Over the years, I have experimented with multiple tools to capture thoughts and information for both when I’m in the office or when I’m on mobile. I find that the best applications allow me to capture my thoughts quickly and will enable me to organize the information quickly.

I discovered WorkFlowy a few years ago and used it for a while, but for some reason, I put it aside. A conversation with a friend a couple of months ago about how they are using WorkFlowy effectively brought it back to mind. I find I’m using it extensively now to capture and organize thoughts and information for several big projects I am working on.

One of the things that has made it a more useful tool is the addition of an Android and iOS mobile app. Now, I can capture information anywhere and have it seamlessly synchronized across all my devices.

Here are a Few Things WorkFlowy Does Well

Completing items. Every item can be a task if you want it to be. Once you’ve completed a task, hover over the bullet point of the corresponding item and click “Complete” in the menu that pops up. This will strike out the item.

You can remove completed items from your view by clicking on the “Completed: Visible” button in the upper right of the page. This will change the page view to “Completed: Hidden.” There’s also nothing nicer than completing tasks and seeing them disappear before your eyes.

Search. WorkFlowy lets you navigate through your lists by expanding them and zooming. However, sometimes you forget where you put something. Or maybe you want to bring up all the items that contain a specific word. The search feature lets you filter your information (or whatever list you’re currently zoomed to) instantly, as you type.

Sharing and collaboration. You can share or collaborate on any sublist in your WorkFlowy account. Collaboration is a powerful feature that lets you turn any portion of your notes, tasks, lists, etc., into a page that others can view or edit. They’ll see your updates (and you’ll see theirs) in near-real-time. Click “Share” in the menu that pops up when you hover over a bullet point. A new Teams version expands the sharing capability.

Tagging. Sometimes you might want to associate items together that are in different parts of your WorkFlowy tree. Say you have tasks for a trip you’re planning in one area and tasks for a project you’re working on in another. You want to mark tasks in both areas as being “high priority,” and then you want to view only the high-priority tasks.

Tags let you do this. Add the tag “#highpriority” to all your high-priority tasks. Then click the tag (once you’ve stopped editing the item) to filter only items with that tag. Click the tag again to turn off filtering.

WorkFlowy Basic is free for up to 500 items per month. WorkFlowy Pro is $49 per year (annual payment – the plan I use). Additional functionality in the Pro version includes:

• Unlimited Lists: Pro users can make as many lists and items as they want.
• Back Up to Dropbox: Have full backups automatically uploaded to your Dropbox account every day.
• Password-Protected Collaboration: Pro users can share parts of their WorkFlowy account with specific people, verified by email address and password.
• Offline Editing: The ability to use WorkFlowy when you’re not online.
• Theme and Fonts: Pro users get to change the look and feel of WorkFlowy with a library of themes and fonts. Make your WorkFlowy more personal.
• Premium Support: We answer emails from Pro members first.

I recommend you experiment with the free version to see how this tool might help you keep track of your thoughts, ideas, notes, and tasks. You can also check out the WorkFlowy YouTube Channel to see it in action.