enjoy it and it’s not a covert procrastination technique you engage in weekly, please do embrace the delight that comes with using a new tool. When I first wrote that, I felt that the new tool would ideally be used on your locally stored, future-proofed / plain text compatible lists. You know that’s my jam. But reading the comments on this one woke up the part of my brain not driven by scarcity, or the fear of losing stuff. After all, I was a task management app addict back in the day. Thanks to the level-headed folk I’m privileged to rub virtual shoulders with online, I now present a more balanced view: **Let your tasks live wherever feels like home to you**. Welcome the process of rewriting (or copy/pasting) them as an opportunity to reevaluate their repeated call on your attention. So yes, why not switch apps every now and then for the fun of it? As long as it’s not something you’re doing too often, or using to avoid doing the things on your todo lists. As always, I recommend keeping in mind these principles when using any proprietary app: * Keep a copy of any task or process-list you would hate to lose, as plain text * Prefer task apps that allow exporting your lists into plain text. Not to save you time in rewriting them but as a backup, so you can keep working if your app of choice has a bad day * Related: Automate daily backups of your most important lists so you don’t have to think about it * Don’t run your life from any app that needs to be online to work * Don’t use a Gmail address to log in to any app you rely on, without a well thought out plan B. This week I heard about yet another person losing access to their Gmail account with no warning, and no apparent way to get it back. * If you’re a pen-and-paper person, use your phone to take photos of your most important pages (it’s quicker than scanning) * Think of the worst-case scenario, then do today what future you would wish you’d done to mitigate the risks * * * **_This post was written on a computer, not by one._** _💬 I love to hear from readers! email hello at ellanew dot com or message me on Mastodon. Follow my RSS feed https://ellanew.com/feed.rss, or sign up to receive a (mostly) weekly plain text themed email._ Join us on the DFOS plain text space! This quiet place is well away from the tainted world of algorithmic social media. It’s for sharing and discussing the kinds of nerdy things that fit well with the PTPL philosophy. _If you’ve found value here, I invite you to share this post with someone you think will appreciate it or make a contribution to mysupport jar. A huge thank you to those of you who have already offered support!_ You might also like my plain text productivity resources.

Il Programma turistico di promozione locale (PTPL), che finanzia gli uffici di informazione turistica e i progetti di promozione turistica per l’anno 2025, è stato approvato da Città metropolitana di Bologna e Provincia di Modena, dopo il pronunciamento favorevole di Cabina di Regia e Tavolo di concertazione del Territorio Turistico Bologna-Modena. L’approvazione per il territorio …

It's time to take the spotlight off which format is “best” and focus on what our notes are for, and who they're helping us to become.

It's time to take the spotlight off which format is “best” and focus on what our notes are for, and who they're helping us to become.

It's time to take the spotlight off which format is “best” and focus on what our notes are for, and who they're helping us to become.

Task management isn't about apps, but about focusing on where you want to go and choosing a simple way to get there. Open formats make changes easy.

Task management isn't about apps, but about focusing on where you want to go and choosing a simple way to get there. Open formats make changes easy.

Task management isn't about apps, but about focusing on where you want to go and choosing a simple way to get there. Open formats make changes easy.

I learned an important lesson on awareness, backups, and when not to rely on Obsidian plugins after losing a list of important info.