Please do a video about the rest of the tools that would be super helpful. Thank you!

Also a good notes solution is "Joplin", works with markdown, offline and on all operating systems with native apps. Syncing via dropbox, webdav, ... and encryption. Advanced editor, for those who don't want to use markdown, is currently in the works (experimental). And: Open Source.

To find files on my PC, I use "Everything". It is MUCH faster than the built-in Windows search. www.voidtools.com/

This video brings me to a completely new concept that I have never realized in my life. I should really consider my own information system. Thanks

Methodological Philosophy - thank you. I'm proud to say the way I stay organized is to make notes about your videos. No further effort is required on my part because you have done all the hard work - again, thank you. Your strength becomes my strength of my simple lazy system. Yes, books are foundational and comforting to hold and read (yes, I'm older and nostalgic enough to enjoy libraries.) However, I sure am glad that your content is very contemporary and immediate - otherwise I would still be in the stone ages of MCU developement.

My first supervisor told me the this method of handling mails, back then when i was at ford. One does not comprehend how good it works, until you try it yourself!

I'm a doctor in Canada amd and I love your channel, this is a great subkect/video, thank you. Would love to see how you organise your lab too!

Thank you Andreas, I needed this. I am so disorganised, it makes me struggle and waste so much time. I will attempt to use some of your ideas giving me more time for productive use.

So true, finding is the hard part, not filing. It looks that I should (finally) investigate and spend some time to look at Evernote. Thanks for all the good suggestions in this video.

Thanks for this video. I realized that I am not at all organized in my life. I will be implementing some of the things in this video into my life. Thank you very much.

Your self-discipline is what makes it work! As one’s brain becomes a significantly more unreliable tool for information storage, sticking to the methodology becomes even more important. I panicked some years ago when Evernote threatened to go bust and changed to another tool. The only addition to your principles that I made was to try and abolish paper - by investing in a Scansnap document scanner which rapidly creates searchable pdfs. It sits above the shredder where the in tray used to be. Brilliant tool.

Thx for sharing, seems like we have a lot of shared strategies. One thing I would like is a dead/suspect link checker. .. a tool to run periodically in the background to let me know when pages have gone. I know I can build test management scripts to do it but I’d expect more turnkey solutions to be widely available by now.

Thank you for sharing you're info organization scheme. Also good practice to web browser bookmarks using the method for notes and folders, because some of them list the recent, the most visited automatically.

When naming folders that I always want to be on top when organized alphabetically, I use the prefix of an underscore (i.e. _Tools). I’ve found that it is more widely accepted by naming rules/requirements in operating systems. Also, I would love to see more videos about all the other tools you use!

About 16 years back i developed a web application for myself to organize all kind of information, i keep updating this application with day to day needs and ideas, today its amazing helpful tool, i do not have enough time else i wish if i could share it on web, i prefer google drive because i believe its more secure as i get email/SMS on a new login, i have no issue regarding versioning as i keep backups on two different places in different cities, for that i have two NAS (Cloud drives) installed in my brother's and a friend's home, for security purpose i keep them offline, when i need files or backup i turn them on from wifi switch and shutdown when its done. in addition i have a local backup drive as well.

Great insight into your organizational skills, lots of useful information. Thanks

i rewatched this video because i wanted to make use of it. And now i have an extra idea i personally use: incoming paper-mail. * the paper (including bills) is stored on a small tile. The envelop is thrown away right away * every week i scan the small tile and enter the payment in ebanking-account * the scan is digital stored in a dropbox folder (per year) and named with date, company and subject - to make it findable * the paper is stored in a box with 5 cm high; labeld 'paper mail this year' * i have a few of these boxes, other boxes are labeld 'year - 1' and 'year - 2'. * the label of the boxes are on the cover, and are replaceble * each year i change the cover of the paper boxes so that 'this year' becomes 'year - 1' * i have 7 or 8 boxes on top of each other , to store the paperwork that amount of years * the content of the last box is thrown away and this empty box gets the cover 'paper mail this year'. * the content of each box is nearly random but searchable in case of an emergency where the paper is required. I use it ones every 5 year or so. But it keeps me from the unhappy action of throwing anything away to soon, a hard idea. * searching and finding is much more often done in the dropbox scan-folder

