When I have a problem that needs to be solved, I open a text editor. Plain text¹ is great for almost everything. It's great for writing down basic ideas, notes, random thoughts. It's great for organizing all sorts of information. It's easy to find the information later with a simple search. There's no worry about future compatibility - if a future computer can't read my plain text files, then we're all screwed anyway.

When a text editor can't solve my problem, I open Excel. Excel is my workhorse. Need to do any math? Excel. Create an invoice? Excel. Figure out how much this loan will really cost me? Excel. Calculate projected cost / profit on a project? Excel. Create a form? Excel. You get the picture. If plain text can't handle it, I use Excel.

Excel isn't the right tool for a lot of things that I do, but it's comfortable. I'm really good with Excel, at least compared to a normal person. I suck compared to Excel Wizards, but I'm pretty sure they aren't actually human.

I never use Pages. I never use Word. They have no place. Most of the time, plain text is a better choice. If I must have fancy formatting, guess what? I use Excel.

Use what you know.

Elliot Nash on writing:

v4 Fewer words create a more powerful message.

Well said. Also, what a great URL.

Version 4 of Simplenote was released on iOS 7 day. It is exactly the update that I was waiting for.

Simplenote was the first third-party note app that I used on my iPhone. It was so great that I happily paid the $20 yearly charge for Premium. The killer feature of Simplenote was sync. Fast , flawless sync. My notes were everywhere I needed them to be without requiring any work on my part.

If you aren't a long-time iPhone user, you may scoff at that. Sure, iCloud and Dropbox sync are the norm now. A few years ago? Not so much. Remember, iCloud didn't even exist until 2011.

The folks behind Simplenote pushed out updates at their own pace, and they were not very fast. As I understand it , they spent more time on the sync engine than the app itself. Compared with the flood of text editors / note apps on iOS today, they had fallen behind.

Until iOS 7 day, I had been using Byword as much as Simplenote. Then Version 4 was released, and everything changed.

The interface, by no means cluttered, was drastically simplified. There are only two options now.¹ The lone font is Source Sans Pro. It looks fantastic. Links are a muted shade of blue. There are no Markdown preview or HTML export options. If this really makes you sad, I don't think you understand the spirit of Markdown.

When I open a text editor on my iPhone, I want to see a list of notes, a search box, and a button to create a new file. Simplenote gives me exactly that. And Simplenote still uses the first line of your note as the title — this is something that all iOS text editors should do.

For now, Simplenote remains free. The developers aren't sure about the future of the subscription. I hope they figure out a way to make that work — they need to remain profitable. This simply isn't an app I want to go without.

Use them carefully.

The mantra "Do one thing well" has been made popular by... I'm not really sure. It's popular, and it's a great mantra, as far as mantras go. But it's really hard. It's risky. It's extreme. A lot of us aren't ready to do One Thing really well at the expense of everything else. I'd like to propose an alternative.

One Less Thing.

Instead of taking a huge leap and focusing on only One Thing, try thinking One Less Thing. Apply that simple phrase to everything that you can think of. Do you have three computers that you juggle, trying to keep your data in sync? Use one less. Get rid of one and simplify.

Do you have 5 major tasks scheduled for tommorow? Cancel one. Put your extra time and energy into the remaining four and end up with much better results. Or take the extra time and spend it in a hammock. The extra rest will probably do you some good.

Have ten books¹ on your reading list? Cross off just one. Taking care of three pigs? Time to fry up some bacon.² You get the idea. One less thing. It's not drastic. It's simple. Start now.

My task list grows constantly. Every month, it contains more projects and more tasks. Looking over the last few months, there is one thing missing from my list of Things To Do.

Writing.

In this race to get more done, I'm winning, I think. But writing is losing. And I love to write... so maybe I'm not winning after all.

A new repeating task

Yet another repeating task is now on my daily OmniFocus list. It's called, simply, "Write."

Every day except Sunday¹, this task appears at the top of my ever-growing task list at noon. And when it does, I stop. I write. And then I get back to work.

Over the last year, I've gotten away from some important things. Specifically, I've gotten away from simplicity. My life is an order of magnitude more complex than it was one year ago.

This is so wrong.

Just a short couple of years before that, i made a conscious decision to simplify every aspect of my life. It was relaxing. It was freeing. It was wonderful.

Why, then, would I move away from that?

I have no idea, of course. But that's OK. I can't change what I've done, only what I've yet to do.

The precious sound of silence. You know the sound. The world around you has stopped, gone quiet. Minutes pass and still no sound. Suddenly, your brain comes alive. Synapses begin firing one after another, ever faster. Silence is all around you, but your mind is moving at the speed of light.

The greatest ideas are formed in the midst of this silence. There are no distractions to lead you astray. There is nothing between you and brilliance. Embrace the silence and let your mind work it's magic. Be sure to capture the magic, though. Once the world starts back up, the moment will be lost. What a shame.

Complete silence is the best aid to getting work done. This is especially true for any type of creative work. The absence of any unexpected sound allows magic to happen.

The absence of unexpected sound.

Real life, at least in the modern world, doesn't allow for many silent times. It does allow for many nearly silent times. It will be quiet for a minute or two, and then a sudden noise will break your concentration. Maybe a car drives by out front. Perhaps it's laughter from down the hall. Or maybe someone asks you a question, because it seems as though you're not all that busy, after all.

Near silence is absolutely deafening.

With constant, random noise breaking your concentration, you aren't likely to get any good work done. You can't actually do anything about the random sounds, though. The only way to get past them is to drown them out.

Hit play on your favorite playlist and crank the volume up. Remember — silence is the best, but it's unexpected sounds that kill your concentration. You already know the words and sounds of your favorite music. Nothing in this playlist will be unexpected. Now get back to work, and enjoy your new silence.

Finding the right tools to do your best work is a tricky business. On one hand, having the right tools can be immensely useful. I mean this with regards to both efficiency and enjoyment. On the other hand, endlessly searching for the best tools can send you into a death spiral of staring a a blank screen.

Finding the balance

When your job changes in such a way that your workflow is slowed, it may be time to seek out new tools. A broken workflow keeps you from getting the work done, and it's a problem that needs to be solved in a hurry.

But if your workflow is mostly smooth, it's less likely that new tools are going to give you what you seek. They won't magically transform you into a model of efficiency. Quite the opposite — they'll likely set your work back quite a bit. After all, you'll be busy learning the new system instead of doing that thing called work.

None of this is new

You know, instinctively, when you are wasting time in the name of efficiency. It looks sort of like work. It feels sort of like work. At the end of all the tinkering, you may even be tired.

At the end of the tinkering, you may have some new tools. You may have a shiny new workflow. But you know what you won't have? Any completed work. And if you're like most people, getting work done is kind of a big deal. Keep that in mind while you tinker away.