I'm afraid of getting locked into anything so I do all my notes in raw markdown and organize it with vscode. I tried all sorts of things before I settled on this way but I've never looked back. Simplicity is king.

Amplenote, never looking back. Organizing notes with tags, combined with proper rich text formatting and attachments is what makes it perfect system for me. I'm using free plan, considering subscribing in future just to support the app, but I don't need any of the paid features atm.

PocketPlan is my favorite. It's got offline backup and features for to do lists, grocery lists, and remembering birthdays!

I keep envelopes from mail I received and write notes on the empty side. On the rare occasion where I want to actually retain the note, I retype it into one of several txt documents I have open in my Notepad++.

I use a word counter as a more useful makeshift.

QOwnNotes

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