Fixing Apple Notes.

0:00 And uh because for the first time I was uh thinking of Apple notes in a different way. I've used Apple notes I think since it came out but basically it was a stack of notes a stack of I mean a pile of notes you know like individual notes. So before we begin matte let's talk about forever notes. I'm obviously very jealous you came up with it. I came up with the bento methodology but this is so much cooler because you can just grab Apple notes and use it straight away. Can you take us through how you came up with the idea and a little bit more about it? I think we share a common background um of or a common history of uh trying to be better at productivity and trying to um uh have the right tools and um and um and trying out new things

0:45 that are constantly coming up. And so I I I have my share of of that experience and uh I've used Notion and I've used Obsidian. I tried them and I think they're fantastic tools. What my struggle with them was was that um uh even though they're super adaptable to your own needs, very often they seem like um an overkill for my needs for my needs. I think they're they're great tools and um I think there there many use cases um where where people use these these tools um and and it makes a lot of sense. What I was looking for was something um simpler and still I wanted to build it my way. So I wanted that um that freedom of um building it my way with the introduction of linking in Apple notes to me uh this opened up a whole new world and uh because for the first time I was

1:35 uh thinking of Apple notes in a different way I've used Apple notes I think since it came out but basically it was a stack of notes a stack of I mean a pile of notes you know like individual notes and with linking all of a sudden I was able to put structure in it you know there was I mean folders was you know I were there and then I used those and of course nested folders and and all of those things with links. It um it really like it changed the way I looked at the app. And then um I started I think the first thing that I did was sort of like a home like a home um page you know like a dashboard where you know I linked sort of the most important notes that I would be using all the time. And then I think months later I saw a video by Patrick. Yes Patrick um from New Perspectives. He's got a YouTube channel and he introduced this um forever journal

2:25 I think it was called concept of having a journal that um every year over and over again and that just blew my mind and I thought um this is amazing and his focus was on journaling um I come from a bullet journal background that's what I used for a couple of years and um so for me it wasn't really journaling but it was logging things into my day and um and that made a lot of sense for me and um I sort expanded on it with um monthly notes and quarterly notes and yearly note, but I love this idea of looking back at previous years in your current journal view and that works works really well in in the framework. So, I published it in um I think it was uh in September last year. I've been using it maybe not in this complete form uh for about six months before that. I think that

3:15 I started them with a with linking notes when it came out which was I think about two years ago. Well, a little bit less than two years ago. That's when I started and uh then I built on top of that and uh yeah but I put it into a a framework you know I it sounds so big but um you know I just wrote down the ideas behind it and of course while I was writing it I was still developing it and I'm still developing it. I'm still thinking about it all the you know all the time and uh and trying to make it simpler. I've talked to some people um recently who used the framework and some of them demanded even more structure you know and uh which is very interesting because uh um I kind of kept it frameworky and loose um so that people can still adapt it to their own needs but some people

4:01 um like to have even more structure and even more um maybe maybe guidelines on on how to use certain certain elements and certain components of the framework. I'm still working on it and uh uh the community um is also like uh coming up with their own ideas and um and shortcuts and uh uh journal entry uh shortcut like all sorts of ideas. Amazing. So I think the process that he came up with was really interesting because he took just a simple process that he was doing and then turned it into something that was very powerful. So if you're enjoying today's stack, you can check out loads more stacks below. We've already got I think four or five out already. So if you want to explore other people's apps they use and the stories around them then check it out in the link in description. So the next thing I wanted to ask Mattas is more around the apps you

4:48 use. Obviously we know Apple notes is there but what other apps are you using right now that you think are effective for your routine for note takingaking? Obviously I'm using Apple Notes. Um that's where my framework is built in and um this is where my uh my personal knowledge lies. This is where where it's all happening. This is where my planning happens. This is where where I log my day. This is where I reflect on my day, where I reflect on my month, on my quarter, and my year. And um I have it on every Apple device that I own. Um I mostly use it on my iPhone um when I'm obviously like in the evenings um on my iPhone and when I'm out and about on my on my iPhone. Uh during the day while I work um it's it's on my Mac. I don't do task management

5:36 in Apple Notes. I use um an app called To-Doist. Um I think um many many people know it. I think my main selling feature uh and I judge every to-do app on that is whether I can forward emails to the task manager. The great thing about to-doist is is that it it um AI generates a title and and has a short description and also the original email um in the task. And um I just love that it goes into my inbox and and then I organize it into my projects into my different folders and task or project folders in to-doist. So I think that's an an amazing amazing app. And also like the the um iPhone app is amazing. So I use that. My main web browser um is Arc. Um, even though I'm a huge

