Overview and other Apps
I’m not self-employed and work in a system where there are many proprietary apps that I have to use and therefore won’t mention here (I’m actually in healthcare and only do development as a hobby). The main apps (other than the usual email, spreadsheets, etc) I use for my workflow are:
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Todoist
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Logseq
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Notion
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Apple Notes
Daily reflections
I try to at least do daily reflections (Catholic here) if not at least twice a week. I wrote a simple plugin for Logseq that pulls in the daily reflections from Creighton Jesuit University, For those interested, it is a manual plugin that needs to be installed from .
It uses the date from the journal and pulls the corresponding daily reflection from the site. There is then an empty block that allows me to insert my own reflections.
Quick Capture
As many of you may know, I use Todoist for Quick Capture. I love Todoist because their mobile apps are so simple to use and the APIs are really easy to connect to. When I am on the go, I use Todoist to capture quick thoughts or tasks. For those familiar with GTD, it functions like my Inbox and I am clear that I do not use it for processing any tasks. Processing will be done in Logseq.
For tasks that do not need any active processing (e.g. shopping lists or books to read), I do keep them in Todoist and when adding a task, I just use the #hashtag to insert those tasks in their respective places.
I also use Apple Notes for quick capture. Sometimes, when I only have my iPad with me and my Apple Pencil, I will use Apple Notes to jot down handwritten notes that I will later transcribe into Logseq, or just export the note as a PDF and drag and drop it into Logseq’s daily note.
For more storage items that do not require any processing at all, like receipts, diagnostic results (e.g. from my kids’ checkups), vaccination cards and the like, I also store them in Apple Notes. As and when I need to refer to them, I just do a search there.
Task Management
I process my tasks in Logseq, and hence wrote the logseq-todoist-plugin (thanks to all who have tried it out so far and given me your comments!). All my tasks from Todoist are captured into Logseq’s Journal pages with a click of a button, and are automatically deleted from Todoist. I actually seldom use the non-Journal pages as the Journal pages really do a great job of providing context to each block.
The other amazing feature that Todoist has is the “Send to Project” function that I learnt from my fellow Logseq users. I now use this very often when there are emails that need action on, I just forward it to my Todoist Inbox so that it can be pulled into Logseq when I am ready to do work.
I also keep the Logseq right sidebar open at all times with the TODO page on it. I don’t use the other Task tags that Logseq offers and use only TODO and DONE.
For tasks that need to be completed outside of Logseq, such as some of my clinical work, I will just mark it as complete when I am done with it or if I do not have Logseq open, I will just do it when I have the chance to review my tasks.
For tasks that can be completed in Logseq such as conceptualising and planning projects, writing notes, drafting complex emails, etc. I create a child block under the task, and start work from there. I do this in both in Logseq’s main page and in the sidebar (something which I really love about Logeq!).
Reading Journals
Part of my job includes reading journal articles. This is where the Zotero - Logseq link really shines. I have not heard about Zotero until I started using Logseq, and the way they work together is truly amazing.
I will not dwelve too much into this as much has been written about how they work together. But basically on my daily page, as and when I do review an article, I will do a /zotero, and add the article in. I will then go into that journal page (starting with @), and create a block called [[Zotero Notes]] and start keying in my observations and notes about the article and link to other articles or notes that are associated with this article.
Meeting Notes
When I need to meet people as part of my job, as usual, I use my daily note. I don’t really have a fixed way of writing them in Logseq, and just ensure that some key variables are in place in the parent block. These include:
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[[Person I am meeting with]] or if multiple persons, I will just key in the [[Key persons’ names]], as some of my meetings can include >20 people and often, those whom I don’t know.
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#[[Project tag]] if applicable
In the child blocks, this is where I will key in the meeting notes. I really like Outliners in situations like this. If the meeting covers multiple projects that I am on, the #[[Project tags]] will occur in the child blocks instead of the parent block.
Other Notes
I use Logseq really as a notebook and not really an output tool, but this is really due to the nature of my work where I am not a writer or content producer.
For notes not related to any of my projects, such as fleeting thoughts, I just associate them with tags. My life is quite simple in a way, and so just use a few tags: [[spirituality]], [[life]], [[family]], [[teaching]], [[msw]].
Project Notes
As mentioned above, most of my active projects have an empty page that I visit to see linked references. I do my main project management in Notion (with a Kanban board), simply because I feel it is a better UI for doing so, and some of my projects are collaborative in nature and my colleagues and I use Notion to work together.
In Notion, the Kanban board is not to keep track of granular tasks (I do that in Logseq), but Project Milestones. This is the same for personal projects and collaborative projects. Hence the sections for my Kanban board is the usual “Not started, In progress, Completed”.
As a side note, I also use Notion as a resonance calendar. I do this in Notion instead of Logseq because of the way it is able to display images beautifully and the way you can have different views of the database is really helpful. It is used for “resonance” and inspiration so I don’t have a problem with it not being in Logseq, but instead will have both open side by side when I need to have inspiration for certain tasks I am performing in Logseq.
Conclusion
So that concludes my very simple workflow! In summary:
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Apple Notes is used as a storage or static file repository, for things that are not referred to often.
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Notion is used for project management; for tracking project milestones and for collaboration. It is also used as a resonance/ inspiration calendar.
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Todoist is used as a Quick Capture tool, both through typing tasks in and through sending email to the Inbox.
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Logseq is used for primarily task management, and for almost every other notes that are needed. Output items such as documents, spreadsheets, clinical guidelines, etc. are still being done in Google Docs or MS Office, since it’s almost always for work purposes.
Do let me know if you have any questions or suggestions on how I can improve my workflow!
