… I don’t think I explained exactly how I use a personal note database, or why it works for me as an adaptive device.
Like many ADHD adults, I have trouble categorising. I lost track of paper stuff all the time. Did I file the cable bill under Paid or under Entertainment? Where is the blender manual? Oh here it is in the folder with my screenplay research… I was afraid to throw anything away, but it took me hours to find anything. It took me hours to file anything. With every folder I used it became less likely that I’d be able to find a thing when I needed it. Just before Evernote I’d devolved to a “system” of clear plastic boxes labeled with the year. It was more likely that I’d find the documents I needed than if I set up a filing system and attempted to maintain it.
With Evernote, I used just 3 notebooks—Writing, Recipes, and Everything Else. I used a few obvious tags. I did a global search when I wanted to find something. But I mis-tag and misfile even with my simple system, so most documents ended up in Everything Else, untagged.
Bear frees me. There are no notebooks or folders. There are just tags, hierarchical tags if I get that ambitious (or crazy). I just scan or clip everything in and add tags if I want to. I search the whole DB and I don’t have to worry about categorising ever. It’s the best DB I’ve ever used.
No, I don’t want an Evernote replacement that lets me do finer categories. Not happening.
EDIT: So many here like DevonThink that I downloaded it and tried it out.
Yeah, no. Separating the images and PDFs from the note text—no good. Learning my categorisation and following it—what categorisation? Nope, not for me.