It took me a couple months of indecision (first pondered in July) but this week I took the plunge.
A year ago I whimsically decided to abandon my reasonably fine and working OneNote based GTD (Getting Things Done) system and move to Evernote. I’m not entirely sure (anymore) what my motivation was, but I can theorize that it was based on the fact that I could Evernote on my Windows Mobile phone, Windows PCs and from a web site. That and I’m a total squirrel and waste too much time chasing new shiny things…
So now, one year later, I’ve moved back to OneNote. I am using my old system which was heavily influenced by the 7Breaths “GTD with OneNote” series of articles. I have a few bits to iron out, but after just two days I already feel back in control.
Why the switch? A few reasons really.
- I never used the Windows Mobile Evernote client. While I thought it was a wonderful idea, it turns out the support for checkboxes is useless.
- I never really got into the web interface (and I think there were checkbox issues there too?)
- My GTD “system” with Evernote just never gelled. I lost track of too many items (this is totally my own fault). I was a chagrined at how many forgotten items I turned up while migrating back!
As you can tell by points 1 & 2 I really like checkboxes!
I’ve stored my OneNote data files in my Dropbox account so I have access to them from all my machines (although only two actually have OneNote installed). So far this is proving to be a painless and simple way to keep everything in sync. I like it.
I should mention that I spent a month or so with the Gtdagenda site last winter when I first realized that my Evernote system wasn’t quite working.
Gtdagenda is a web based application aimed squarely at the GTD aficionados. Probably my favorite web based GTD app that I’ve played with over the past few years. However, it turns out I’m not quite ready for “web only” though – not for this sort of stuff. If I have to load the browser and site first? Well, I probably forgot what I was about to write or do…
The switch back to OneNote ought to hold me for a while. Or until my next urge to (once again) switch back to Linux… then I’ll be sad!
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September 16th, 2009 
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I have the EXACT same issues with evernote. Great idea in theory, but I can’t get over the little annoyances like a lack of multiple columns of text, or not being able to edit your files from the winmo platform. OneNote 2010 is supposed to be synced to the cloud so I think i’m just gonna move back to ON and wait out the cloud sync. In the mean time i’ll dropbox it. Not the greatest solution because of the lack of WinMo support, but oh well.