I am less than a month in to my retirement and I am still feeling my way around. One thing I am noticing about myself are changes in some of my interests online. Over the years, like many people in tech, I have had an interest in productivity apps, particularly ones built around processes like Getting Things Done or PARA. Inevitably that leads me to installing an app or two and checking them out. Over the years I have tried so many todo apps!
Now that I am retired I think that my definition of productivity is not consistent with how most people on the Internet define it. Right now I am thinking retirement is less about getting things done and more about the best ways to spend my time, and none of the apps I’ve seen has this focus.
Since I started using an e-Ink tablet a couple of years ago, my primary todo app has actually been a PDF that has been a digitized version of the Franklin Planners I used when I started my career. Unfortunately, the PDF planners have a problem with finding information because there is not an embedded index that enables one to search for handwritten words. For example, I can search for handwriting on the Boox Note Air 3C but when I export my notebooks as PDFs to my laptop computer I cannot do that same search. On the laptop I am left to flipping through pages just I did back in the day with the Franklin Planner.
I did not purchase the 2026 version of the PDF planner that I had used the last two years because I don’t think I need it, although I still find myself checking out free versions shared by developers who post about them on Reddit.
Right now to the extent that I do planning, I am using the Daily app on my Viwoods AIPaper Mini. Events (appointments) sync from Google Calendar, Tasks is a simple checklist template on which I write whatever I might want to do on a given day, I check off those I complete and manually copy/paste any items I write from one day to the next. Any notes I want to jot down go on the Notes tab.
To keep track of things I think I want to do at some time in the future I use Google Tasks, which is really a kanban. I have some topical lists like Home Lab, Home, Blog and Want To Watch. The benefit of using Google Tasks is that it integrates with my Pixel phone so if I want a reminder about an item I simply give the entry a due date.
Getting Things Done aficionados will note that am violating it’s recommendation for a single trusted source for information. I am spreading things between two “apps” and two devices although both are on Android. It gets worse, because I am also putting things in Obsidian.
I view Obsidian as my second brain as many others do, but I am not forcing myself to only use it. However, it is where I have nearly all of my digital information I have accumulated over the years: notes from Evernote, notes from Roam, and all of my ebook and article highlights gathered by Readwise. Obsidian is where I go to search for information. Ideally, I could paste searchable versions of PDFs with my handwriting in to Obsidian, but for now I can at least attach the files and I am monitoring the development of a plugin that just might provide the search function I seek.
I think that over time how I use these tools as a retiree will likely change and I am still keeping an eye out for the tools that will help me make the best use of my time rather than be designed to produce most “things” during my time. It might be the case that I have to build the tool for myself.
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Notes From The Cave 