Thanks for sharing your experience! I have adopted a similar methodology, but totally lack the annual archiving management level. This is obviously a much needed aspect I need to work on. I use the Year-Month-Day naming convention on lots of different files to organize them sequentially, but I tend to get overwhelmed with my total organization scheme in the long term. I tend to jump around between a lot of different interests and projects because either I need a tool I can't afford or I get to a level of complexity I can't easily overcome. Thanks for the example of how you stay organized. -Jake

Interesting inspirations. I had used Dropbox for a long time, but since they limited the client number in the free account I decided to set up a freecloud server on a pi. With that, the storage limit is the connected HD, which also sits on my shelf and not somwhere and maybe readable for others. Nextcloud also offers a web interface with many organize tools, but to be true, that interface needs more performance than a pi3 can offer to run smooth.

absolutely interested in further videos about the other tools in your space :)

Of course I'm interested in the use of the rest of your tools !

Thanks for this very important video. Information Management strategy should be an Engineering 101 class at all engineering schools. It doesn’t matter what your strategy is...the important thing is that you have one!

Good points Thanks for sharing👍😀

Very helpful episode on IM. I took your tip on Evernote and chose to install Simplenote because it works on linux and android as well. I am definitely interested in seeing what you will say about your other tools as well. Casey

For social media you can use IFTTT and create a routine to send posts to your EMail when you mark them as Favorites or give them a like. Works in Twitter, Reddit and others.

I like the 3 Rules how you organise your Information Management. And it’s very efficient. My experience is, it starts with how you organise your Information and Ideas. I guess you did it in advance and would be interesting too. BTW all my Tweets are in the Evernote too so i can easier organise and keep track of them.

oh Andreas ... Thanks for reminding me to bring flowers to my wife. It is her birthday today!!! IOU for saving me :p

For searching filenames, I suggest Cathy. It's blistering fast. For information I use an old program that is no longer maintained but it is so simple and cross.platform that I can no longer do without. It's Keepnote. It's also open source and I still hope it might spur a modern fork. Its most important feature is that it saves everything in html (with xml for indexing), so you can always access your data, even if the program is not available.

Thanks Andreas, very similar system to me. Would love to see the other areas of the mind map as well.

I love Evernote, using it for years.

Great video, thanks. Evernote looks very useful but I'm concerned about being tired to a service like that. Been burned too many times by them closing or suddenly changing their terms/pricing. Jottacloud is a good alternative to Dropbox and you get unlimited storage for free.

Look into FreeFileSync for data backup and sync

Social media was designed to connect with loved ones but has turned into ego boosting mechanism. Your vids are the best continue your great work social media is only for milking money out our limbic system.

I also use Evernote because it works well across platforms. I use tags and agree that folders are redundant if content is tagged well. It's saved me from the giant pile of sticky notes and scribbles on the backs of envelopes I used to have everywhere

I use "Freemind" for mapping out thought process behind the ideas and "Everything" to find information quickly. Useful tools.

Organization usually leads to unorganization. All have to do with space and time. (Thanks Albert and Steve.) Therefore, we must forget. :)

For video archive I recommend a second server running Linux with ZFS as the file system shared over SMB. It has saved my bacon from data corruption many times.

I used to use Evernote but I have since migrated to using Google Keep for saving notes,ideas and websites. It supports tagging and there are browser integrations available as well.

Mr. Spiess thanks, as usually an excellent video. Take a look to Syncthing program, may be it help you. See you

I use Calibre (PC, Mac, Linux) for storing/indexing ebooks and documents. With ebooks, you can easily download metadata from online sources (i.e. Amazon, Google, Goodreads etc.). It also supports copying documents to hand held devices for reading (book readers, tablets etc.).

