Digital tools are everywhere and are perfect for capturing thoughts and ideas. They offer the convenience of accessing information from multiple devices, sharing it with whomever we want and much more. There are thousands of tools that we can use such as websites, mobile or desktop applications, electronic devices, etc.
Undoubtedly, given the offer available, it is a great challenge to choose the right tools. If we know how to choose, digital has many advantages. It is easy to share, to back up, to copy or duplicate, to transform, to automate, to organise, to scale, and so on.
Digital tools to capture thoughts and ideas
Some recommended solutions are:
- Taking notes and creating a knowledge base: Obsidian, Roam Research, Logseq, Workflowy, Bear, Google Docs, Google Keep, Google Sheet.
- Voice recording: audio recorders such as Zoom H5.
- Instant messaging: Signal, Slack, Discord.
- Add appointments, events, tentative plans, due dates, reminders or tasks to the calendar: Google Calendar.
- Create diagrams or visualisations: Miro, Freemind, XMind, MindMeister, Figma.
- Keep track of projects, plans and to-do lists: Asana, Trello, Todoist, Wunderlist.
- Summarising text: ChatGPT, Claude.
An interesting aspect to consider is whether we can use a built-in application or whether we need a third-party one. Generally speaking, built-in applications tend to last longer, be free to use and be more secure.
An important question to consider when choosing a tool is: where is the data stored? Some applications store data locally, others store it in the cloud. Sometimes it is unlimited and sometimes it is not. If you have sensitive information, the location where it is stored is critical.
On the other hand, there is also the security dimension. How is your data protected? Is it safe when it is handled over the Internet? These questions actually deserve a lot of attention.
Consider that the more digital solutions you use, the more dispersed the information you capture will be. Therefore, it is important to consider most digital storage solutions as transient.
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