I test a lot of apps and as a viewer of the channel you don’t always get to see everything going on.

Most apps I test never make it to a video.

When I’m testing a new notes app, I have another systems running in the background in order to keep me actually productive along the way.

This is that system.

My go to.

The one that got away, except I always keep finding my way back.

It is a simple app. That is the point.

It doesn’t meet the markdown craze of AI enthusiasts. It doesn’t have a web clipper. It doesn’t have an outline view. It doesn’t...it doesn’t...the list goes on.

I can make a similar list of every other notes app that I’ve tried and any other notes app that will be made in the future.

Apple Notes has the ecosystem.

It is confusing. Apple is not good at communicating how these productivity tools work together but Notes, Reminders and Calendar is the trifecta of apps that setup the basis of my entire system.

Notes houses everything, well almost everything, that is writing based. YouTube video ideas and scripts.

Newsletters start here.

Daily journaling, morning pages practices, handwritten with the Apple Pencil on the iPad. All here.

Even my Readwise highlights are synced.

I will do a breakdown of my Apple Notes setup soon. I’m running a combination of regular folders and tag based smart folders.

To not go on too long, the list of things that I love about Apple Notes that keeps me coming back:

There is a list of things I would like to see:

Lately I have been writing my newsletters in a distraction free writing app called iA Writer.

It uses plain text files, simple folder structures and syncs with iCloud across Mac, iPhone and iPad.

It is a one time purchase app that I was determined to not become another thing I bought and let collect dust on my digital shelf.

Newsletter ideas hit Apple Notes first and I have a running list now of things that I would like to write about.

I pick one and open a new document in iA Writer and get after it.

There is nothing to disturb me while I’m writing. It has a nice preview window, word count, markdown formatting, and a few types of focus modes you can select to drive the point home.

I hop in and write. Since I’m using it only for the newsletter, I have a folder called “newsletter” and inside of it a nested folder called “posted”.

Simple.

The font choices are limited to iA Writer specific fonts, but it has become my favorite font to write in. It is easy to read, almost like a monospaced text but still beautiful like a modern sans. It is hard to explain.

I wish it had collapsable sections and an outline view, you will see that theme a lot for me in various writing or notes apps, because I like writing with headings and subheadings, my scripts can be between 2,000 and 5,000 words and difficult to navigate and edit once complete.

Since I’m not trying to write a manuscript every week with the newsletter this has been fine.

Under 1,000 words is manageable for me.

I wouldn’t be able to use it for my main notes app because like Obsidian, attachment handling in markdown notes apps is a horrible user experience.

Separating out this writing experience helps to differentiate the two apps with two different mindsets though.

In Apple Notes I think how a video flows.

In iA Writer I think about writing, with personal reflection along the way.

The GOAT of free task apps.

Reminders is my Kanban board, grocery list and general task management app.

I link any video and newsletter into Apple Reminders, that means each thing that I am working on gets a card inside of my Creative Kanban board.

Since iA writer has a good URL scheme it is easy to put the note link in the URL field in Reminders.

For Apple Notes I’m still using my shortcut which requires me to share the note to reminders:

This sets up my videos with the sub-tasks that I need to schedule, inside of the correct list within Reminders.

See Apple...WHY CAN’T WE JUST HAVE DRAG AND DROP ON MAC?! It works on iPad and iPhone...

Apple Reminders has location based reminders, some natural language input and you can even create smart lists based on tags just like you can in Apple Notes.

Apple Reminders is a simple, straightforward, built-in solution available for free.

It now syncs with Apple Calendar.

That is the main benefit to me along with the cost.

There is nothing inherently special about Apple Calendar.

Its interface is good, but Google, Fantastical, even Notion have good calendars with good interfaces.

They all sync between your devices, though Notion still just has a big iPhone app on the iPad.

Most of them can have tasks show up on the calendar as well, which is the primary benefit of why I use Apple Calendar. It happens to work with Apple Reminders.

You can check “show scheduled reminders” and anything that has a date or time associated with it in Reminders will show up on the Calendar.

I hope they make this connection more robust in the future and give better options for faster scheduling and time blocking.

Being able to set a duration in Apple Reminders would be a welcome addition that plenty of other task apps and calendars now support, including TickTick, Todoist and even Notion.

Last year I ditched the subscription of Fantastical and went all in on Apple Calendar.

I do miss the Fantastical widget, however saving myself almost $60/year on a calendar app subscription, even if it is something I use everyday, has been worth it for me.

Apple Mail has my custom domain e-mails that I use for the business. It is a fine e-mail app. I have gripes that smart folders and rules don’t work on iPhone if you’ve set them up on Mac, but Apple Mail is about as fool proof as it gets for an e-mail client that works across all devices.

There is one reason I keep the next tool around though and that is keyboard shortcuts.

I keep my Gmail at inbox zero every two weeks.

I use the following keyboard shortcuts to blaze through hundreds of e-mails at a time.

These four make up all the decisions I could possibly need with an e-mail.

Label it and archive. Delete it. Send it to another person, app or list.

Look at that, only one paid application on the entire list and that is just because I am too stubborn to write every single thing inside of Apple Notes, even though it is the most capable note taking tool that I have ever come across and I haven’t had to sell you anything in this write up either.

If you like trying new apps, get subscribed as I take on more short-term challenges to find the perfect productivity system, while already having a darn good productivity system that sticks with me through all of this nonsense and doesn’t judge me when I come crawling back.

I spent 30 days trying to replace my beloved Apple Notes with the internet’s favorite notes app fling…Obsidian. Let me know what you think!