Thanks for the pointer on Evernote. My hobby documents are currently stored in searchable folders - useable but not ideal. I also have Office at work and use the same principles for email - although I have a separate folder for email where I'm copied in - this mail only gets looked at if referenced elsewhere.

I use livescribe for simply drawing (Shematic, PCB, ...), text (Idea book on the go) to store my ideas digital and analog - that is a very nice Hardware tool and works with Evernote too on PC, iPad, iPhone, ...

For email search I use (and recommend) the X1 search. It's, for me, much better searching on PST files than windows search. It's quite fast and it can even search unmounted PST files, as far as they're indexed. It can also search on files and folders. It's a paid software, but I've been using it probably for the last 10 years. It's has been paid himself several times. I would also like to thank you for sharing your knowledge with us.

A started with Evernote too but later I migrated to OneNote. It's good too and absolutely free.

One area I have trouble with is managing the papers and oddball accessories that come with various devices. For example, I have a microphone boom arm clamped on my desk. It came with an optional screw-down mount. I'm not sure where to keep that so that they don't get separated. Similarly, my battery charger came with an cable to plug in the car. There's antennas and calibration microphones that go to specific stereo receivers, proprietary adapters, optional mounting plate, port covers, etc. And everything comes with some assortment of documents of all sizes and shapes. These things seem to proliferate faster than I can "file" them.

Nice video and lot of good things said. I was always afraid of tags especially on different platforms. I must say that you opened my mind to tags and I think I'll try to embrace them. I liked a lot your idea for mail. I used to use a lot of folders and it worked perfectly but Google removed folders and it was a mess for me than, this things with tags maybe is not a bad idea as I so it at first. Regarding code versions (you use Dropbox) I think you really need to try git (git is a tool, github is a platform that uses git, pay attention with free git plan you can make only public repos). It is not automatic but it is the most powerfull tool for versions. I use it for all, not only for coding (it recognize all text files (that are not encoded binary) and you can see diferences you made). For backups I have small NAS (network ares storage like Qnap or Synology) that holds my files. There are some apps that can backup folders automatically, but I prefer manual backups. As NAS is a little server I have Gitlab server (similar to github but on my LAN) installed so I backup there all git repos. Once again nice video and I'm sorry on big post

Id love to see the videos about the other processes you use.

I am using a Wiki at home and for work since 2007. I is searchable, of course and I have a main page with all important topics. E.g. I have a category with electric devices. There are some sub categories, like lab tools. The single tools pages are structured equally. Usually, there is a picture, a short description, a pdf manual, the receipt, date of purchase, price and where I have bought it. When I have found out something special, I will also note it on that page. Same with sensor boards. I will not store the receipt, though. But maybe note the required libraries. It requires a bit of work, but it is a great way to keep and find information.

Yes please continue through all the tools. Also what software was used for creating that flowchart? Grafana? Thank you 🙂👍

Google Drive allows you to scan to PDF, I record all bills, receipts and important communication. OneDrive has similar feature, pro gives multiple pages. Team's is useful for project work in a ... well ... team, linked to planner, wiki and onenote.

Wow, now I understand why I generally need less document managing than anyone, because I have way less documents, instead, I have to manage big quantities of electronic components. I have a many drawers all numbered. When a particular component is needed, I can't use a programm I've made on a computer that looks into a database defining the location of each component. It's possible to look by category of component also...

Also take into account to implement a NAS in your live. It is much much more than a storage space in your LAN. I have a couple of them and is the center of storage for all the people at home, because you also have to thing that the rest of the people at home have similar needs of arrangement. I´g suggest for those that doesn´t know to explore qnap or synology devices!!

A lot of focus on tools actually. I'm using OneNote, free and available on desktop as well as mobile. Also has a web clipper. For organizing my projects (to get things done), I prefer Atlassian Jira, free for hobby work. Very handy to use Kanban and start a story that is then divided into subtasks and very easy to split larger work into smaller parts and get things done. It is also rewarding to move a task from In progress to Done. I have different projects for Home Automation, Work to be done at home such as organizing, cleaning up etc.

