(Desktop/tablet only).
I used to be terrible at remembering what I read, and I read a lot.
Then one day I heard about The Notecard System: The Key For Remembering, Organizing And Using Everything You Read as popularised by the authors Ryan Holiday (The Obstacle is the Way) and Robert Greene (Mastery, The 48 Laws of Power). It requires you to copy out - in your own words, and by hand - the key anecdotes, phrases, and quotes from books. It requires a bit of work to do, but boy, was it a game-changer. The act of writing key parts out again in my own words helps me remember waaaaay more than simply reading it.
The problem with that system, however, is that you have to write everything out by hand, which means that your notes aren't exactly accessible, you can lose/damage them, and finding shelf space for all the boxes actually starts to become a problem. So I built this web app which is based on the system, but obviously with all the improvements one can implement with a digital version. I can cross-reference my notes, tag them, search and generate a citation at the click of a button etc
I built this for myself, but some friends and family asked to use it, so I added user accounts, a landing page, and put it on a domain I’ve had for years.
Ignore the fact that there’s a pricing page - it’s completely free to use. I built and designed the entirety of the app in my spare time (I’m a car mechanic by day). It’s nothing more than a standard Rails app.
Would love to get your feedback!