Mark for follow up?

post by JNS (jesper-norregaard-sorensen) · 2023-06-09T05:59:59.387Z · LW · GW · No comments

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    4 RobertM
    2 rhollerith_dot_com
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Is there way to mark a post, shortform and comment, such that I can get back to it when I have time and write a comment/reply?

I know I can bookmark post, but what I really need is a mark for follow up with the option for leaving myself a note as to why.

I am giant scatterbrain, and during the day I spend downtime browsing LW, and go spelunking - and usually I stumble into things that make me go “hmmm I need to get back to this”, and then I promptly forget all about it.

Edit: I am pasting in a reply I made to a question about clarification, I am pasting it in wholesale.

Sure, I often browse LW casually and whenever I come across an interesting post, or a comment or whatever, and I go "hmm right I might have sometime to contribute / say here, let me get back to it when I have time to think about it and write something maybe relevant"

My specific problem, is that I am a massive scatterbrain, so I hardly ever do come back to it, and even if I do it usually eludes me what the momentary insight I wanted to get into was.

On top of that I do this from a lot of different devices, and whatever I am looking for to help me quickly go "follow-up on this because XXX" and then move on, must be fast, easy and work across pretty much all device types and browsers / OS's (I use IOS, Android, Windows (several), Linux (Several), Firefox, Chrome, Brave and so on).

So that's all it is, just a quick mark for me as something I want to follow-up (potentially) and a short message to future JNS with the why. And I just know I'll never get around to it, if in involves comparing notes across stuff, but I might if it was something that was just available under my profile (like drafts).

I will add that this is not just a "I am a scatterbrain" person, it is also a time management thing. Married, two kids, full time high demand job and ADHD, means the opportunities I have to carve out 1 hour to think something through and craft some useful text, is not something that comes along 4 times a day. So if I had basically a list of things I felt I need to engage with and the note to myself as to why, that would just be a massive help.

And yeah that is totally egocentric thing, something I personally would find massively useful.

Edit: Clarified some things, and adding a thought after this edit message.

Thinking about it, LW seems like the place where the rate of ND people would be higher than the base rate, and I kinda feel that something like this would be helpful for other people, potentially a lot of people, and not just me.

Maybe this feature would be more generic if it was just a mark function, and you could mark it for whatever (follow-up and reference spring to mind as the most useful) and then add a note, display it all in list form with an option to filter/sort of various things and make sure that its easily viewable what the marked content is and the associated note (anything that involves clicking through stuff to get enough information to decide what to dive into is IMO bad design).

Answers

answer by RobertM · 2023-06-09T06:52:00.820Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

We've thought about something like a "notes to self" feature but don't have anything immediate planned.  In the meantime I'd recommend a 3rd-party solution if bookmarks without notes don't do the thing you need; I've used Evernote in the past but I'm sure there are more options.

↑ comment by JNS (jesper-norregaard-sorensen) · 2023-06-09T07:06:21.701Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

I could do something like that, however it must work on phone, tablet and PC (iOS, android, windows, Linux)

I use multiple devices, and anything 3party seems to be bad in such a situation, especially for someone like me who gets sidetracked so easily

answer by RHollerith (rhollerith_dot_com) · 2023-06-09T17:12:43.757Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

Is it OK for me to question a premise of your question? (Some people find that impolite, so I'm asking before I do it.)

↑ comment by JNS (jesper-norregaard-sorensen) · 2023-06-09T18:35:28.234Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

Sure, I often browse LW casually and whenever I come across an interesting post, or a comment or whatever, and I go "hmm right I might have sometime to contribute / say here, let me get back to it when I have time to think about it and write something maybe relevant"

My specific problem, is that I am a massive scatterbrain, so I hardly ever do come back to it, and even if I do it usually eludes me what the momentary insight I wanted to get into was.

On top of that I do this from a lot of different devices, and whatever I am looking for to help me quickly go "follow-up on this because XXX" and then move on, must be fast, easy and work across pretty much all device types and browsers / OS's (I use IOS, Android, Windows (several), Linux (Several), Firefox, Chrome, Brave and so on).

So that's all it is, just a quick mark for me as something I want to follow-up (potentially) and a short message to future JNS with the why. And I just know I'll never get around to it, if in involves comparing notes across stuff,  but I might if it was something that was just available under my profile (like drafts).

I will add that this is not just a "I am a scatterbrain" person, it is also a time management thing. Married, two kids, full time high demand job and ADHD, means the opportunities I have to carve out 1 hour to think something through and craft some useful text, is not something that comes along 4 times a day. So if I had basically a list of things I felt I need to engage with and the note to myself as to why, that would just be a massive help.

And yeah that is totally egocentric thing, something I personally would find massively useful.

Edit: Clarified some things, and adding a thought after this edit message.

Thinking about it, LW seems like the place where the rate of ND people would be higher than the base rate, and I kinda feel that something like this would be helpful for other people, potentially a lot of people, and not just me.

Maybe this feature would be more generic if it was just a mark function, and you could mark it for whatever (follow-up and reference spring to mind as the most useful) and then add a note, display it all in list form with an option to filter/sort of various things and make sure that its easily viewable what the marked content is and the associated note (anything that involves clicking through stuff to get enough information to decide what to dive into is IMO bad design).

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