I've used so many different apps for drafting blog posts, managing email calendar events, remembering to-dos and bills to pay, and all the things in between In my lifetime as an Apple software user. Over the last few years, mainly because of needing to keep in sync with family, I've been slowly moving back to Apple's default apps of Reminders and Notes so we can share lists and documents without having to manage subscriptions to other apps.
But I still have Notion for blog posts and various ideas, as well as client episode management. And Fantastical for calendars slash to-dos. On top of that, I also use Day One for journaling, and I have been experimenting with Obsidian, again, as a possible replacement for notion.
I like using the various apps I have right now, but it's a lot of my stuff all over the place and sometimes trying to remember where a document is, or a note I wrote about a client takes longer than it should, and I just give up and start a new one. I first stumbled on Rahul Chowdry on Threads. Say what you will about algorithms ruining the world, every so often they do surface someone or something that's perfect for me.
And the quick tips he posts about how he uses apple's stock apps on Threads are one of the main reasons I keep checking my Threads account. For example, this tip on using a sleep timer for automatically turning off music or video that you're watching on your phone. It's a simple tip that many of us, if we've been using iOS devices since they first arrived, would already know.
But there are so many people who have no idea about all the shortcuts and quick little quality of life improvements that they could have with the built-in apps on their iPhone. Which brings me to the point of this whole long blog post. You really should check out Chowdhury's Back to Basic series on his website. Currently he has one for Notes, Reminders, and Mail. And just a warning that about halfway through the article, it prompts you to subscribe to Hulry Plus for a one-time fee of $49 us.
You can decide for yourself if it's worth it or not, but based off the care and attention Chowdhury puts into what he shares on social media, I know you'll get your money's worth out of the tips and shortcuts he's written up. Side note, I believe he's running the site on Ghost and it's a fantastic demo of the power of Ghost to run a blog as well as a membership in a way that would make Substack users drool with jealousy over not having to use Substack. Back to Reminders and Notes?
Which brings me back to the thought I had before I started writing this blog post. Maybe I could ditch Notion, Fantastical, and whatever else I'm using and save some money by going all in on reminders and notes. I really like the idea of keeping my words in text files on my computer somewhere, which is what Obsidian would allow for. But the reality is I don't have time to fiddle with an Obsidian based setup. And for as long as I'm gonna be using a computer, I'll be on a Mac.
And Notes is only gonna keep getting better. And when I read Chowdhury's tips, I know there's so much I'm not doing with them that I could be. So find me in six months and see where I'm at. I set myself a reminder.