Twin boys. Toddler daughter. Hospital Tech Support. Writer. Runner. Gamer. Creating in public again.*

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Systems

Sequel: A Media Tracker

Sequel is an app that tracks the media you’re interested in (Similar to Sofa). With Sequel, the main screen is divided into three simple sections: Games, Movies, and Series. Inside of the Movies and Series sections, there’s tabs to divide the Watchlist from the Watched. And for the Games section, the tabs are divided into Wishlist, Backlog, and Played. It all looks very clean and tidy.

My favorite feature in Sequel is the way it uses Artificial Intelligence. When you’re on a website that mentions a movie you’re interested in, use the share sheet and send it Sequel. The app will analyze what’s on that webpage and bring up that movie inside of Sequel for you to add it to your collection. Such a seamless way to keep track of all your media.

Tracking Game Progress

Whether you’re using Apple Notes, Things, or Craft (the three I’ve used with this workflow), here’s a four step process to track your game progress:

  • Google game walkthrough
  • Copy chapters
  • Paste into new note
  • Turn list into checkboxes

I’ve never had time to finish a game’s story in a short amount of time. I’m a very casual gamer, that loves the stories in some of these games. The problem is it usually takes me months to a year to complete a game. Especially since I play more than one at a time. Tracking the story progress, and checking off a chapter as I move forward, helps me understand how much I have left before completion.

One App, One Job

I’m constantly studying new apps and systems. I keep thinking there’s a perfect app that can handle every single area of my life. I’m slowly learning that that’s the wrong way of thinking, and I should embrace the power of multiple apps.

Instead of each area of my life separated by folders in the same app, that separation is now in a completely different app. This is allowing me to be more nimble with my thinking and organizing. Now, when I notice that one app is handling multiple jobs, I’m brainstorming on what different app, that doesn’t have a job yet, could handle that workload.

I’m still early in my thinking with this, and I’ll probably expand on this better down the road, but I figured I’d share what I have now anyway.

  • Ulysses: Blog/Newsletter
  • Apple Notes: Family notes
  • Blog code: GitHub
  • Sofa: Consumption lists
  • Notion: Bills/Subscriptions
  • Fantastical: Personal, family, and work calendar
  • Up Ahead: Release dates/events
  • Matter: Reading list
  • Things: Task manager
  • Roam Research: New studio albums

Notion

Another week, another update on organizing data. I’ve been studying Notion, learning how to build databases, and I’ve went to the extreme and started adding every aspect of my life in here. This is allowing me to learn how to build a database for a variety of situations. Everything from clients, bills, shows I’m watching, progress on games, writing queue, and even the things I own. I’m learning that there’s not much that doesn’t fit in a table.

Emoji Folders

The focus this week has been inside of Apple Notes. Making folders for all the areas in my life, putting them in alphabetical order, and putting emojis in front. Having all of these folders in order like this, and knowing that the folder exists, makes it easy to find what I’m looking for.

Above this alphabetical is current projects that I’m working on (I have those hidden in the photo). The active projects are shared with the person I’m collaborating with. It’s at the very top so I can jump right to it when I need it.

Underneath all these folders is an Archive folder. When I’m done with a note or folder, I put it in the archive folder.

(This structure is a remix of Tiago Forte’s, from Building a Second Brain book.)

Organizing Photos

My photos app is getting out of hand. I’m taking more pictures than ever, but I rarely get around to cleaning up the ones I don’t want. This constantly leaves me with thousands of junk photos.

I have a new two-step plan to change this:

  1. This is your month — My photos date back many years now, so the plan is to focus on the month at hand. In the photos app, there’s a search button: type in the current month, and every photo ever taken in that specific month will show up. That’s the focus. That way, even if I happen to not get around to it during a busy month, eventually, that month will come back around, and I’ll clean it up next time around. 12 months, 12 jobs: clean up your month.
  2. Favorite, delete, unfavorite — Once I search for the current month, I’ll go through every photo that was taken in the month and favorite any photo that I don’t want to disappear after this process. After favoriting everything, I’ll delete anything that doesn’t have a heart next to it. Afterwards, unfavorite everything.

This two step process seems like a good workflow that’s sustainable for the long run.

My Apple Notes System

I spent yesterday restructuring my notes yesterday. I moved away from a dozen folders to only a few.

  • Create
  • Family (shared)
  • Personal
  • Shopping
  • Work

Instead of having folders for every topic, I’m now using tags to handle the specifics. Everything now fits inside of one of these five folders.

Anything creative goes in Create. The Family folder is shared with Olivia so we both see anything that goes in there. Personal is anything dealing with my own life. Shopping is where I throw things that I might be interested in purchasing. And Work is where I through reference notes that pertain to my job.

The tags are things like #health, #lyrics, and #reference. I have about twenty tags as of now. A quick way for me find a specific topic without having to dig through tons of folders.

The main “Notes” folder inside of Apple Notes is the inbox for me. That’s where notes start. Later, I tag the note and move it into one of the five folders. A simple workflow for hundreds of notes.