Hope you are doing well Andreas. Just found out don't make masks from 3D mask as micro holes. Mmmm now I need to sand and big the surface then prime coat it then final coat it. Then it is only a backup.

Great video. My only addition would be: use git. Yes I know it doesn't integrate well with the Arduino IDE but it does with PlatformIO/VScode. A lifesaver when it comes to rollbacks, trying things, distribution to your viewers, etc.

After my retirement... Was a good one :-)

for websites / info on the web, i use "WorldBrain's Memex" from the chrome/firefox store, it gives you full text search of every page you visit. if in the future, i wanted to know more about the SR71 book mentioned in this video, but i forgot which video it was in / who published the video, i can just search for "SR71", and this video shows up in the search. It even adds itself to google searches, when i search google for "SR71", this video shows up in a separate list to the right -- i tend to consume lots of material at a time, and my brain is over aggressive about culling unimportant info before long term memory, so this extension helps me a lot, the SR71 example: that isnt even the primary focus of the video, no way i would find that book again without this extension edit: it also has tagging and bookmarking, you can even bookmark or a specific sentence, clicking the bookmark goes to that page with that text highlighted (though i dont use this feature much)

Stay home best idea sir

Shocking how similar your methods and mine are *conceptually* . The one key difference on my end is I've been burned by *the app I'm using* as my key bit (as you use evernote) not making an OS transition. So, I insist on not relying on anything that can "lock up" my old data. But Spotlight/Finding files *is* easier ... dumping random stuff into a folder containing a plain text file where the very first line is "MANUAL HARDWARE OWNED..." or any other tag that applies gets me to the point that I have "tags", I can save anything using just folders and plain text files.

I am surprised to hear someone shares my passion for books on complex projects like the 747 and SR-71. More than 30 years ago employer offered book awards to recognized patent disclosures. One could pick any book and they would have is rebound and presented at a ceremony by the division manager. I picked a book on the 747 subsystem design with schematics of the hydraulic systems, etc. I was a little embarrassed when the head guy asked me "why on earth did you pick this book?" . Nevertheless, I loved it. It was too expensive for me to buy on my own to just to satisfy my curiosity.

I exploit the frequently failing of systems (and myself), i.e. broken pc, hd, ram. If they fail they save me from information overloading and I can do a fresh restart. Works also for cars; my last car I destroyed in an accident, now I use a bike which I should have done long before.

I am amazed that you can get by without separate folders for purchases and travel related emails. Everything else seems reasonable...

I always suspected that we have something in common. Now I know for sure - I have the same information management policies :)

Well i uses a simple NAS for backup of my files, that means that i has the same files on my desktop on different computers and i takes backup of that, around each 3 month to a external drive

Excellent and useful video. If you want to share more tips I would look forward to that. I do the same thing with my emails (save everything). However I have one reservation. If the email is hacked then you may have sensitive information that may make it into the wrong hands. I am using The Journal by R M David software. It uses SQLite as a back end. It is super reliable , robust, and the search tools are excellent. The author quickly responds and the program is regularly updated. I have nothing to do with the software other than I use it (every day).

Hi Andreas, i use MS OneNote some years ogo in stad of ervernote. Try out Lastpass as a Password manager over all OS, after that you don't need a physical odner. Thx for your Videos, from Swissgay with also Swiss Zuerich accent. Thanks and stay healthy...

I am using GTD system (Getting things done by David Allen) for task management. I try to delete as much as possible and only keep as much I need.

Before I look further on your video, Yes I am interesting in your tools and the rest. The guy with the Dutch accent ;)

Very good insights! One question: do you keep track of inventory of boards and other stuff like that? I waste a lot of time looking for components and boards in a lot of small drawers and started to think about a tool or database...

I used Google's Android Stduio to write a simple app that takes notes, URLs, etc either via keyboard or speech recognition, and sends them to a special email account on my server with an encoded Subject: field. I added Outlook rules to move the notes to various folders based on the encoding in the Subject: field. It would be just as easy to use procmail on linux to do this, but most people use Outlook. That makes my organizational system available wherever I am and, when I am at home, it is available whether the internet is reachable or not. That might be an issue for some in coming months.

