How are YOU using Agenda?

[chrisT3e]

Hello!

I’ve tried using Agenda several times, but I always ended up giving up .

Still, I really want to make it work. I love the design, the way it feels, and how it integrates with the calendar. I’d really like to use it instead of a bullet journal (and maybe for even more than that).

So I thought: maybe if I could see how other people are using it, especially how you organize your notes and content, I’d get a better idea of what’s possible and how I could fit it into my daily routine.

Could you please share how you’re using Agenda?

I’m a visual person, so if you have any screenshots or images, that would be amazing (just make sure to blur any personal info!).

Thanks a lot!

[trebso]

Happy to share how I use it, but I could perhaps be more helpful if you explained your note taking needs? What problems do you want Agenda or any note taking system to solve for you?

(I know I come across cool software from time to time that I feel I want to use, but eventually I realise it’s not actually something I need - I’ve wasted a lot of time like that!)

Briefly, I work for myself doing consulting type work. I have a project for each client and notes inside that. I also have categories or projects for my podcast, newsletter, planning etc. If a project gets more complex I create a category.

I have similar for life admin.

Two things I’ve developed in the last couple of years that have really helped:

A note setting out my work related goals for the coming quarter, to help me a) get my mind clear, and b) keep on track with stuff that will make a difference and avoid going off on tangents.

Also, an overview note pinned to the top of most projects setting out the purpose, key dates etc.

The recent ability to search and filter on tasks etc has been very useful.

Eg, I can filter to only show: goals, overviews, outstanding tasks.

I also use actual paper notebooks, pocket sized, to capture tasks and ideas when out and about, to avoid getting sucked into my phone. And an A4 / Letter sized notepad for ideation - concept maps etc, I find the linearity of typing too constraining, and scribbling on an iPad doesn’t work for me.

[robbie07]

In the end, it doesn’t really matter what kind of system or app you use — as long as you stick to it.

With Agenda, the latter is no problem: it’s open, beautifully designed, and inviting.

Some things that need to become part of projects start out as nothing more than a quick paper note.

To make sense of these, I use the dash-plus system by Patrick Rhone. It’s a simple yet brilliant way to distinguish between different types of paper notes and what to do with them.

+

This is the kind of clarity I’m looking for on the digital side of my system.But it’s surprisingly hard to achieve — no matter what app or SaaS you use.

Agenda, however, comes remarkably close. It feels like something you could shape into just about any kind of system you like.

Here’s how I structure things:

I work with one central Parent Note for projects. It holds the goals, milestones, planning overview, and links to relevant documents — basically the backbone of any project.

My other notes are:

• Not dated, unless a date has relevance

• Never colour-coded

• Linked to a parent note

• Tagged for easy filtering - this the digital variant of analog ‘Dash Plus’.

In the end, it’s the overviews I work with most. Especially Agenda’s more recent features, like text-filtering and sorting (and more), make it a very effective ‘system-builder’.

Rob

[Justin.B]

This might sound funny but have you tried using a tool like chatGPT to help you create a system. I recently went down this path and it really changed my approach to using Agenda. My new setup is much more organized and in sync to my work and how I work. I even had it think through different ways to label and color notes.

Just a thought.

[MattMc]

Long post. Tl;dr: Organize in big buckets, and lodge your projects in one of those buckets.

That’s a wonderful question! I’ve been a Mac user since before there were Macs (think Lisa), and have spent my entire adult lifetime trying to move my information and organizing systems into forms that are paperless and portable.

I can’t share actual screenshots because too much of the info is confidential, but I organize content and notes by the big “buckets” that comprise my working and personal life. The current buckets for me are:

• [MEETING] 2025 a convention I’m covering as a reporter in July
• FAMILY along with a sub-bucket for my spouse
• [VISITS] a side-job I do for my larger organization
• [COMMITTEE] a disciplinary board of which I’m a member
• [ASSOCIATION] my professional organization
• PEOPLE notes on particular people that might be associated with any of the other buckets

I create new projects inside one of these buckets. Each project can have any number of notes, and most of those notes have dates (so I can follow a timeline) and often reminders (because they involve projects with deadlines).

I keep the Agenda window open on a second monitor.I don’t find the Today view helpful at the moment because I don’t have that many projects demanding my attention on a given day, or even a given week. Of course that will change as I get closer to that July convention!

So, I keep the On the Agenda overview selected. When I’m done with a project, checking the green bullet next to its title clears it away for me. If I’m completely finished, I can archive it.

I have a ScanSnap sheet scanner on my desk, and I use it to capture meeting notes into Evernote. That includes pre-printed agendas, where many times my handwritten notes cover the page. Lately I’ve also been using it to capture notes into Agenda. I haven’t yet experimented with linking particular Evernote entries to Agenda projects, but since Evernote supports linking, it shouldn’t be tough.

My way of leveraging Agenda for my purposes flows from frustrating attempts to follow different organizational systems over the years. The grandpappy of them is Getting Things Done, which I love in theory and hate in practice. Anyone who recalls Daytimer or similar diary-style calendars will empathize with that love-hate relationship: copying stuff forward to a new book felt more like a time-suck energy drain than it did being “organized.” The most recent software app I used was “Things,” which has GTD elements and some similarities to Agenda. But the terrifying thing about Things is that it adheres to the GTD model of wiping out projects once they are done “so that you never have to think about them again.” I don’t just do projects; I sometimes have to go back months or years later to research what happened with them. The Agenda archive model is much easier for that.

Hope this helps as one example, and good luck!

[clausimausi]

@MattMc : I use Things a lot. But I never archive marked actions with the Things internal Logbook (archive?). I have separate main folder with projects which are done or archive folders with all my former travels.
Project completed? Moving in “Projects (Done)”.

[MattMc]

Interesting idea. Things just broke my spirit too many times for me to try again.

[trebso]

The thing I hated about Things was the way all these tasks I’d set for a future date kept appearing all the time - and often they were now redundant and altered anyway. It felt overwhelming.

That was years ago, and perhaps I wasn’t using it properly. One of the reasons I switched to Agenda was the fact I could see tasks (checklist items) in context of the relevant notes.

The recent addition of filtering solves the problem I then had with tracking actual deadlines without creating the same problem in Reminders!

[trebso]

A big lesson for me using Agenda for many years now is to accept that no system will ever be perfect - not least because my demands on the system change. In the last couple of years my work related stuff has become much simpler, as I have been keeping my business ticking over. My personal life has become dominated by caring for parents, nursing homes, funerals, sorting out estates etc. Different sorts of “projects”, needing some different categories and workflows, but Agenda has been invaluable.

Now, it’s changing again as I turn to building work back up again.