Most knowledge workers need some kind of organizational system to stay on top of their work
If you don’t have a system things will inevitably fall through the cracks and your job performance will suffer.
I’m a computer nerd, along with the majority of my audience, so this is going to skew towards SW solutions.
You may eventually want two copies / installs, one for work, one personal.
Features you might want
You will probably want a subset of these, and everyone will prioritize them differently.
TODO items / task tracking
Daily diary
General note taking
Calendaring
Project Management
Collaboration
Links between various kinds of info / objects
Brainstorming / design / planning
Searchability
Money / accounts / billing info
Time tracking
Contact / people / lead tracking
Different kinds of data
Notes
URLs
Photos
PDFs
Scanned documents
Data entry
Text / typing
Speech
Speech-to-text
Voice recording
Data locality
All the questions in the next section are much simpler if the data is all on your laptop, as opposed to Someone Else’s Computer.
Risks to consider
These are much more important & prevalent for closed-source & cloud-based systems
Recurring cost
A subscription service can get expensive over the years
Proprietary format / lock-in
If your “external brain” is on someone else’s server, and they go out of business, you’ve got a big problem.
Make sure you regularly export your data
Handling your company’s IP
If you’re tracking work projects on a non-work service and they get hacked, you’re “The Guy They Write National News Articles About” (and not in a good way).
It’s probably against your employment contract to put company IP on J. Random Service.
Licensing
Does the service think they own your info?
Is it legal to use it the way you intend?
Privacy
Who can see your data?
Who will see it if something goes horribly wrong?
What’s the service’s privacy policy?
Are they going to monetize your data?
How do you find the right system?
Prioritize your needs (as much as you can…)
What are you bad at / what gives you trouble?
What do like, but wish was easier
Read & research
Keep lists of what looks promising, and what doesn’t
Install / sign up for the best three to five candidates
Play with the UI, add some fake-ish data, get a feel for it
You’ll probably be able to eliminate one or two right away
Take some notes on the process
Pick the best two and try to actually use them for a week
Take more notes
Maybe one of them will feel great
If neither works out, try another system. Maybe expand your search space, or reconsider your parameters.
Don’t walk away for more than a week or two
I spend decades half-heartedly looking for a system, because I only tried seriously every few years.