I mostly use OneDrive, since I pay 100€ / year for Office and I get 1TB of storage. So I also use it. And since OneDrive integrates pretty well into Windows, I don't have to do a lot of thinking about it. But it needs some cleaning (probably something for my todo list). I also bought a whiteboard and hung it in the kitchen. Now if there is something todo, I simply write it there. And if I'm done, I can tick it off. Also I have a calendar on there for the week where I put appointments (well not so many nowadays).

Thanks for sharing these tips! I'm looking forward to the upcoming videos, especially on efficient lab organization. :-) Regarding information organization, I use a Google Docs text document per month, every day is a chapter, and there are bullet lists. For projects I mostly use Zim, which however is limited in formatting capabilities. I'll have a look on Evernote and Joplin. However my main problem is that the TODO lists get longer and longer, and motivation is lacking to get them done. :-( Would you also have a tip here, please?

Good video

Tweetdeck is useful to have all current Twitter activity on a single screen. You can have all your feeds plus custom searches along each other.

My information Management is most rudimentary. File and Documents within simple. I keep various list of Parts, Bits and bobs on Window Note Pad documents of all subject matter. Using window file search I can locate the document by file name ( Transistor, Resistor, subject or the like) Calling up the document I can use the Window Document Search with the document to locate the Item . Only basic information is maintained on the items within. Function, Quantity, Cost and source. Most anything I deemed a future need for has a document. Simple , Rudimentary but functional.

More vids about your productivity tools would be GREAT.

Great video, I have the same system for email and a similar one for notes. However, I find folder structures in windows to be a pain. Example = some information on a component for a project; I save it in a folder structure of 'project'/'component category' but then months later I can't remember which project I used that exact component... cutting to the chase, more ideas on how to organise engineering information in a windows type folder structure would be great.

Andreas, a simple sketch of your workplace any help us, seems you're a quite organized guy (I'm not) so also this may help me and others, also from your videos seems your space is not super big.. Thanks for considering.

What a weird coincidence. YESTERDAY I was categorizing my tools and parts so I could shop for some type of standardized bin system.

Hi Andreas, Thanks so much for your valued contributions. I would like a system that curates the gems from your (Or anyone else's) UKposts comments. There are great contributions appearing here, as with your other videos. It would be most über to have a listing/summary of what YOU see as the valuable gems that have come forward that have added value and insight to what you were wanting to achieve. Perhaps a month after first posting your initial video with say a six month review. Could be pinned as first comment. Maybe there is a software solution?

Fredmund Malik in the book shelf 👍

I haven't found a good setup for keeping things like pinouts that I use instead of Google image search. Maybe I'll try Evernote. I have tried OneNote in the past, but I have always found the interface slow and clunky.

