One of the things we wanted to do as we developed articles, was highlight some pretty useful software, whether of a full blown,ff expensive app or a simple to use, inexpensive systems that aid in the development process.
There are many note taking applications available, some with similar designs and others with rather unique designs. There is simply a note taking app that will allow you to quickly capture info to ones that are structured in nature and yet others that provide for a flow of hierarchical thought intended to get at underlying aspects of the information. There’s also the wiki style of notetaker designed to link relational information.
Workflowy a very simple yet powerful Hierarchical Notetaker
I’m quite partial to the hierarchical style of note taking due to both its flexibility and its ability to relate information in a flow of thought. The name of the product itself describes what its intended to capture; the flow of work. Workflowy assists with the creation of ideas and information and helps with the presentation of that information.
One problem that I’ve had with these kind of Notetaking apps as some are overkill for my needs and others just don’t work that well. This type of app is where a computer differentiates from handwriting. It helps enable you, the writer put together an interesting and well structured document.
Rather than rambling on while you write your document, an outliner can focus you in the important stuff and allow you to express it in a logical fashion. It also ensures that you don’t miss relevant information.
Cross Platform supporting both Apple and Android
Workflowy also fits perfectly into the move to cross platform. It runs equally on Android as it does the Apple ecosystem a powerful and cost effective solution. Again, this allows people to choose the device of their choice and the data along with the GUI are identical.
Workflowy is somewhat Challenging at First then it Suddenly Makes Sense
Designed as one, whole document, you manage your document by zooming in and out areas. An area for this week might be the development of an article. However, the trick is the article information might be surrounded by this mass of information that makes up other completely different things.
Generally, think of the above structure as different notebooks holding our information for the task at hand, Not in Workflowy. You flow from one area to another, all separated by its design.
Through its capability to zoom in on an item, hide an item, add to the items and expand the information developed, the makings of a well though out document takes form.
From Concepts to Creation
Workflowy is a wonderful tool to develop or elaborate on concepts, mold those concepts into information and eventually allow you to create knowledge via the building out of the data. This is a very powerful function. Many notebooks simply provide the ability to capture various pieces of information but making the connections to create knowledge has always been in the realm of high end products.
Workflowy can easily be a repository of things we need to do and then provide the guidance in getting those things done. Yet, it can be so much more.
At first glance, it seems like a very simple application. When you first approach it, it seems confusing as it uses a very different model from what we’re used to. However, it is an application that can be many things far beyond a simple notes application and something akin to an application that can mind map, develop information and create knowledge. Added to this, its cross platform functionality lends itself to a far greater role than that of an Android or IOS application solely. Its a very good application as long as you’re prepared to put a little time into learning a different approach to the understanding and creation of knowledge.