Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

May I recommend Zotero [0] to you?

"Your personal research assistant

Zotero is a free, easy-to-use tool to help you collect, organize, cite, and share research."

Like you I am an avaricious multi-tasker over extended periods of time and was heading towards the same state you appear to have reached.

I realised it was not optimal and did some research and discovered Zotero. I use it personally and require it at my businesses.

It adds several wonderful abilities - best is the ability to share and collaborate on research at will.

[0] https://www.zotero.org/




> Like you I am an avaricious multi-tasker over extended periods of time and was heading towards the same state you appear to have reached.

> I realised it was not optimal

I will take a look, thank you! Would you mind briefly elaborating on what you found suboptimal about the workspace/window/tab hierarchy for organizing your tasks? So far it's working very well for me, and the low friction is a really important part of it. Though it's completely possible that I have blind spots around my pain points, or am about to run into a wall. Thanks in advance for your thoughts?


My issues with tabs, even with extensions that organise them:

  * sheer mental challenge of quickly relocating related tabs and the context for why they were kept and relationships between them

  * inability to easily add WIP notes and commentary

  * difficulty of sharing tabs and context with others

  * possibility of losing them if power lost unexpectedly (during extended suspend for example) or accidentally close a single window instead of doing File > Quit

  * moving between different devices and different browsers

  * efficiency; affect on the browser and system of keeping tabs open for long periods of time (without quitting browser)
I don't use workspaces for the same reason I don't like tabbing between applications on the same monitor. I use multiple monitors so I only need to move my eyes to switch focus.


This all makes sense, thank you. The friction-free aspect of browser windows is still pretty critical to my workflow, but I'll look into whether it makes sense to grow the habit of "migrating" a task to Zotero when it gets heavy-duty enough.


I first discovered Zotero via the Mozilla add-ons search whilst looking for an extension to help me. Using the Firefox/Chromium connector puts it a context-click away:

Zotero Connector > Save To Zotero > "Web Page with Snapshot" / "Web Page without Snapshot"

So I can both maintain the tab workflow whilst 'tracking' progress with Zotero application itself.


This describes Amna quite well. I think you'd love it! It's still early, but a lot fo the things you mention, we're working on.

https://getamna.com

It's designed like a todo list which is a layer out to keep that context


The promo looks slick but there are two blockers for me:

  1.  Not FOSS (Hard requirement *)
  2.  Basic/Free version doesn't claim Firefox connector
* I insist all my businesses use only FOSS for core functionality and we have on-premise capability (no 'cloud'). As well as putting us in control of our own destiny (we have the talent) we can add specific functionality at-will and do contribute that back to projects as well as buying support contracts or making regular donations.


Thanks for calling it out! Open Source is a consideration, but we're not there just yet with it. You still have 'On' Premise with Amna. All data is stored on your machine.




Consider applying for YC's Spring batch! Applications are open till Feb 11.

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: