Why Your Notes App is Cluttered and How to Fix It
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My typical workflow when studying or working involves saving a lot of materials for later use. This includes links, audio files, PDFs, screenshots, and other reference materials. In the past, any resource for an assignment or an interesting article ended up in my Apple Notes inbox (aka the default Notes folder). I would then sort everything into the appropriate folder during a weekly review, and, if needed, assign a tag to it.
Initially, this worked well, and I liked having everything in one place, minimising the need to switch between different apps. However, over time, I noticed it became difficult to find things, even with Apple Notes’ powerful search function. The search results were often inaccurate, and I spent more time manually searching for notes than I had anticipated.
I quickly realised that the majority of my notes weren’t actually notes. Instead, I had hundreds of saved notes with barely any text, only attachments. Moreover, when I reviewed what I had saved over time, I found that most of these items were things I had forgotten about and never really used. My initial idea was to have information at hand whenever I needed it, but I realised I needed another solution that could solve this problem while still being convenient.
Sometimes, You Just Need Another App
I’ve always tried to keep a simple approach of “use one app for as many things as possible.” Over time, I realised this wasn’t optimal and made everything feel bloated and overwhelming.
I had never given a bookmarking app an honest try; the furthest I had gone was using basic bookmarks in my browser. However, using Arc on my Mac and Safari on my iPhone created a problem as I couldn’t access bookmarks from both devices.
I decided to try a proper bookmarking tool to meet my needs for saving reference materials or items to revisit later. I chose Raindrop.io after reading many positive reviews. The fact that it also has a web-based application was a bonus, making it easy to access bookmarks within my browser.
Raindrop.io has everything you need. The free version is probably sufficient for most people, but I ended up getting the affordable monthly subscription after using it for a while.
I must say, it’s such a relief having all my saved items in one place, separate from my notes. I now have a clear vision: a notes app should be used for note-taking and not be stretched beyond its intended purpose.
I Should Have Done This a Long Time Ago
After using Raindrop.io for almost two weeks, I regret not realising this sooner. It’s so easy to save items, both from the iPhone’s share sheet and Raindrop’s browser extension on the Mac. Besides URLs, it also handles various file types, which was essential for me when searching for this kind of tool. I use it not only for bookmarking but also as a read-later service, which has been working great.
Organising is a breeze, and you don’t need to think about it too much since its built-in search function is excellent. You can sort your bookmarks into collections (aka folders) and use tags similar to Apple Notes. Additionally, you can give bookmarks a description to remember why you saved them.
Raindrop.io has many other neat features, such as a customisable reader view, text highlighting, setting reminders for specific bookmarks, and automatic backup if you get the premium subscription. There are many more features, and numerous articles and videos delve into them in detail.
Overall, Raindrop.io has made my workflow much more efficient, keeping my notes app organised and my reference materials easily accessible.
As always, thank you for reading! Until next time, I hope you have a wonderful day!
Bye đź‘‹