Very interesting article. I pretty much use your same techniques, but with different tools to implement the techniques: - Google Keep Notes instead of Evernote. Evernote seems to be superior (especially the paid version), but Keep Notes is catching up fast and has some nice features like reminders that integrate well with Google Calendar. - Google Calendar instead of Outlook. I used Outlook when I worked and really like how well its calendaring and todo-list management worked. Google Calendar still has a ways to go to get as Outlook was/is? - Google Drive instead of Dropbox. I have the 100GB plan and it's the only thing I pay for (since I retired, I find I have more time than money). - Google Suite instead of Microsoft Office. I used MS-Office before I retired for the same reasons you do (all my customers/collaborators used it). I find Google Suite apps have all of the features I need although I sometimes miss some of the large document features of Word. Since I'm not writing many large documents anymore, those features are less important. Google Suite apps also work well together and with Google Drive, making the transition away from Office easier. Also, when I switched to Google Suite apps, Office apps weren't as Internet-enabled as they are now, which gave Google the edge for the way I worked. Now, with Office 365, I'm not sure I would now switch away from Microsoft. Another factor for me is that I was an early adopter of Google apps and they've grandfathered me into a free Google Suite Basic, so costs, again, are a deciding factor. Other tools I use that you might want to experiment with: - Grammarly - A nice grammar/spelling/punctuation checker that plugs into the Chrome browser that helps me minimize embarrassing writing errors in my written communications. - GitLab - A more flexible, feature-rich competitor to GitHub (although I haven't done any recent comparisons since Microsoft acquired them). There's a free Community and paid Enterprise edition. You could also self-host the Community edition on your own server, but I'd rather have my code repositories hosted off-site from my work computers. The Enterprise edition comes in Bronze, Silver, and Gold level of paid support and feature sets. The Silver level has some features that I'd love to be able to use, so I may decide to pay for the Silver level. As you can see, I'm a bit of a cheapskate, so considering paying for GitLab is a high form of praise. GitLab is more of a software guy's tool (I'm a software guy trying to learn more about hardware), but I think hardware guys would find it's functionality useful. Finally, some confessions and techniques I use to abuse tool features. I'm a tag and tabaholic. I probably overuse both of them. I have several hundred tags I use in GMail. I often have a dozen Chrome browser windows open with a couple of dozen tabs per window. I find the Session Buddy browser plugin helpful for managing by overuse of tabs and windows. Session Buddy is my first level of triage for filtering out what links I want to save in my bookmarks or Google Keep Notes. You might find it useful too. I really use tags a lot in GMail. I wish UKposts had a first-class tag feature. I find I (mis-)use UKposts playlists as tags, e.g. I have an Andreas Spiess playlist, a Home Automation playlist, a Raspberry Pi playlist, etc. (BTW, I have a special playlist, Highlight, that I reserve for exceptionally good UKposts videos; this video is getting the coveted Highlight "tag"). Maybe you could, as a bigshot on UKposts, convince them to provide first-class tab support for their videos. That's enough for now. Probably too much :-) -

I use owncloud/nextcloud for storing files, syncs local copies with server and reloading the OS means I lose the sync but not the files, they will resync from server so I get instant speed and shared files across countries for redundancies since I moved to the US for a few years but have files/servers in Sydney/Australia. OS should never be backed up, backups are outdated. important files should be versioned and deletions are just marked but can be recovered.

I use telegram for short time links. If link is important it is saved in Slack. Instead of Evernote I use Jupiter Notebook. Jupiter notebook contain all Microcontroller documentation, guides etc. If some interesting Github repository is found I simply clone it to my Local Git setup (Gitea and Gogs). It periodically update the repository. For PDF books, I use calilbre-web. I spend a nice amount of tagging and entering description, hence searching in future is easy. For email I use Thunderbird and I arcive the Profile folder every 6 months. I use seperate domain for signing up to websites and create rules in thunderbird accordingly Some management about client related info and workorder is done using Django. Apart from slack, everything is self hosted on my LAN. Thanks to docker :)

Interesting to see that I'm not the only paranoid "hording" old mails .... :) One additional note : Not many know that starting with Windows 2000 Microsoft intruduced "links"m quite similar to what linux knows for ages. So it's possible to create hard and soft links even on Windows what could potentially be used to create a tag based archiving. Even I have a nearly identical toolset it does consist of very different tools as such. Given the fact that the "cloud stuff" is NOT backed up by the provider (read the usage terms, you'll notice that your data might get lost without any responsibility by the provider - regardless if it's Google, Microsoft or any other) I'm hosting the tools myself. I'm using Nextcloud for file, note, contact management (calandar is planned but not yet done), so even my mobile phone does sync the contacts with my very own Nextcloud instance instead of relying on something in the "cloud". For website "grabbing" I'm using Wallabag, again a free tool that is quite similar to Evernote. Wallabag is completely web based so there is not even a need for adevice specific client even if there are for Chrome, iOS, Android, ... Due to historical reasons I "archive" my mails with Outlook Express on a Windows XP VM. For daily use I'm using the good old Opera Mail, it has the benefit that you are able to create folder that are all based on filters. So you could have the same mail appearing in multiple folders or just in one, depending what yor settings are. Overall you have on "inbox" in Opera Mail that can be read either by using the in stream or by using the folder approach. Another thing I like on Opera Mail is hat it is able - based on the configuration - to write the data to the disk "by month" files. The cherry on top of my "selfhosting" is that I'm not bound to any capacity limitation and can do backups of the data - if I want to. However, below the line it's up to the "user" what he preferres ...

