Hey, it is Nancy, and today I want to talk about a new note-taking app called Amplenote.  I have been trying out this app for a few weeks now and wanted to give you, my feedback.  Yes, I know that there are a ton of note-taking apps available today.  For instance, Notion, Obsidian, and OneNote but each tool has its own unique strength.  For example, Notion is great for building databases, whereas Obsidian allows for cross, and back-linking and OneNote allows for real time collaboration. According to Amplenote it’s strength is turning ideas into action

Amplenote Philosophy

Amplenote has a philosophy called the “ideal execution funnel”, which allows you to bring your ideas to life.  It does this through four modes:  Jots (Capture & Write), Notes (Organize & Revise), Tasks (Plan & Prioritize), and Calendar (Schedule & Complete).  According to Amplenote the four modes helps you maximize your efficiency and focus on what’s important.

Jots: Capture & Write

Jots allows you to quickly write down your ideas and information with minimal distractions.  This is your inspirational hub where you set goals for the day, create a schedule, and clear your mind so you can be more productive.  It is here where you can list the tasks that you want to complete today.  You can

Notes:  Organize & Revise

Move to the Notes mode when you are ready to organize, edit and publish your content.  This is a great place to refine your content, view completed tasks, and view backlinks to related notes.  It also allows you to add collaborators to notes and secure your notes with Vault encryption with the Pro + subscription.  It will set you back $70.08 a year. Also, you can easily add a tag to a note to help with organizational structure.  At the bottom of your note you can add backlinks to related notes and view tabs listing completed tasks.

Tasks:  (Plan & Prioritize)

Every task lives inside a note, however, tasks mode allows you to see your tasks no matter where in your notes so that you can pick the top priorities.  Task details can be expanded to adjust the importance, change the task recurrence, or hide the task until a later date.  You can set a priority to each task.  Then you can in the sidebar select “High Value” to only show tasks with a score of 10 or higher.  This is a great way to eliminate the overwhelming feeling you get when looking at all your tasks.

Calendar:  Schedule & Complete

The Calendar mode allows you to build your schedule easily and efficiency.  You can setup different task domains to pull content from separate source notes and external calendars.  Unscheduled tasks from the domain’s source notes will be listed in the sidebar, ready to be scheduled.

Rich Footnotes

Rich Footnotes can be used to store any combination of images, mp4 videos, texts, links, YouTube videos, Tweet, Google Sheets, preview of another note and a combination thereof.

They are very versatile allowing you to create and jump between multiple notes.  They appear in blue text with an icon to the right of the text to be easily seen.

Bi-directional Linking

Bi-Directional Linking in provides a convenient way to connect your notes and ideas together into a network of knowledge.  It is a great tool for those who want to collect thoughts, ideas, and research around an area of interest.

Tasks and task details

Tasks in Amplenote reside within a note, but it’s easy to view tasks apart from their note-bound context.  You can create a task from an email using the mail-to-note feature.  To add a subtask simply press the tab key to indent the subtask.

You can also set a task to “High Value” with a Task Score above 10.  The one concept that I struggle with is creating tasks inside of Notes.  Many users create a “Task In Box”, where one or more notes are used as the initial point-of-entry for new tasks.  When viewing tasks within note, the tasks will be to the top of the note by default.  You also can sort tasks by on task score based on the tasks points assigned to each task when submitting the task details.  It is also easy to move a task around by grabbing it and moving the mouse.  Amplenote recommends using hotkeys for sorting list items up or down.

Organizing Using Tag Hierarchy (like folders, except each note can reside in more than one)

A “tag hierarchy” according to Amplenote is a tag when it’s name contains words separated by the /,  like personal/friends.  A tag maybe a simple word, such as blog.  Picking an tag name is hard!  It takes repeated experimentation to end up with something that serves your desired ends. 

Sharing & Publishing Notes

With Amplenote you can make your note content available to select users, groups or the Internet.  When it comes to sharing content with the Internet it is called publishing or embedding note content.  You can also share notes with others by clicking the upper-right corner of Amplenote and then pick “Add Collaborators”.

Jots view mode (Like Daily Notes)

When writing in Amplenote you will use one of two modes that are located on the left sidebar called Jots and Notes.  Every “jot” is a “note” and vice versa.  Jots are used to facilitate simple, quick idea capture which is the first step in the “idea Execution Funnel”.  A great way to use Jots is when developing your first draft of a document or when you want a scratchpad for problem solving. But when you want to share your ideas, it is common that you want to edit the document to improve language and add formatting.  This is where Notes mode shines.

Capturing Content like a share extension, using mail-to-note

You can easily capture content from the Internet to place inside a note using the Amplenote Chrome extension.   This new web clipping method is easy to install from the Chrome Web Store.  Once installed you can highlight portions of the Web and then click on the extension.  Amplenote will then ask if you want to copy the whole article, the URL,  ect and then send to Amplenote.  It is very easy to use.

You also can send the Web information using its mail-to-note feature.  You start by tapping on the triple-dot icon on the upper right corner of the note then tap More Options=> copy mail-to-note address.  The email address will now be on your device’s clipboard.  Once your contact has been setup on your device you can use it to send Web content too.

Automatic Task prioritization

You can easily prioritize your tasks.  An “Important” Task is one where the task objective is aligned with a personal/business goal.  “Urgent” Tasks is one where your personal/business wellbeing depends on some tasks being completed within the next day or three. A “new” task is one where it was added recently.  It is a good ideal to keep your list as tight as possible.  When you let a new task linger on your list for a week or two before performing the task, you open a portal to receive the assistance of Future You.  This is how Amplenote’s tells you to breakdown your tasks priorities.

When I enter a task, I always schedule a due date.  For example, I may sit down and research multiple 50 or more potential topics for my blog and YouTube channel.  Then I schedule them out so that I can work by the release date. 

Calendar view Mode

The Calendar View Mode allows you to schedule the most important tasks that you have identified among your notes.  You can connect your calendar with your existing Google or Outlook calendars.  You can import those events from those existing calendars into your Amplenote calendar when deciding how to schedule your day.  The sync function works in both directions.  According to Amplenote, when the events are sent to your calendars they are currently set to “Private” events, so that they are not shared your external calendars with others.  In essence, No one outside will see the contents of the tasks you scheduled.  Only you will see the task when logged in to the external calendar.

Amplenote Privacy & Security considerations

Amplenote has a system called Vault Notes which encrypts the client-side for sensitive note content.  This is something that Evernote and Notion apps do not do.  Now Amplenote states that images and videos are protected by a cryptographically secure random number generator.  Amplenote does allow for encryption of your notes but it will cost you $120 a year as you need the Unlimited plan.

Amplenote Summary

To be honest, I am so used to typing up my To-Do List each day that trying to place my To-Do List inside a Note is Greek to me. I totally understand the concept but it will take time to change my ways.

Whether Amplenote will work for you depends on your individual needs.  If you need an app that works well on your phone as it does from the web, then this maybe the app for you.  I understand that encryption costs, but I feel that $10 a month is a little on the high side.  Also, you should be able to get it on any paid level.  But to go up two levels to get it seems excessive.

Overall, it is a good app that has potential to grow in the future.   Let me know your thoughts down below and be sure to subscribe to the channel!  Until next time please be safe.

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