I’m a note writer.
I’ve got Google docs full of notes, dropbox notes, iPhone notes, plain text files for GTD, and inked back-of-envelopes everywhere. Or at least, I did.
After a pointer from a friend and colleague I decided to consolidate and digitize my notes using TiddlyWiki. TiddlyWiki is a personal wiki wrapped up in a single web page. Because key text automatically hyperlinks (these are called wikiwords) a TiddlyWiki can be thought of as a “non-linear notepad”. You don’t write or read from top to bottom but rather jump from “tiddler” to tiddler.
A tiddler is a block of text or a given topic. Collectively they form your TiddlyWiki. Let me try explain better with my Getting Things Done Tiddler. I’ve got a GTD note (a tiddler) in my TiddlyWiki that links to three other notes: ToDo, Done, and Waiting. Clicking on any of these three opens a new note with a list of either “todos”, “done stuff” or “waiting on something”. Within each of these are further links to notes on tasks in my every day life.
TiddlyWiki is immediately useful to anyone with a modicum of HTML knowledge. If you know what <a href means then you can easily learn how to create your own TIddlyWiki in about an hour. It is well worth the effort.