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December 11, 2006

Just Say Yo

I've previously posted about David Allen's "Getting Things Done" (GTD) methodology, and how it's saving both my time and my sanity. GTD helps me get stuff out of my head (where it tends to rattle around, noisily, and then pop up from time to time when I'm least in need of it) and into a System - a comprehensive project list that makes sure I'm not missing details or dropping ideas.

GTD is, fundamentally, an identification and tracking system. It helps me pick out projects or tasks that need doing (or, at least, warrant future attention), and then lets me schedule those tasks at times when they're most efficiently done.

What GTD (or at least, my software implementation of it) does not do is help me track a lot of the qualitative 'stuff' that surrounds any given project or task.

Let me give you an example. Whenever I'm working on my column, I invariably have to go through the following steps:

  1. Locate an appropriate question. This usually means that I'm reviewing the list of e-mails and other column ideas that have been submitted to me over the past few months.
  2. Draft an outline of the answer to the question. I then identify areas where I'd like to do a bit more research, or things I'd like to check on.
  3. Conduct the necessary research, keeping track of the various pages or citations I think I might need.
  4. Write the actual column.

GTD is great for ensuring that I'm reminded when a column is coming due, and also great at scheduling tasks around the column itself (e.g., "phone my editor"), but it's not great for keeping track of the questions, the Web research, and other aspects of the project itself. Effectively, what I need is a 'repository', a place to store, categorize, and locate the bits and pieces of the project when they're needed.

There are software products that do this, of course - it's just that none of them are very good. Historically, I've used AquaMinds' NoteTaker; while it's kinda clunky (I often find its interface to be just ... strange), it does a credible job of letting me keep 'pages' for my projects, and 'folders' to bundle like pages or projects together.

Problem is, I find myself getting frustrated with NoteTaker on a regular basis (about every 6 or 8 weeks or so). This is usually triggered when it (often) does something to annoy me, at which point I convince myself that There Just Must Be Something Better Out There, Dammit; then I'm off and downloading demo after demo of software programs that, frankly, aren't that great, either.

I feel like I've tried 'em all: Circus Ponies' NoteBook (which shares a codebase with NoteTaker, but is a bit different), StickyBrain (Cintra likes this, which was major points in its favor), DevonTHINK, a handful of others. They all fall short, for a variety of reasons too banal to get in to here.

And then, recently, I tried Yojimbo. And, finally, NoteTaker has been kicked to the curb.

I don't suppose I should be terribly surprised by this. Yojimbo is made by Bare Bones Software, they of the Mac-only, fabulouso-text-editor-extraordinaire BBEdit (to use BBEdit is to love BBEdit, as the old saying goes). Bare Bones makes great stuff, and with Yojimbo they brought their usual philosophy of Not Sucking and focused it on how to capture, retain, and find information easily.

(Sounds about perfect, doesn't it?)

Yojimbo is a 'repository' in the same way that all the other products are, except that it makes it really, really easy to pipe your data into its system. Here's what I like about it:

  • Yojimbo has a sidebar that sits along the right side of your screen. Dragging a file or URL to the sidebar causes it to pop out, at which point you'll see a list of folders for your projects. Just drop the file or URL into the folder, and a copy is put in the appropriate place. This makes it super-easy to do Web research -- you just drag-and-drop the URLs of Web pages that you're interested in into the appropriate Yojimbo folder for later review.
  • Another nice innovation: Yojimbo lets you drag plain-vanilla URLs into the system, but it also lets you drag Web archives - cached versions of the page. This lets me keep offline copies of everything on my Mac, and lets me access information I might want when I'm not connected to the Internet (aka, "The Airplane Scenario").
  • The search engine in Yojimbo is amazing - lightning-fast, compatible with Spotlight, very granular. The experience is much like that with iTunes - just start typing, and all the relevant stuff comes right to the top. This is a nice change from NoteTaker, who would often offer answer my queries as if it had trained under The Sphinx from Mystery Men ("He who questions training ... only trains in asking questions").
  • Yojimbo supports custom tagging, labels, and flags on any item in its database. It also supports custom 'project' folders (think: "Smart Playlist" in iTunes) based on these criteria. Wanna see all the flagged items in the system with a "wedding" tag (I mean ... hypothetically, you understand)? No problem. They're all in one place.
  • Yojimbo deals natively with PDF files, and makes it simple to park a PDF of any file or Web page you're looking at in its store with PDF services. Just 'print' your file and select "Save PDF to Yojimbo"; the system does the rest.
  • There's a handy-dandy quick-input panel (hit F8) that lets you easily take notes from a phone call, meeting, you name it without leaving your current, running, frontmost app.
  • Heck, the silly thing even supports storing serial numbers and passwords - and offers encryption to protect them from prying eyes. (Yes, I've converted over from PasswordMaster, and I'm in heaven.)

Yojimbo's still got a few places it can go - for instance, it would be great if I could highlight and annotate a PDF in its database, for research/review purposes - but that's a quibble. I've had a much easier time tracking the various little constituent parts of my projects ever since I started using it - and given how many projects I'm generally managing, that's really saying something.

There's a free, 30-day demo. If you're running on a Mac (and you are running on a Mac, right?), I strongly, strongly recommend you give it a look.

Way to go, Bare Bones. My hat is off to you folks!

Posted by Gavin Shearer at December 11, 2006 9:44 PM. Posted to Apple | Geek.

Comments

Actually, Gavin, I don't like Stickybrain. I bought it and have never liked it all that much. I use it because I started using it and I have a bunch of notes in it, but I barely do. Now that Google made the Google desktop, much of what I liked about Stickybrain (the ability to index all my random notes so I can find them easily and quickly) is duplicated by a free download.

Posted by: Cintra Pollack Author Profile Page at December 20, 2006 4:10 AM

Hi Gavin,

I have downloaded the trial version after reading your review. The software is great. Only one problem. It seems like Yojimbo stores all the files in the Cache folder (user/library/metadata/com.barebones.yojimbo). The files aren't stored in their native form (pdf files dont appear as pdf files). If I use Yojimbo, I wont be able to back up the files in a form where I can access them without Yojimbo. Am I right? If so, isn't this a major drawback?

Thanks.
Murali

Posted by: murali at December 20, 2006 4:32 PM

Murali, as near as I can tell, Yojimbo stores its central SQL data file in ~/Library/Application Support/Yojimbo. The file is called "Database.sqllite".

I recently nuked-and-paved my MacBook Pro, and specifically did not copy over cache files. Yojimbo worked flawlessly for me on the new machine after simply migrating the Application support folder.

With respect to backing up or archiving -- you have a point, but for me it's no different than creating something in OmniGraffle, say, and then being tied to use the use OmniGraffle to get access to my files in a comprehensible manner. One nice thing Yojimbo does is allow you to export your files out of the database if your license is no longer valid or expires; I just created a folder, "foo" on my desktop and exported the sum of my Yojimbo DB into it; the files all came out as individuals, and kept their respective nativity (webarchive, PDF, txt, etc.). Very slick.

Posted by: Gavin Shearer Author Profile Page at December 26, 2006 11:36 PM

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