My note-taking system is an email draft
During meetings, I often open a blank Outlook draft and start typing. Outlook is already there. I do not need to choose a folder, add a title or follow a method.
In the next meeting, I may simply hit Enter and continue below. A few days later, the same draft contains project details, stray thoughts, decisions and tasks.
Capturing everything works surprisingly well. Finding and doing it later does not.
I wanted to keep the speed
The obvious answer would be a tidier notes app. It does not help if I have to decide where something belongs before I can write it down.
Zettel reverses the order: capture first, sort afterwards.
A small input opens from any application. I type a thought, task or appointment and move on. Zettel understands phrases such as «by tomorrow» or «by Friday» as deadlines. Clear commands such as «Todo:» and personal rules help when I already know where something belongs.
Automation must not hide my own notes
Short entries are ambiguous. Half a sentence typed between meetings cannot always be assigned to the right project or entry type.
I therefore need to see where every entry went and correct a bad decision quickly. Otherwise Zettel merely replaces visible mess with invisible mess.
That correction flow is the part I am currently refining.
Current state
Zettel can:
- open a quick input over any application
- distinguish notes, tasks and appointments
- understand naturally phrased deadlines
- assign words and phrases to projects through rules
- display entries by topic and due date
- remind me about open tasks
The app currently runs only on macOS and is not publicly available. A Windows version is planned.
Built with
- Tauri
- Rust
- React
- TypeScript
