I use these 2 apps to meet 80% of my note-taking needs
Over the past 3 years during my Data Science journey, I have spent significant time figuring out the best tools to consume and produce information, and I believe the following 2 apps check 80% of my needs. I will discuss those here, the features I like about them, and how they help me manage my learnings.
(This is not a sponsored post. Just wanted to share some hard-earned tips to help you make a better note-taking workflow)
1. PDF Expert by Readdle (IpadOS)
For my Data Science information/learning needs, I still prefer books as the most credible source. And as you have guessed, almost all of them, especially reference books are in PDF formats for apparent reasons. This calls for an efficient workflow around managing information access through PDFs and PDF Expert by Readdle is one software that has proved its worth. Currently, I use PDF Expert only on IPad but it's also available as a Desktop app.
Why specifically PDF Expert?
I have personally tried many other PDF readers and annotators but none appealed to me the way PDF Expert has done in terms of managing and extracting information for the purpose of note-taking.
Features I found to be incredibly useful:
(a) Ability to search through PDF files
Let's say on one fine day I plan to learn about Transformers. Opening each PDF and searching for the term “Transformers” is definitely not for me. I am talking about Indexing here. Readdle gives the option to index the contents of all the files that lets your search anything theoretically in O(1).
(b) Take partial screenshots of formulas/equations
This is the recent feature added by the Readdle team and an absolute must for note-takers. Since there are lots of math equations we have to read and make notes of, it becomes seamless to take a partial screenshot of the formula and paste it into the Obsidian (or any other note-taking app) from the clipboard. This also applies to the complex diagrams that we need in our notes.
(c) Two-way sync
I prefer using a Desktop for most of my work hours but when laziness sets in I have an IPad that takes care of my reading needs. If I make some edits on a laptop, I can’t sleep until it gets available on every device, and that's done via the cloud and two-way sync.
I use Google Drive as the storage for my PDFs. All the edge devices using the PDFs have to have the ability to sync in a two-way fashion — changes done in the app should get reflected in the cloud and vice versa.
I use Readdle on my IPad and WPS Office on my Mac, and both of them are connected to the cloud as shown below:
2. Obsidian (Desktop)
In my earlier post, I had written about how I use Obsidian to simplify my note-taking process, and how exactly I use its amazing features. Summarizing the key features here:
- Extensive ecosystem of Plugins
The most useful plugin anyone could have when it comes to note-taking is Excalidraw, which lets you draw quick sketches and diagrams, directly embedded into the markdown style files.
2. Graph view
Here, it's worth knowing Zettelkasten — a method of note-taking where seemingly different ideas/thoughts are connected to each other via common pieces of information. The graph view is Obsidian’s way of implementing Zettelkasten, and it has proved to be really useful in connecting whatever I have learned till now.
3. Cross-platform availability
I like my notes to be available on all of my reading devices including my IPad, and that involves taking a backup of my notes on GitHub and then syncing them back to my IPad via Working Copy. Working Copy is a wonderful git client for iOS, that lets you clone, edit and do more with your remote repo. Here is how everything plays out:
There are many more articles that talk about the best ways to use Obsidian. Just give them a quick read and it will be worth it.
Follow Intuitive Shorts (my Substack newsletter), to read quick and intuitive summaries of ML/NLP/DS concepts.
