As I wrote about in a previous post, a core design goal for Flint is to make externalization, the process of getting ideas out of your head, super simple. Easy note creation results in more notes and this is critical because it supports the other phases of deep knowledge (internalizing and resurfacing) by creating the raw material for you to work with (pure thoughts are hard to manipulate in an app!). Flint tries to accomplish this goal by minimizing the decision of where to start capturing ideas and deferring organization decisions that kill note-taking momentum.

So how does this work in practice?

It starts with always having a zero-decision place to begin writing: the Daily view. When you open up Flint with a brilliant idea to capture, just open today's daily note (Cmd-2/Ctrl-2) and start typing.

The daily view displays all your other entries for the week at a glance, making it easy to reflect on what you've been thinking about recently while you write about today.

While capturing in the daily note, you'll start to identify concepts that are more concrete and deserves their own note. When that happens you can create a new note via the [[title of note]] link syntax while you're already typing or with the new note button (shortcut Cmd-Shift-N/Ctrl-Shift-N).

Flint doesn't force you to think about how to organize new notes up front. The note is just created immediately and you can keep typing. You can decide what kind of note it should be or what metadata it needs later. You don't even need to pick a title; write first and organize later.

When you make a new note two other things happen: the note shows up in the "Recents" list on the left sidebar and it's added to the Inbox (notice the badge on Inbox).

The Recents and Pinned section of the sidebar are how you manage your open notes. Notes are added to the Recents list when you click on a link or create a new note. The Pinned list is for keeping track of notes you are working on. These lists are manually sorted (via drag and drop), which engages your spatial memory to help you keep track of where things are.

This design pattern isn't new, it draws inspiration from how Arc Browser manages tabs. The fundamental design concept is managing different time horizons for ephemeral items (recents) and items you keep for a longer period of time (pinned).

The Inbox is another way to help you manage notes across time. Each newly created note goes into the Inbox and has a button to mark it as "Processed", which removes it from the list.

The Inbox allows you to create a bunch of notes without interrupting your flow to organize immediately. Once you've done your initial externalization you can find all the notes you just created in the Inbox and then decide what to do with them later. The Inbox gives you a little routine to make small organizational decisions and prevents notes from falling through the cracks. It gives you confidence to make lots of notes and know that you'll get back to them when you are ready.

What I'm trying to accomplish with the design of Flint is the feeling of being confident to externalize. Writing things down should always feel effortless. From knowing where to start writing to feeling confident you'll be able to organize things later, nothing should slow you down.

If any of this sounds interesting definitely check out Flint, the beta is now open and you can download it here.