6:27 fan of Safari for its minimalistic look, its speed and everything, I do need for my work I need a lot of uh Chrome extensions and um for that Arc works beautifully. It, you know, I can use them all in there. It's a great browser. I I I think my favorite feature in Arc is the different um profiles. Um I I have several businesses and projects that I'm working on and I have a profile for each so that when I log into my uh Gmail for one um I can you know I don't need to log in again in another one. So um I really I really love art for that and I'm also using it on my iPhone um because it's synchronizing the the open tabs and also the so in my in my work as a designer um of course I use um the whole uh Adobe Creative Suite. I use Figma um for web design and um and

7:19 also um presentation design sometimes even though I use Keynote uh as my favorite tool. Um it's it's easy to use and um I love the animation part like when I present to people when I present to clients it's a fantastic um software I think um I use web flow for for programming and um and building prototypes for websites and it's my go-to tool. I'm a visual designer obviously and even though I have some experience in HTML and CSS uh um this is a tool for me that that works really well. Air table comes in uh when uh we're talking about data and so for my uh other business um uh the vegan cake business I have many many databases that are all based in air table and some of them actually

8:06 work um really well with uh with web flow. So for example the the the the database of our products is synchronized with web flow and shows like so if we um have a new product um well listed in air table and it gets automatically published in web flow. So those you know zapier make.com uh these kind of um tools really like are amazing. I use Apple Free Form. Uh this is like where I'm getting visually creative. Um usually I use it on my iPad. Um, this is where I draw, where I sketch, where I do flow diagrams um with my upper pencil and I just sort of rough sketches or sometimes UX um UIUX design. Uh just very very rough sketches. Sometimes I throw in some visuals, some photos

8:52 from the web just to create mood boards or stuff like this. And I think it's a great again another great free app from Apple which I yeah use on a weekly basis I would say. Then of course like uh again my work as a designer I use right font. This is a font management um software that um can activate and deactivate um fonts automatically when I need them in a specific document. Um I use that also on databases. And uh last but not least, the Apple Passwords. Um such a simple software, but it just works seamlessly across all devices. It's easy to use. Um, and okay, finally, obviously you're you're a busy guy, like doing the raw vegan bakery in the evening all the way to being a graphic designer. That seems to be a lot of hats. Um, we know what apps you use, but

9:39 how do you use AI as part of your day to make that slightly easier? AI is very interesting to me. Um, I think it's very fascinating technology and, uh, I mean, of course, I've got the scary um, part in back of my mind as well. and um you know think about you know what this means for my job as a designer as a as a communications um uh professional and how long I will still be working in that job but I don't really I'm I'm I'm not sure whether I can say I have an AI workflow I use to-d doist for um for task management um in one business and I love that because when you forward emails to to-d doist it automatically AI generates sort of a descriptive name and also a short description of the task task or of the of the email, let's say this,

10:26 right? And it also I think to-doist can um suggest um subtasks for that for that um main task. And I I love that. I think it's really helpful. Um I have used actually pretty recently, I think last week, I was working on a project where I was adapting illustrations and uh um I had to create new illustrations like a new series of illustrations. I used AI to help me analyze the existing illustrations, pick elements from those illustrations to incorporate in the new illustrations. I had a list of um what illustrations I wanted to create and it was just I mean anxietywise it's amazing you know I mean like um I don't know if you you know if you've ever experienced this but this blank piece of paper in front of you and um you know

11:13 having to think about like okay where do I start? What is what is the first thing to do? I think AI can help I mean helped me definitely in this project. It created a list you know with you know illustration number 15 15 uh you know use the the female characters body um you know apply you know some additional clothes or a different hairstyle and it it it really gave me first instructions. I followed about half of them only but it was a great first step and you know got rid of the anxiety. I think I without it would have taken me twice as long to to complete these um it was six illustrations. Um so that was uh that was amazing. So I thought this was a fascinating chat. Um it's definitely uh clear that Matt wears lots of different apps and um he created such a simple

12:02 system that can be applied over the top of an app that is widely available on millions of people's phones. Sorry Android users, but at the same time, it's a really interesting system that you can embrace and I would highly recommend checking out in the link in description. Please note as well, Apple Notes isn't the only app that you can use this with. You could probably apply this to other simple note-taking apps using Matas's follow um guides and resources, which you'll find on YouTube or in the link in description. So, thanks to Matas for coming on today and also for diving a little bit into his stack. A big thank you for you for stopping by and feel free to share in the comments below uh a little bit more about what you learned from this stack. You can check out loads of stacks over on toolfinder and it's been great helping you to dive into this stack and all

12:48 the apps will be mentioned below. As always, thanks very much and I'll see you very soon.