I've been noodling with F✱N since the beginning and am really appreciative of the framework. Apple Notes was a junk drawer; now it is not. Hubs and especially Collections are just enough Minimally Rigid Frameworks to get the job done-- like a good kitchen cutlery tray.
However…
Too much organizing causes unexpected friction for me. Every time I try to do daily planning/journalling/notes, the habit falls apart and F✱N becomes another untended inbox. The concept of daily journalling is a guilt-trap for me. I've tried BuJo, F✱B, Apple Journal, Obsidian Daily Notes.. doesn't matter. It's not for me and my brain.
The concept I'm playing with is to segment my productivity stack into three low friction buckets:
- Apple Calendar for hard commitments. Turn off the Scheduled Reminders integration. I thought it was a godsend; turns out it's noise.
- Apple Reminders with 4 lists: Now, Next, Later, Recurring. Next is my default list. I have a smart folder for Today+Now stuff. Pure execution-level stuff. Its purpose is in the name: reminders.
- Apple Notes with the F✱N framework with a modification to the Journal so that it's a planning space only for tracking at the goal and initiative level. But not task execution.
- Annual and Quarterly are as per spec. Those time horizons work well for me. Quarterly, in particular, as it lines up with the seasons (more or less). I could just line it up with Seasons and stop fretting about it: eg: Winter is Dec/Jan/Feb. Spring is Mar/Apr/May. My brain really wants clean delineations. Anyway…
- I plan to drop Monthly and Daily. Those planning horizons are not working for me.
- The plan is to lean hard into ISO Weekly (Week start is Monday, year start is the 1st week with Jan 4th in it, every six years or so there is a Week 53)
- Recurring reminder on Saturdays to do a weekly review where I can review my objectives and plan the next week's target wins. Same with Quarterly and Yearly.
- Instead of a Today shortcut, it's just a This Week shortcut.
This resonate with anyone?