Project (b)log

Comparing Productivity Solutions

Alanah Ryding
3 minutes
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This is a living post — will update as I go, remember things, explore, etc. As of February 2026, I think I’ve found what I’ve been looking for: JournalIt

There are way too many articles on the internet about productivity apps (including PKMs1) with note-taking features–recommending one over another, comparing features, people holding up one app as the solution but based on a specific need/way of working–but I have decided to document what I’ve tried because I’ve spent a lot of time comparing, customizing, and using solutions.

This post doesn’t have a conclusion, necessarily, as it’s just a list, but as far as productivity solutions go any solution will work as long as you’re consistent, just like every other solution, and thinking something will work this time around despite not working before is very human.

What I Was/Am Looking For

  • Text suggestions (autocomplete/typeahead): When adding new data, typeahead/autocomplete/search suggestions to prevent duplicates by using simple %LIKE% searches to prevent duplicates and to suggest text based on past data
  • Templates: Custom, pre-filled forms (e.g., if adding a certain type of task, certain fields are already autofilled/shown/hidden)
  • Adding relationships between data (goals and tasks, mostly, but could be many relationships between all the things):
    • Grouped/hierarchical table view with unlimited levels
    • Custom views of data in tables
    • Arbitrary/custom relationships – parent/child, order (depends on, blocked by, etc.), related, is contained by/contains, etc.
  • Alternate visual layout views:
    • graph view of linked objects (like Obsidian’s graph view)
    • hierarchical view
    • Kanban like board (or Trello-like)
  • Goal/objective, habits, tasks (+ subtasks) management: includes tasks with done/not done, time spent/tracking, estimates, linking to other objects (e.g., depends on, related to, etc.)
  • Calendar events (with recurring events)
    • With ability to link recurring events and habits
  • Rich text editor for single pages and documents with in-line annotations/relationships
    • Multi-document view/tabbed views
    • Templates (e.g., sources vs daily journal template)
    • Document references (like bookmarking words for an index, links to sources, links to other sources, mentions, etc.)
  • Tagging/labels: open-ended categorization
  • Predictive text/suggestions, auto-cat

Things I’ve Tried

So far, I’ve tried a variety of solutions to collect my thoughts, tasks, ideas, journal entries, events, etc. The below were mostly used on desktop.

Apps (desktop + browser-based)

  • TreeSheets
    • a “hierarchical spreadsheet” – it’s like nested Excel
    • good if you want a no-frills interface, can remember shortcuts, have a handful of tags, and work with data that’s strictly hierarchical, though, in theory it might also be good for interaction design due to its drill-down nature.
  • Apple Notes
    • great for notes only when topics are clear and you don’t need to cross reference things
  • Microsoft To Do, Word, OneNote
    • To Do is great if you only track tasks across a handful of projects/areas
    • OneNote is like Word – advantages are tabs, easier linking to paragraphs, but formatting options are limited and the st
  • Google Docs, Sheets, Tasks, Calendar
    • with custom functions and menus via App Scripts (e.g., syncing calendar <> spreadsheet, collecting/analyzing Sheets data)
  • Obsidian (PKM)
    • learning curve, allows for templates, visual layout
  • Notion
    • Pretty much a Confluence alternative in terms of templates, embeddables
  • Evernote
    • notes only
  • Trello
    • tasks only
  • Airtable
    • opinionated, intuitive, enables flexible “build-your-own-database” functionality, but extended
  • NocoDB
    • Airtable open source alternative (local storage) but fewer features
    • Favorite feature is connecting to external databases
  • ClickUp
    • complicated, buggy in certain places, but lots of features
  • And of course, custom solutions (my own full-stack applications)

Static (paper, digital)

  • Custom designed paper planners (using InDesign2 and a printer)
  • Pre-printed planners, bullet journals
  • E-ink notebook/planner alternative Remarkable

Custom Solutions

Code-based

Full-stack applications

Dockerized Flask + MySQL application

Extensions for existing solutions

Google Apps Scripts

Template-based (paper and digital)

  1. PKM – personal knowledge management; solutions are thought of like a brain dump/second brain–you put your thoughts, what you learn, notes, tasks, etc., all in one place ↩︎
  2. I’ve been using Adobe CS products for years, starting back when I thought I wanted to be a graphic designer and still use Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign regularly (I have a lot of hobbies) ↩︎