Hey Andreas! Albert Einstein war aber kein Schweizer, sondern ein Schwabe aus Ulm! ;) Danke für deine super Videos. Dein Content ist absoluter premium Content!

*Make follow up series of organisation ideas*

I use Confluence Wiki, Bitbucket for my code stuff and a e-Mail program. All other data is stored on NAS.

Thanks for sharing your ideas here. The use of to sort folders is a simple and useful tip. Re: Evernote ... and just to let others know ... I have been and am still using MS OneNote for the last 10yrs+ in a similar way (it comes bundled as part of the MS Office package). I find it extremely useful for capturing pretty much anything and it auto replicates to all my devices. It find it quick to use and allows good organisation of information. Keep up the good work!

But how do you organize the information for your project do you put them in separate folders for each year and have the code, config files, pinout, spec sheets, PCB design and everything als in one folder or do you Seperate them by filetype?

Hi Andreas, thanks for these useful tips! I've just finished reading the book "the Shallows" by Nicholas Carr about how digital media (especially the internet) can affect the "cognitive power" of the brain. For example, I'm 32 and I usually find very difficoult to read something like a book or a manual staring in front of a screen without printing it. it's not just a discomfort of the eye, I can't concentrate at all. Have you noticed any changes in the way you think before and after the advent of the internet (or digital media in general)? Thanks

Nicely succinct synopsis. I will try Evernote - looks good. I also like WinX converter to capture UKposts videos that I may want to reference in the future. Speaking of videos - the videos I capture ALL get put in a videos by date file title reading YYYY MM DD TTTT Main subject vn (note). To use these in videos I only create shortcuts to them - thus nevermore searching for clips or pictures and no wasted diskspace in copied video files.

Andreas, How do you store information found on youtube? I can often remember viewing something that would help a project but I have no idea who/where it was. UKposts search isn't as good as it could be. It's annoying that it has a transcript of every video available but it can't be searched. It'd be nice to be able to search every video that I've viewed for certain words.

Evernote ... used it a few years back, until they turned into wangrods. Exported everything, never returned. Tried a lot of different so called note taking applications on different platforms; came to the conclusion that there are no usable note taking applications on any platform. Eventually settled on OneNote, which has the dubious distinction of being the least **** of what is available. Really, there's just nothing available (including Evernote and OneNote) that actually works as a good note taking utility; it's just mind boggling.

👍👍

I prefer to keep my notes locally, therefore i use Note Station on my Synology NAS.

😍😍

Finding is indeed more important such that index digital to physical locations is of critical importance! Also Google scans all data on HDD connected to internet! Nothing is safe...

I've had Evernote on every Laptop I've bought over the last 10 years, yet not configured or used it once. I've often wondered why have yet one more index card thing to manage when I already have Microsoft Calendar, Browser Bookmark Manager (Chrome) and on and on it goes. Is Evernote really the time saver as you describe? For example, I have three calendars in my Outlook system, one for personal, shared and public. With each one, I can attach files and organize plans, presentations, documents required, etc. To me at the time I firs glanced at Evernote, it seemed like all I was doing is repeating steps and having potential gaps with sharing rules, etc. As a webclipper - I could possibly see some value for when I'm writing a specific article and need reference points (chicago citation rules), specific materials, images, etc that are not easily manageable using a browsers bookmark manager or other Microsoft Office elements except Word and the reference / citation tool. However, one must insert the required information for the citation right away or it is easily forgotten about later and then you have to go search / find it as you describe. And that is no fun or use of valuable time. I realize Evernote can share - but it seems to me, like it simply one more duplication of something I am already doing in Office? Perhaps you have discovered a better time savings shortcut in the way you integrate all the organization tools. Prost!